Index: s_file.c
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/pure-data/pd/src/s_file.c,v
retrieving revision 1.8
diff -u -w -r1.8 s_file.c
--- s_file.c	15 Oct 2005 23:14:28 -0000	1.8
+++ s_file.c	25 Jul 2007 00:37:35 -0000
@@ -42,10 +42,22 @@
 {
     char filenamebuf[MAXPDSTRING], *homedir = getenv("HOME");
     int fd, length;
+	char user_prefs_file[MAXPDSTRING]; // user prefs file
+	char default_prefs_file[MAXPDSTRING]; // default prefs embedded in the package
+    struct stat statbuf;
 
-    if (!homedir)
+
+	snprintf(default_prefs_file, MAXPDSTRING, "%s/default.pdsettings", 
+			 sys_libdir->s_name);
+//	fprintf(stderr,"default_prefs %s\n",default_prefs_file);
+    if (homedir)
+		snprintf(user_prefs_file, MAXPDSTRING, "%s/.pdsettings", homedir);
+	if (stat(user_prefs_file, &statbuf) == 0) 
+		strncpy(filenamebuf, user_prefs_file, MAXPDSTRING);
+	else if (stat(default_prefs_file, &statbuf) == 0)
+		strncpy(filenamebuf, default_prefs_file, MAXPDSTRING);
+	else
         return;
-    snprintf(filenamebuf, MAXPDSTRING, "%s/.pdsettings", homedir);
     filenamebuf[MAXPDSTRING-1] = 0;
     if ((fd = open(filenamebuf, 0)) < 0)
     {