diff --git a/wscript b/wscript
index e04ee7e8980..7a86b03aa02 100644
--- a/wscript
+++ b/wscript
@@ -758,7 +758,7 @@ def deploydb(ctx,virttech=None):
 		before = before + file(p).read()
 		Utils.pprint("GREEN","Reading database code from %s"%p)
 
-	cmd = ["mysql","--user=%s"%dbuser,"-h",dbhost,"--password=%s"%dbpw]
+	cmd = [ctx.env.MYSQL,"--user=%s"%dbuser,"-h",dbhost,"--password=%s"%dbpw]
 	Utils.pprint("GREEN","Deploying database scripts to %s (user %s)"%(dbhost,dbuser))
 	Utils.pprint("BLUE"," ".join(cmd))
 	p = _Popen(cmd,stdin=PIPE,stdout=None,stderr=None)
@@ -783,7 +783,7 @@ def deploydb(ctx,virttech=None):
 		after = after + file(p).read()
 		Utils.pprint("GREEN","Reading database code from %s"%p)
 
-	cmd = ["mysql","--user=%s"%dbuser,"-h",dbhost,"--password=%s"%dbpw]
+	cmd = [ctx.env.MYSQL,"--user=%s"%dbuser,"-h",dbhost,"--password=%s"%dbpw]
 	Utils.pprint("GREEN","Deploying post-configuration database scripts to %s (user %s)"%(dbhost,dbuser))
 	Utils.pprint("BLUE"," ".join(cmd))
 	p = _Popen(cmd,stdin=PIPE,stdout=None,stderr=None)
diff --git a/wscript_configure b/wscript_configure
index c182cefc9f6..46f95f5cb02 100644
--- a/wscript_configure
+++ b/wscript_configure
@@ -112,7 +112,12 @@ conf.check_message_2("%s"%conf.env.PREFIX,"GREEN")
 conf.check_tool('misc')
 conf.check_tool("gnu_dirs")
 conf.check_tool('tar')
-conf.check_tool('mkisofs')
+try: conf.check_tool('mkisofs')
+except Configure.ConfigurationError,e:
+	raise Configure.ConfigurationError, "The program genisoimage (or mkisofs) could not be found.\nOn Linux: ./waf installrpmdeps or ./waf installdebdeps according to your distro's package format.\nOn Windows: Use cygwin to install the mkisofs package, then ensure that the program is in your PATH."
+try: conf.find_program('mysql',mandatory=True)
+except Configure.ConfigurationError,e:
+	raise Configure.ConfigurationError, "The program mysql (or mysql.exe) could not be found.\nOn Linux: ./waf installrpmdeps or ./waf installdebdeps according to your distro's package format.\nOn Windows: Install the MySQL client package and ensure that the mysql.exe program is in your PATH."
 conf.check_tool('java')
 conf.check_tool("python")
 conf.check_python_version((2,4,0))