diff --git a/uvcdynctrl/main.c b/uvcdynctrl/main.c
index b7befd1..f3a768c 100644
--- a/uvcdynctrl/main.c
+++ b/uvcdynctrl/main.c
@@ -674,27 +674,31 @@ get_filename (const char *dir_path, const char *vid)
 	printf ( "checking dir: %s \n", dir_path);
 	while ((dp = readdir(dir)) != NULL) 
 	{
-		if((dp->d_type == DT_DIR) && (fnmatch("[[:xdigit:]][[:xdigit:]][[:xdigit:]][[:xdigit:]]", dp->d_name, 0) == 0))
+		if((dp->d_type == DT_DIR || dp->d_type == DT_LNK ) && (fnmatch("[[:xdigit:]][[:xdigit:]][[:xdigit:]][[:xdigit:]]", dp->d_name, 0) == 0))
 		{
 			if( strcasecmp(vid, dp->d_name) != 0)
 			{
 				/*doesn't match - clean up and move to the next entry*/
 				continue;
 			}
-			
+
 			char *tmp = path_cat (dir_path, dp->d_name);
-			printf("found dir: %s \n", dp->d_name);
+
 			DIR * subdir = opendir(tmp);
-			while ((sdp = readdir(subdir)) != NULL) 
+			if ( subdir != NULL )
 			{
-				if( fnmatch("*.xml", sdp->d_name, 0) == 0 )
+				printf("found dir: %s \n", dp->d_name);
+				while ((sdp = readdir(subdir)) != NULL) 
 				{
-					file_list[nf-1] = path_cat (tmp, sdp->d_name);
-					printf("found: %s \n", file_list[nf-1]);
-					nf++;
-					file_list = realloc(file_list,nf*sizeof(file_list));
-					file_list[nf-1] = NULL;   
-				} 
+					if( fnmatch("*.xml", sdp->d_name, 0) == 0 )
+					{
+						file_list[nf-1] = path_cat (tmp, sdp->d_name);
+						printf("found: %s \n", file_list[nf-1]);
+						nf++;
+						file_list = realloc(file_list,nf*sizeof(file_list));
+						file_list[nf-1] = NULL;   
+					} 
+				}
 			}
 			closedir(subdir);
 			free (tmp);
@@ -869,9 +873,15 @@ main (int argc, char **argv)
 			pid_set = 1; /*flag pid.xml check*/
 			//printf("vid:%s pid:%s\n", vid, pid);
 		}
-		
+
+		const char* dataDir = getenv( "NIX_UVCDYNCTRL_DATA_DIR" );
+		// When unavailable, fallback on data dir specified at build time.
+		if ( !dataDir ) {
+			dataDir = DATA_DIR;
+		}
+
 		/* get xml file list from DATA_DIR/vid/ */ 
-		char **xml_files = get_filename (DATA_DIR, vid);
+		char **xml_files = get_filename (dataDir, vid);
  
 		/*check for pid.xml*/
 		char fname[9];