diff -Naur mage-0.4.22/usr/lib/mage/mage.rc.global mage-0.4.22-mcore/usr/lib/mage/mage.rc.global
--- mage-0.4.22/usr/lib/mage/mage.rc.global	2010-06-28 20:50:53.000000000 +0200
+++ mage-0.4.22-mcore/usr/lib/mage/mage.rc.global	2010-12-07 21:11:50.000000000 +0100
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@
 RSYNC_FETCH_OPTIONS="--recursive --links --perms --times --devices --timeout=600 --verbose --compress --progress --stats --delete --delete-after"
 
 # default fetch options for wget
-WGET_FETCH_OPTIONS="--passive-ftp --tries 3 --continue --progress bar"
+WGET_FETCH_OPTIONS="--passive-ftp --continue"
 
 # default build options
 CHOST="${ARCH}-pc-linux-gnu"
diff -Naur mage-0.4.22/usr/lib/mage/mage4.functions.sh mage-0.4.22-mcore/usr/lib/mage/mage4.functions.sh
--- mage-0.4.22/usr/lib/mage/mage4.functions.sh	2010-06-28 20:50:53.000000000 +0200
+++ mage-0.4.22-mcore/usr/lib/mage/mage4.functions.sh	2010-12-07 21:12:48.000000000 +0100
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@
 		fi
 
 		echo -e " ${COLBLUE}***${COLDEFAULT} unpacking (${count_current}/${count_total}): ${pkg} ... "
-		tar xjmf ${PKGDIR}/${pkg} -C ${BUILDDIR} || die "Unpacking package ${pkg}"
+		tar xjf ${PKGDIR}/${pkg} -C ${BUILDDIR} || die "Unpacking package ${pkg}"
 	done
 
 	# add a crlf for a better view
@@ -1276,7 +1276,7 @@
 		else
 			echo -ne "${COLBLUE} --- ${COLDEFAULT}"
 			echo -n "checking md5sum... "
-			( cd ${temp}; md5sum --check ${latest_md5} ) || die "md5 for ${latest_tarball} failed"
+			( cd ${temp}; md5sum -c ${latest_md5} ) || die "md5 for ${latest_tarball} failed"
 		fi
 
 		if [[ -d ${MAGEDIR} ]]
@@ -1289,7 +1289,7 @@
 		echo -ne "${COLBLUE} --- ${COLDEFAULT}"
 		echo "updating mage-tree from tarball ..."
 		# unpack in dirname of MAGEDIR, as the tarball has already the mage
-		tar xjmf ${temp}/${latest_tarball} -C ${MAGEDIR%/*} || die "Unpacking tarball"
+		tar xjf ${temp}/${latest_tarball} -C ${MAGEDIR%/*} || die "Unpacking tarball"
 
 		if [[ -d ${temp} ]]
 		then
@@ -2470,7 +2470,7 @@
 		then
 			echo -ne "${COLBLUE} *** ${COLDEFAULT}"
 			echo -ne "checking md5sum (${count_current}/${count_total}): "
-			( cd ${PKGDIR}; md5sum --check ${md5file}) || die "md5 for ${pkgfile} failed"
+			( cd ${PKGDIR}; md5sum -c ${md5file}) || die "md5 for ${pkgfile} failed"
 		else
 			echo -ne "${COLBLUE} --- ${COLDEFAULT}"
 			echo -e "!! no md5sum file found for ${pkgfile} :("
diff -Naur mage-0.4.22/usr/lib/mage/mgroupadd mage-0.4.22-mcore/usr/lib/mage/mgroupadd
--- mage-0.4.22/usr/lib/mage/mgroupadd	2010-06-28 20:50:53.000000000 +0200
+++ mage-0.4.22-mcore/usr/lib/mage/mgroupadd	2010-12-07 21:15:48.000000000 +0100
@@ -39,17 +39,7 @@
 
 GROUP_TO_ADD="$1"
 
-#start nscd to cache /etc/group
-$(which nscd) -i group
-# get the info
-my_group="$(getent group ${GROUP_TO_ADD})"
-
 # if above entries are empty the user/group does not exist
-if [ -z "${my_group}" ]
-then
-	echo "     Adding group '${GROUP_TO_ADD}' ..."
-	groupadd ${GROUP_OPTS} "${GROUP_TO_ADD}"
-else
-	echo "     Modifing group '${GROUP_TO_ADD}' ..."
-	groupmod ${GROUP_OPTS} "${GROUP_TO_ADD}"
-fi
+echo "     Adding group '${GROUP_TO_ADD}' ..."
+addgroup ${GROUP_OPTS} "${GROUP_TO_ADD}"
+
diff -Naur mage-0.4.22/usr/lib/mage/mgroupdel mage-0.4.22-mcore/usr/lib/mage/mgroupdel
--- mage-0.4.22/usr/lib/mage/mgroupdel	2010-06-28 20:50:53.000000000 +0200
+++ mage-0.4.22-mcore/usr/lib/mage/mgroupdel	2010-12-07 21:16:15.000000000 +0100
@@ -20,15 +20,5 @@
 
 GROUP_TO_DEL="$1"
 
