diff --git a/chimera/head.c b/chimera/head.c
index f75fb45..70fc413 100644
--- a/chimera/head.c
+++ b/chimera/head.c
@@ -735,7 +735,7 @@ ChimeraRequest *lastresort;
   if (getcwd( base_url + 5, sizeof(base_url) - 5 ) == NULL) {
     perror("getcwd failed");
     // Try using just the root of filesystem if we could not get cwd
-    strcat( base_url, "/" ) ;
+    strcpy( base_url + 5, "/" ) ;
   }
   strcat( base_url, "/" ) ;
 
diff --git a/chimera/main.c b/chimera/main.c
index d22f0c2..1ec1d13 100644
--- a/chimera/main.c
+++ b/chimera/main.c
@@ -79,7 +79,8 @@ char **argv;
   strcpy( base_url, "file:" ) ;
   if (getcwd( base_url + 5, sizeof(base_url) - 5 ) == NULL) {
     perror("getcwd failed");
-    return 1;
+    // Try using just the root of filesystem if we could not get cwd
+    strcpy( base_url + 5, "/");
   }
   strcat( base_url, "/" ) ;