diff --git a/mysql-test/suite/federated/federated_debug.test b/mysql-test/suite/federated/federated_debug.test
index 4152d2975b3..2183def4610 100644
--- a/mysql-test/suite/federated/federated_debug.test
+++ b/mysql-test/suite/federated/federated_debug.test
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ eval CREATE TABLE t1(a INT) ENGINE=FEDERATED
 SELECT * FROM t1;
 
 --echo # Start a asynchronous reload
---exec $MYSQLADMIN --no-defaults -S $MASTER_MYSOCK -P $MASTER_MYPORT  -u root --password= refresh 2>&1
+--exec $MYSQLADMIN --no-defaults --default-character-set=latin1 -S $MASTER_MYSOCK -P $MASTER_MYPORT  -u root --password= refresh 2>&1
 
 --echo # Wait for tables to be closed
 let $show_statement= SHOW STATUS LIKE 'Open_tables';
diff --git a/mysql-test/t/mysql_locale_posix.test b/mysql-test/t/mysql_locale_posix.test
index 79994480b3d..636a5a60807 100644
--- a/mysql-test/t/mysql_locale_posix.test
+++ b/mysql-test/t/mysql_locale_posix.test
@@ -18,11 +18,11 @@
 #
 
 --disable_query_log
---exec locale -a > var/tmp/locale_a.output 2>/dev/null || true
+--exec locale -a > $MYSQLTEST_VARDIR/tmp/locale_a.output 2>/dev/null || true
 SET @file=REPLACE(LOAD_FILE('../../tmp/locale_a.output'), '-', '');
 # make it case insensitive
 SET @file=CAST(@file AS CHAR CHARACTER SET latin1) COLLATE latin1_swedish_ci;
---remove_file var/tmp/locale_a.output
+--remove_file $MYSQLTEST_VARDIR/tmp/locale_a.output
 
 if (`SELECT (IFNULL(@file,'') NOT LIKE '%\nde_DE.iso88591\n%')`)
 {