-#start nscd to cache /etc/group
-$(which nscd) -i group
-# get the info
-my_user="$(getent group ${GROUP_TO_DEL})"
-
-if [ -z "${my_user}" ]
-then
-	echo "     User '${GROUP_TO_DEL}' already deleted ..."
-else
-	echo "     Deleting user '${GROUP_TO_DEL}' ..."
-	groupdel "${GROUP_TO_DEL}"
-fi
+echo "     Deleting user '${GROUP_TO_DEL}' ..."
+delgroup "${GROUP_TO_DEL}"
diff -Naur mage-0.4.22/usr/lib/mage/museradd mage-0.4.22-mcore/usr/lib/mage/museradd
--- mage-0.4.22/usr/lib/mage/museradd	2010-06-28 20:50:53.000000000 +0200
+++ mage-0.4.22-mcore/usr/lib/mage/museradd	2010-12-07 21:17:27.000000000 +0100
@@ -39,16 +39,46 @@
 
 USER_TO_ADD="$1"
 
-#start nscd to cache passwd
-$(which nscd) -i passwd
-# get the info
-my_user="$(getent passwd ${USER_TO_ADD})"
-
-if [ -z "${my_user}" ]
-then
-	echo "     Adding user '${USER_TO_ADD}' ..."
-	useradd ${USER_OPTS} "${USER_TO_ADD}"
-else
-	echo "     Modifing user '${USER_TO_ADD}' ..."
-	usermod ${USER_OPTS} "${USER_TO_ADD}"
-fi
+fix_user_opts()
+{
+	local i
+	local FIXED_USER_OPTS
+
+	for i in $*
+	do
+		case $1 in
+			-d) shift; FIXED_USER_OPTS+=" -h $1" ;;
+			-g) shift; FIXED_USER_OPTS+=" -G $1" ;;
+			-G) shift; shift; continue;; # will be parsed through fix_group_opts
+			-u) shift; [[ $1 -lt 100 ]] && FIXED_USER_OPTS+=" -S" ;;
+			*) FIXED_USER_OPTS+=" $1" ;;
+		esac
+		shift
+	done
+
+	echo "${FIXED_USER_OPTS}"
+}
+
+fix_group_opts()
+{
+	local i
+	local FIXED_GROUP_OPTS
+
+	for i in $*
+	do
+		case $1 in
+			-G) shift; FIXED_GROUP_OPTS+="$(echo $1 | sed 's:,:\ :g')" ;;
+		esac
+		shift
+	done
+
+	echo "${FIXED_GROUP_OPTS}"
+}
+
+
+echo "     Adding user '${USER_TO_ADD}' ..."
+adduser -D $(fix_user_opts ${USER_OPTS}) "${USER_TO_ADD}"
+for grp in $(fix_group_opts ${USER_OPTS})
+do
+	addgroup "${USER_TO_ADD}" "${grp}"
+done
diff -Naur mage-0.4.22/usr/lib/mage/muserdel mage-0.4.22-mcore/usr/lib/mage/muserdel
--- mage-0.4.22/usr/lib/mage/muserdel	2010-06-28 20:50:53.000000000 +0200
+++ mage-0.4.22-mcore/usr/lib/mage/muserdel	2010-12-07 21:17:55.000000000 +0100
@@ -20,15 +20,5 @@
 
 USER_TO_DEL="$1"
 
-#start nscd to cache passwd
-$(which nscd) -i passwd
-# get the info
-my_user="$(getent passwd ${USER_TO_DEL})"
-
-if [ -z "${my_user}" ]
-then
-	echo "     User '${USER_TO_DEL}' already deleted ..."
-else
-	echo "     Deleting user '${USER_TO_DEL}' ..."
-	userdel "${USER_TO_DEL}"
-fi
+echo "     Deleting user '${USER_TO_DEL}' ..."
+deluser "${USER_TO_DEL}"
diff -Naur mage-0.4.22/usr/lib/mage/smage2.sh mage-0.4.22-mcore/usr/lib/mage/smage2.sh
--- mage-0.4.22/usr/lib/mage/smage2.sh	2010-06-28 20:50:53.000000000 +0200
+++ mage-0.4.22-mcore/usr/lib/mage/smage2.sh	2010-12-07 21:13:45.000000000 +0100
@@ -159,7 +159,7 @@
 	[ ! -d ${SOURCEDIR}/${PNAME} ] && install -d ${SOURCEDIR}/${PNAME}
 
 	# check if FETCHING is needed
-	( cd ${SOURCEDIR}/${PNAME}; md5sum --check ${DB_MD5_SUM_FILE} &> /dev/null )
+	( cd ${SOURCEDIR}/${PNAME}; md5sum -c ${DB_MD5_SUM_FILE} &> /dev/null )
 	if [[ $? = 0 ]]
 	then
 		# md5's ok, no fetching needed
@@ -314,7 +314,7 @@
 	# recheck md5 sums
 	echo
 	echo -e "${COLBLUE}===${COLGREEN} Checking MD5 sums:${COLDEFAULT}"
-	( cd ${SOURCEDIR}/${PNAME}; md5sum --check ${DB_MD5_SUM_FILE} ) || die "md5 failed"
+	( cd ${SOURCEDIR}/${PNAME}; md5sum -c ${DB_MD5_SUM_FILE} ) || die "md5 failed"
 	echo
 
 	# not needed anymore