diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index c046d0510a364400b0ba09b668c47a9835687d54..96009264576ab2eeab2280c8a049814d48c9bd93 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.14)
+cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.13)
 
 set(libcaosdb_VERSION 0.0.1)
 
diff --git a/test/CMakeLists.txt b/test/CMakeLists.txt
index 241b6a5e7653a8e52439f5ed0752047ec857ed2e..db4db7bd6584f45d0b5018493f41071157328132 100644
--- a/test/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/test/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,10 +1,21 @@
-include(FetchCMocka)
-
 # append all the test cases here (file name without the ".c" suffix)
 set(test_cases
     test_connection
     )
 
+find_library(cmocka-static cmocka)
+if (NOT cmocka-static)
+    message(${cmocka-static})
+elseif (${CMAKE_VERSION} VERSION_LESS "3.14.0")
+    message(FATAL_ERROR
+        "Failed to run tests. A pre-installed cmocka could not be found and
+        your cmake version is prior to 3.14. Please consider to upgrade you
+        cmake (>=3.14) or install cmocka.")
+else ()
+    include(FetchCMocka)
+endif ()
+
+
 list(LENGTH test_cases len_test_cases)
 math(EXPR len_test_cases "${len_test_cases} - 1")
 foreach (i RANGE "${len_test_cases}")
@@ -15,10 +26,6 @@ foreach (i RANGE "${len_test_cases}")
     add_test(${test_case_name} ${test_case_name})
 endforeach ()
 
-#add_executable(test_connection test_connection.c)
-#target_compile_features(test_connection PRIVATE c_std_99)
-#target_link_libraries(test_connection PRIVATE cmocka-static libcaosdb)
-#add_test(test_connection test_connection)
 
 # code coverage report
 include(CodeCoverage)