diff --git a/installer b/installer
index 9d5089b..2b8f82e 100755
--- a/installer
+++ b/installer
@@ -1731,15 +1731,14 @@ install_base()
 	clear
 	tput cnorm
 	if [[ $BG_PID ]] && kill -0 $BG_PID 2> /dev/null; then
-		[[ -e /tmp/wmlist ]] && rm /tmp/wmlist
+		[[ -e /tmp/wmlist ]] && rm -f /tmp/wmlist
 		printf "\nA background install process is still running, tailing the output...\n"
 		tail -f --pid=$BG_PID "$BG"
 		trap - EXIT
 		unset BG_PID
 	fi
 
-	mkdir -pv "$MNT/etc/default"
-	mkdir -pv "$MNT/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/"
+	mkdir -pv "$MNT/etc/default" "$MNT/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/"
 
 	if [[ $DIST == "ArchLabs" ]]; then
 		# we have some customizations in /etc on the iso we want to preserve
@@ -1756,8 +1755,8 @@ install_base()
 	[[ -d /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections ]] && cp -rvf /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections "$MNT/etc/NetworkManager/"
 
 	# stop pacman complaining
-	chrun 'mkdir -p /var/lib/pacman/sync'
-	chrun 'touch /var/lib/pacman/sync/{core.db,extra.db,community.db}'
+	mkdir -p "$MNT/var/lib/pacman/sync"
+	touch "$MNT"/var/lib/pacman/sync/{core.db,extra.db,community.db}
 
 	echo "LANG=$LOCALE" > "$MNT/etc/locale.conf"
 	cp -fv "$MNT/etc/locale.conf" "$MNT/etc/default/locale"
@@ -2105,7 +2104,7 @@ install_tearfree()
 			EndSection
 			EOF
 			cat "$xpath/20-radeon.conf"
-		elif lspci | grep ' VGA ' | grep -q 'NVIDIA'; then # nvidia cards require a bit of checking for notebook gpus
+		elif hash nvidia-installer > /dev/null 2>&1 && lspci | grep ' VGA ' | grep -q 'NVIDIA'; then # nvidia cards require a bit of checking for notebook gpus
 			echo "Trying nvidia driver install"
 			if lspci | grep ' VGA ' | grep -q 'Intel\|AMD' && lspci | grep ' VGA ' | grep -q 'NVIDIA.*[6-9][1-8][05]M[X]\?\|NVIDIA.*Quadro.*[KMP][1-6][0-2][0]*M'; then
 				if [[ $xpath == *"$MNT"* ]]; then
@@ -2135,12 +2134,14 @@ install_tearfree()
 			else
 				echo "Unable to install nvidia driver"
 			fi
+		else
+			echo "Unknown video card - aborting driver setup"
 		fi
 
 		if lspci | grep ' VGA ' | grep -q 'Intel\|AMD/ATI'; then
-			if [[ $xpath == *"$MNT"* ]]; then
+			if [[ $xpath == *"$MNT"* && -f "$MNT/etc/skel/.config/picom.conf" ]]; then
 				sed -i 's/xrender/glx/g' "$MNT/etc/skel/.config/picom.conf"
-			else
+			elif [[ -f /etc/skel/.config/picom.conf ]]; then
 				sed -i 's/xrender/glx/g' /etc/skel/.config/picom.conf
 			fi
 		fi