diff --git a/s4-funcs.sh b/s4-funcs.sh
index 491bf1a..54ae32d 100755
--- a/s4-funcs.sh
+++ b/s4-funcs.sh
@@ -481,6 +481,9 @@
      ${S4WORLDGRPS:+-D_S4WORLDGRPS_="$S4WORLDGRPS"} \
      ${S4WORLDS:+-D_S4WORLDS_="$S4WORLDS"} "$@"
 }
+if ! type gdate && date --version | grep -q GNU; then
+  gdate() date "$@"
+fi >/dev/null 2>&1
 ismember() {
   # $1=user, $2=group
 #err ismem: "select user from grp_mem where gname=$(sqlquote $2) and user='$1';"
diff --git a/s4-start.sh b/s4-start.sh
index 3eb100c..eacf68c 100755
--- a/s4-start.sh
+++ b/s4-start.sh
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@
 fi
 
 test -d tmp || mkdir -m 1750 tmp
+test -d cache || mkdir -m 1755 cache
 . ./s4-funcs.sh
 if ! checkdomain $ADMIN; then
   cat<<EOF 1>&2