diff --git a/tests/gnumeric/gnumeric.sh b/tests/gnumeric/gnumeric.sh
index e803d00a..5aaf2b5e 100755
--- a/tests/gnumeric/gnumeric.sh
+++ b/tests/gnumeric/gnumeric.sh
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ topdir=`dirname $0`/..
 initvariables $0
 
 (
-    recollq author=gnumericAuthor 
+    recollq author:gnumericAuthor 
     recollq gnumerictext
     recollq gnumericcommentaire
 ) 2> $mystderr | egrep -v '^Recoll query: ' > $mystdout
diff --git a/tests/rar/rar.sh b/tests/rar/rar.sh
index e32eccf3..39b32938 100755
--- a/tests/rar/rar.sh
+++ b/tests/rar/rar.sh
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ topdir=`dirname $0`/..
 initvariables $0
 
 (
-  recollq -q sheetgen '"Are you sure you want to delete this sheet"' 
+  recollq -q dir:rar '"Are you sure you want to delete this sheet"' 
 
 )  2> $mystderr | egrep -v '^Recoll query: ' > $mystdout
 
diff --git a/tests/runtests.sh b/tests/runtests.sh
index 0e0442d2..3c6da66e 100644
--- a/tests/runtests.sh
+++ b/tests/runtests.sh
@@ -42,6 +42,11 @@ checkcmds()
 
 checkcmds recollq recollindex pxattr xadump || exit 1
 
+# Unset DISPLAY because xdg-mime may be affected by the desktop
+# environment on the X server
+unset DISPLAY
+export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
+
 makeindex() {
   echo "Zeroing Index" 
   rm -rf $RECOLL_CONFDIR/xapiandb $RECOLL_CONFDIR/aspdict.*.rws