diff --git a/src/lladd/page.c b/src/lladd/page.c
index c089a12..3ded7a5 100644
--- a/src/lladd/page.c
+++ b/src/lladd/page.c
@@ -147,7 +147,9 @@ void pageInit() {
   for(int i = 0; i < MAX_BUFFER_SIZE+1; i++) {
     pool[i].rwlatch = initlock();
     pool[i].loadlatch = initlock();
-    assert(!posix_memalign((void*)(&(pool[i].memAddr)), PAGE_SIZE, PAGE_SIZE));
+    int ret = posix_memalign((void*)(&(pool[i].memAddr)), PAGE_SIZE, PAGE_SIZE);
+
+    assert(!ret);
   }
   pthread_mutex_init(&lastAllocedPage_mutex , NULL);
 	
diff --git a/src/lladd/pageFile.c b/src/lladd/pageFile.c
index 086cd7f..01c93c8 100644
--- a/src/lladd/pageFile.c
+++ b/src/lladd/pageFile.c
@@ -116,12 +116,12 @@ void pageWrite(Page * ret) {
   }
   pthread_mutex_unlock(&stable_mutex);
 }
-
+/** @todo O_DIRECT is broken on old (pre 2.6.2ish?) linux, so it's disabled until the build script can be improved. :( */
 void openPageFile() {
 
   DEBUG("Opening storefile.\n");
 
-  stable = open (STORE_FILE, O_CREAT | O_RDWR | O_DIRECT, S_IRWXU | S_IRWXG | S_IRWXO);
+  stable = open (STORE_FILE, O_CREAT | O_RDWR /*| O_DIRECT*/, S_IRWXU | S_IRWXG | S_IRWXO);
 
   if(stable == -1) {
     perror("couldn't open storefile");