diff --git a/bin/CryptoBoxRootActions b/bin/CryptoBoxRootActions
index aa6d929..a8d11a5 100755
--- a/bin/CryptoBoxRootActions
+++ b/bin/CryptoBoxRootActions
@@ -61,6 +61,11 @@ def checkIfFileIsSafe(fname):
 	## the override setting may be turned off temporarily to allow unittests
 	if OVERRIDE_FILECHECK:
 		return True
+	## if the real user id is 0 (root), then we do not have to check this,
+	## as root would be allowed to do this anyway
+	## this eases testing with a not-installed working copy in a uml environment
+	if os.getuid() == 0:
+		return True
 	props = os.stat(fname)
 	## check if it is owned by non-root
 	if props.st_uid != 0: return False
diff --git a/bin/uml-setup.sh b/bin/uml-setup.sh
index c011d72..461f178 100755
--- a/bin/uml-setup.sh
+++ b/bin/uml-setup.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
-PROJ_DIR=$($(dirname $0)/..; pwd)
+PROJ_DIR=$(dirname "$0")/..
+PROJ_DIR=$(cd "$PROJ_DIR"; pwd)
 ROOT_IMG=$PROJ_DIR/bin/cryptobox.img
 TEST_IMG=$PROJ_DIR/bin/test.img
 TEST_SIZE=128