diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 22575b7a913..2695d614d0c 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -39,8 +39,12 @@ pkglibexec_SCRIPTS = \
 	ocr.pm \
 	cv.pm \
 	needle.pm \
-	crop.py \
-	start.pl
+	crop.py
+
+bin_SCRIPTS = isotovideo
+
+install-exec-hook:
+	sed -i -e "s,my \$$installprefix.*,my \$$installprefix = '$(pkglibexecdir)';," $(DESTDIR)$(bindir)/isotovideo
 
 pkglibexec_FOLDERS = \
 	distri \
@@ -51,8 +55,6 @@ pkglibexec_FOLDERS = \
 
 # sort the above out so it is not done directory wise
 
-bin_SCRIPTS = bin/isotovideo
-
 pkglibexec_PROGRAMS = videoencoder
 
 videoencoder_SOURCES = videoencoder.cpp
@@ -61,7 +63,6 @@ videoencoder_LDADD = $(OPENCV_LIBS) $(THEORAENC_LIBS) -lm
 
 EXTRA_DIST = \
 	autogen.sh \
-	bin/isotovideo.in \
 	ppmclibs/tinycv.i \
 	$(backendhelpexec_SCRIPTS) $(backendexec_SCRIPTS) \
 	$(doc_DATA) $(pkglibexec_DATA) $(pkglibexec_SCRIPTS) $(packagestate_DATA_FOLDERS) $(pkglibexec_FOLDERS)
diff --git a/README.asciidoc b/README.asciidoc
index bf21f948837..c11ec06f7aa 100644
--- a/README.asciidoc
+++ b/README.asciidoc
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ used by the tests.  A minimal vars.json file can be:
 
 Now we can launch the application with:
 
-$ ../os-autoinst/start.pl
+$ ../os-autoinst/isotovideo
 
 and we can use VNC to connect to the QEMU instance:
 
diff --git a/bin/isotovideo.in b/bin/isotovideo.in
deleted file mode 100644
index e57637db193..00000000000
--- a/bin/isotovideo.in
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env sh
-exec_prefix="@prefix@"
-exec "@libexecdir@/@PACKAGE@/tools/isotovideo" $@
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index ff8ac24c0fe..822104e8239 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -39,6 +39,5 @@ PKG_CHECK_MODULES([THEORAENC], [theoraenc >= 1.1])
 AC_CONFIG_FILES([
 	Makefile
 	t/Makefile
-	bin/isotovideo
 ])
 AC_OUTPUT
diff --git a/doc/needles.txt b/doc/needles.txt
index b7f18261874..85b7b2465b0 100644
--- a/doc/needles.txt
+++ b/doc/needles.txt
@@ -1,11 +1,11 @@
 Some packages are required to run crop.py. So for the first time do:
   zypper in python-imaging python-tk
 
-To create needles or to adjust test cases the easiest way is to run start.pl
+To create needles or to adjust test cases the easiest way is to run isotovideo
 interactively. Parameters for the installation are stored in environment
-variables. You want to run start.pl in some empty directory with enough free
+variables. You want to run isotovideo in some empty directory with enough free
 space left. Disk images, screenshots etc will be created relative to
-the directory start.pl is called from.
+the directory isotovideo is called from.
 
 Most important environment variables:
 - DISTRI: specifies which subdirectory of 'distri' should be used
@@ -26,10 +26,10 @@ For development/debugging you also want
   regions of the needle to the new resolution.
 
 
-Example how to run start.pl:
+Example how to run isotovideo:
 $ mkdir /space/openqa
 $ cd /space/openqa/
-$ DISTRI=opensuse ISO=/path/to/dvd.iso DESKTOP=gnome interactive_crop=1 scaledhack=1 /path/to/start.pl
+$ DISTRI=opensuse ISO=/path/to/dvd.iso DESKTOP=gnome interactive_crop=1 scaledhack=1 /path/to/isotovideo
 
 crop.py can be used to interactively edit needles. It takes a json
 file or a png as argument.
diff --git a/start.pl b/isotovideo
similarity index 95%
rename from start.pl
rename to isotovideo
index d437debc463..429dbcdc31f 100755
--- a/start.pl
+++ b/isotovideo
@@ -8,9 +8,13 @@
 use threads;
 
 BEGIN {
+    # the following line is modified during make install
+    my $installprefix = undef;
+
     my ($wd) = $0 =~ m-(.*)/-;
     $wd ||= '.';
-    unshift @INC, "$wd";
+    $installprefix ||= $wd;
+    unshift @INC, "$installprefix";
 }
 
 use bmwqemu qw(diag);
diff --git a/tools/isotovideo b/tools/isotovideo
deleted file mode 100755
index f6cedcefdf1..00000000000
--- a/tools/isotovideo
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,45 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/bash
-
-if test -z "$NAME" ; then
-	echo "\$NAME must be set!" >&2
-	exit 1
-fi
-scriptdir=$(dirname $(dirname $0))
-logfile=autoinst-log.txt
-
-echo testing $NAME
-# cleanup
-test -e qemu.pid && kill `cat qemu.pid` 2>/dev/null && rm -f qemu.pid
-rm -f backend.run
-
-# start
-TZ=UTC date "+%s%n%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S" > ${logfile}
-
-osautoinstpid=
-exithandler()
-{
-	echo "isotovideo exit handler $osautoinstpid" >&2
-	if [ -n "$osautoinstpid" ]; then
-		kill $osautoinstpid
-	fi
-}
-if [ -t 0 ]; then
-	2> stderr.txt
-	exec 7> >(tee stderr.txt)
-else
-	exec 7>stderr.txt
-fi
-trap exithandler EXIT
-perl $scriptdir/start.pl 2>&7 &
-osautoinstpid=$!
-wait $!
-echo "start.pl exited with status $?"
-unset osautoinstpid
-
-test -e qemu.pid && kill `cat qemu.pid` 2>/dev/null && rm -f qemu.pid
-rm -f backend.run
-echo "QEMU finished, running final checks" >> ${logfile}
-
-echo "+++ STDERR +++" >> ${logfile}
-cat stderr.txt >> ${logfile}
-
diff --git a/tools/precommitcheck b/tools/precommitcheck
deleted file mode 100755
index 1d332ddaa9f..00000000000
--- a/tools/precommitcheck
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,2 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/sh
-for f in backend/* inst/* consoletest.d/*pm x11test.d/*.pm distri/opensuse/inst.d/*.pm bmwqemu.pm start.pl tools/inststagedetect.pl ; do perl -c $f ; done