diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 07637642..a7c8e31e 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -55,7 +55,6 @@ AC_CONFIG_FILES([
   src/sql/Makefile
   src/xsl/Makefile
   src/lib/Makefile
-  src/lib/Hydra/Helper/Nix.pm
   src/root/Makefile
 
   src/script/Makefile
diff --git a/src/lib/Hydra/Helper/Nix.pm.in b/src/lib/Hydra/Helper/Nix.pm
similarity index 98%
rename from src/lib/Hydra/Helper/Nix.pm.in
rename to src/lib/Hydra/Helper/Nix.pm
index 59137f16..d3198a07 100644
--- a/src/lib/Hydra/Helper/Nix.pm.in
+++ b/src/lib/Hydra/Helper/Nix.pm
@@ -24,7 +24,8 @@ sub isValidPath {
 
 
 sub getHydraPath {
-    my $dir = $ENV{"HYDRA_DATA"} || "@localstatedir@/lib/hydra";
+    my $dir = $ENV{"HYDRA_DATA"} || "/var/lib/hydra";
+    die "The HYDRA_DATA directory does not exist!\n" unless -d $dir;
     return $dir;
 }
 
diff --git a/src/lib/Makefile.am b/src/lib/Makefile.am
index f8cc70f4..f2709ad4 100644
--- a/src/lib/Makefile.am
+++ b/src/lib/Makefile.am
@@ -10,8 +10,7 @@ PERL_MODULES =					\
   $(wildcard Hydra/Base/Controller/*.pm) 
 
 EXTRA_DIST = \
-  $(PERL_MODULES) \
-  Hydra/Helper/Nix.pm.in
+  $(PERL_MODULES)
 
 hydradir = $(libexecdir)/hydra/lib
 nobase_hydra_DATA = $(PERL_MODULES)