diff -Nur cinelerra-4.4.orig/cinelerra/mwindow.C cinelerra-4.4/cinelerra/mwindow.C
--- cinelerra-4.4.orig/cinelerra/mwindow.C	2012-06-05 07:38:16.000000000 +0100
+++ cinelerra-4.4/cinelerra/mwindow.C	2012-09-24 20:39:50.888929765 +0100
@@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
 	char index_path[BCTEXTLEN];
 	FILE *index_fd = 0;
 	
-	sprintf(index_path, "%s/%s", path, PLUGIN_FILE);
+	sprintf(index_path, "%s/%s", preferences->index_directory, PLUGIN_FILE);
 //printf("MWindow::init_plugin_path %d %s plugindb=%p\n", __LINE__, index_path, plugindb);
 
 
diff -Nur cinelerra-4.4.orig/cinelerra/preferences.C cinelerra-4.4/cinelerra/preferences.C
--- cinelerra-4.4.orig/cinelerra/preferences.C	2012-01-07 23:02:41.000000000 +0000
+++ cinelerra-4.4/cinelerra/preferences.C	2012-09-24 20:39:50.342263049 +0100
@@ -62,7 +62,10 @@
 
 
 
-	get_exe_path(plugin_dir);
+	if (CINELERRA_PLUGIN_DIR)
+		sprintf(plugin_dir, CINELERRA_PLUGIN_DIR);
+	else
+		get_exe_path(plugin_dir);
 
 	sprintf(index_directory, BCASTDIR);
 	if(strlen(index_directory))
diff -Nur cinelerra-4.4.orig/cinelerra/preferences.inc cinelerra-4.4/cinelerra/preferences.inc
--- cinelerra-4.4.orig/cinelerra/preferences.inc	2008-07-23 05:30:59.000000000 +0100
+++ cinelerra-4.4/cinelerra/preferences.inc	2012-09-24 20:39:51.568929829 +0100
@@ -27,6 +27,10 @@
 #define BACKUP_PATH BCASTDIR "backup.xml"
 #define DEAMON_PORT 400
 
+#ifndef CINELERRA_PLUGIN_DIR
+#define CINELERRA_PLUGIN_DIR NULL
+#endif
+
 class Preferences;
 class PlaybackConfig;
 class AudioOutConfig;
--- cinelerra-4.4.orig/cinelerra/Makefile	2012-09-25 18:13:01.004961617 +0100
+++ cinelerra-4.4/cinelerra/Makefile	2012-09-25 18:13:42.014965455 +0100
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 include ../global_config
 
+CINELERRA_PLUGIN_DIR := NULL
 AVC_DIR := $(shell expr ../thirdparty/libavc1394* )
 DV_DIR := $(shell expr ../quicktime/thirdparty/libdv-*/ )
 FLAC_DIR := $(shell expr ../thirdparty/flac*/ )
@@ -422,8 +423,8 @@
 	-I../libmpeg3 \
 	-I$(SNDFILE_DIR)/src \
 	$(ESOUNDCFLAGS) \
-	-I$(THEORA_DIR)/include
-
+	-I$(THEORA_DIR)/include \
+	-DCINELERRA_PLUGIN_DIR=$(CINELERRA_PLUGIN_DIR)
 
 # Speed up linking with this linking sequence
 ifeq ($(OBJDIR), alpha)