diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index fc66b146a8..18d0f0fcf9 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,17 @@
+Tue Nov 27 15:29:01 CET 2007 Daniel Veillard <veillard@redhat.com>
+
+	* configure.in: when configuring with --prefix=/usr i.e. the same
+	  prefix as the installed libvirt, use the same localstatedir /var
+	  (instead of /usr/var) and sysconfdir /etc (instead of /usr/etc) to
+	  be able to connect to the system daemon, and use the system local
+	  options
+	* src/xs_internal.c: avoid error message when non-root cannot open
+	  xenstore
+	* src/xend_internal.c: avoid error message when non-root cannot
+	  directly access xend, in those 2 cases the proxy (or remote code)
+	  should implement the access so there is no need to raise the error
+	  there.
+
 Mon Nov 26 15:06:19 CET 2007 Daniel Veillard <veillard@redhat.com>
 
 	* doc/*: modified the python page into a bindings page, 
diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index 6247d9c7d9..6dc98adba9 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -89,6 +89,18 @@ AC_ARG_WITH(html-subdir, AC_HELP_STRING([--with-html-subdir=path],
             [HTML_DIR="$HTML_DIR/\$(PACKAGE)-\$(VERSION)/html"])
 AC_SUBST(HTML_DIR)
 
+dnl if --prefix is /usr, don't use /usr/var for localstatedir
+dnl or /usr/etc for sysconfdir
+dnl as this makes a lot of things break in testing situations
+
+if test $prefix = "/usr" -a $localstatedir = '${prefix}/var' ; then
+    localstatedir='/var'
+fi
+if test $prefix = "/usr" -a $sysconfdir = '${prefix}/etc' ; then
+    sysconfdir='/etc'
+fi
+
+
 dnl Allow to build without Xen, QEMU/KVM, test or remote driver
 AC_ARG_WITH(xen,
 [  --with-xen              add XEN support (on)],[],[with_xen=yes])
diff --git a/src/xend_internal.c b/src/xend_internal.c
index 7dc1ae4103..4cddb09b3d 100644
--- a/src/xend_internal.c
+++ b/src/xend_internal.c
@@ -232,8 +232,15 @@ do_connect(virConnectPtr xend)
         close(s);
         errno = serrno;
         s = -1;
-        virXendError(xend, VIR_ERR_INTERNAL_ERROR,
-                     "failed to connect to xend");
+	/*
+	 * not being able to connect via the socket as a normal user
+	 * is rather normal, this should fallback to the proxy (or
+	 * remote) mechanism.
+	 */
+	if ((getuid() == 0) || (xend->flags & VIR_DRV_OPEN_RO)) {
+	    virXendError(xend, VIR_ERR_INTERNAL_ERROR,
+			 "failed to connect to xend");
+        }
     }
 
     return s;
diff --git a/src/xs_internal.c b/src/xs_internal.c
index 5086434c4e..d735079a8c 100644
--- a/src/xs_internal.c
+++ b/src/xs_internal.c
@@ -341,8 +341,15 @@ xenStoreOpen(virConnectPtr conn,
 #endif /* ! PROXY */
 
     if (priv->xshandle == NULL) {
-        virXenStoreError(NULL, VIR_ERR_NO_XEN, 
-	                     _("failed to connect to Xen Store"));
+	/*
+         * not being able to connect via the socket as a normal user
+         * is rather normal, this should fallback to the proxy (or
+         * remote) mechanism.
+	 */
+        if (getuid() == 0) {
+	    virXenStoreError(NULL, VIR_ERR_NO_XEN, 
+				 _("failed to connect to Xen Store"));
+	}
         return (-1);
     }
     return (0);