diff -u mcl-0.53.00/Screen.cc mcl-patched/Screen.cc
--- mcl-0.53.00/Screen.cc	2003-09-29 04:51:44.000000000 -0700
+++ mcl-patched/Screen.cc	2004-07-26 19:22:11.620619536 -0700
@@ -49,7 +49,8 @@
     // 2.4 with devs (noted by moon@deathmoon.com
     else if (1 == (sscanf(tty, "/dev/vc/%d", &ttyno)))
         sprintf (buf, "/dev/vcc/a%d", ttyno);
-    else {
+
+    if ((fd = open (buf, O_WRONLY)) < 0) {
         usingVirtual = false;
         scr_x = scr_y = scr_w = scr_h = 0;
         last_screen = new attrib[width * height];
@@ -58,13 +59,6 @@
         out = new Buffer(32000);
     }
 
-    if (usingVirtual) {
-      if ((fd = open (buf, O_WRONLY)) < 0) {
-	fprintf (stderr, "\nFailed to open %s: %m. \nPerhaps your permissions are wrong?\n\n", buf);
-	exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
-      }
-    }
-
     init_curses(usingVirtual);
 }
 
diff -u mcl-0.53.00/main.cc mcl-patched/main.cc
--- mcl-0.53.00/main.cc	2003-09-29 03:39:14.000000000 -0700
+++ mcl-patched/main.cc	2004-07-26 18:18:01.000000000 -0700
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@
     //  Do this right at the start, so that a) perl can startup correctly,
     //  and b) to avoid any unforseen holes in eg. configfile loading     -N
     screen = new Screen();
-    setegid(getgid());
+    seteuid(getuid());
     
     time (&current_time);
     srand(current_time);