diff --git a/vb_suite/run_suite.py b/vb_suite/run_suite.py
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
index febd9d1fa6cad..0c03d17607f4e
--- a/vb_suite/run_suite.py
+++ b/vb_suite/run_suite.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
 from vbench.api import BenchmarkRunner
 from suite import *
 
diff --git a/vb_suite/suite.py b/vb_suite/suite.py
index 0a7c4eb9945f7..4d38388548984 100644
--- a/vb_suite/suite.py
+++ b/vb_suite/suite.py
@@ -56,9 +56,9 @@
     DB_PATH = config.get('setup', 'db_path')
     TMP_DIR = config.get('setup', 'tmp_dir')
 except:
-    REPO_PATH = os.path.join(HOME, 'code/pandas')
+    REPO_PATH = os.path.abspath(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__),"../"))
     REPO_URL = 'git@github.com:pydata/pandas.git'
-    DB_PATH = os.path.join(HOME, 'code/pandas/vb_suite/benchmarks.db')
+    DB_PATH = os.path.join(REPO_PATH, 'vb_suite/benchmarks.db')
     TMP_DIR = os.path.join(HOME, 'tmp/vb_pandas')
 
 PREPARE = """