diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 64aa9d593..e69ead80d 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+2010-01-20  Felix Zielcke <fzielcke@z-51.de>
+
+	* util/misc.c (make_system_path_relative_to_its_root): Change the work
+	around for handling "/" to the correct fix.  Fix a memory leak.  Use
+	xstrdup instead of strdup.
+
 2010-01-20  Vladimir Serbinenko  <phcoder@gmail.com>
 
 	* conf/mips.rmk (kernel_img_HEADERS): Add env_private.h
diff --git a/util/misc.c b/util/misc.c
index c5ab62e42..b4960087e 100644
--- a/util/misc.c
+++ b/util/misc.c
@@ -513,13 +513,13 @@ make_system_path_relative_to_its_root (const char *path)
     grub_util_error ("failed to get canonical path of %s", path);
 
   len = strlen (p) + 1;
-  buf = strdup (p);
+  buf = xstrdup (p);
   free (p);
 
   if (stat (buf, &st) < 0)
     grub_util_error ("cannot stat %s: %s", buf, strerror (errno));
 
-  buf2 = strdup (buf);
+  buf2 = xstrdup (buf);
   num = st.st_dev;
 
   /* This loop sets offset to the number of chars of the root
@@ -541,12 +541,16 @@ make_system_path_relative_to_its_root (const char *path)
       /* buf is another filesystem; we found it.  */
       if (st.st_dev != num)
 	{
-	  /* offset == 0 means path given is the mount point.  */
+	  /* offset == 0 means path given is the mount point.
+	     This works around special-casing of "/" in Un*x.  This function never
+	     prints trailing slashes (so that its output can be appended a slash
+	     unconditionally).  Each slash in is considered a preceding slash, and
+	     therefore the root directory is an empty string.  */
 	  if (offset == 0)
 	    {
 	      free (buf);
 	      free (buf2);
-	      return strdup ("/");
+	      return xstrdup ("");
 	    }
 	  else
 	    break;
@@ -563,11 +567,19 @@ make_system_path_relative_to_its_root (const char *path)
 	      buf2[len - 1] = '\0';
 	      len--;
 	    }
-	  return buf2;
+	  if (len > 1)
+	    return buf2;
+	  else
+	    {
+	      /* This means path given is just a backslash.  As above
+		 we have to return an empty string.  */
+	      free (buf2);
+	      return xtrdup ("");
+	    }
 	}
     }
   free (buf);
-  buf3 = strdup (buf2 + offset);
+  buf3 = xstrdup (buf2 + offset);
   free (buf2);
 
   len = strlen (buf3);
@@ -577,13 +589,6 @@ make_system_path_relative_to_its_root (const char *path)
       len--;
     }
 
-  /* This works around special-casing of "/" in Un*x.  This function never
-     prints trailing slashes (so that its output can be appended a slash
-     unconditionally).  Each slash in is considered a preceding slash, and
-     therefore the root directory is an empty string.  */
-  if (!strcmp (buf3, "/"))
-    buf3[0] = '\0';
-
   return buf3;
 }