Cloning VDSM with the following command:
git clone -b master --depth 1 git://gerrit.ovirt.org/vdsm

Which works, but then I can't run ./autogen.sh succesfully:
mini@ykaul-mini:/tmp/github/vdsmshallow$ ./autogen.sh  |less
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
I am going to run ./configure with no arguments - if you wish 
to pass any to it, please specify them on the ./autogen.sh command line.
configure: error: package version not defined

As the difference is 1:10 in data size and I only wish to work on the tip, this could be very useful to me.
Any ideas?