diff --git a/release/scripts/X11/package_x_dists.sh b/release/scripts/X11/package_x_dists.sh
index 6648fe9b405..4c9c4a1d0f1 100755
--- a/release/scripts/X11/package_x_dists.sh
+++ b/release/scripts/X11/package_x_dists.sh
@@ -11,25 +11,25 @@
 # usage info
 #
 usage() {
-	echo "$0 <plist dir> <work dir> <tarball dir>"
+	echo "$0 <work dir> <tarball dir>"
 	echo
-	echo "Where <plist dir> contains all the packing lists generated by"
-	echo "the generate_plists.sh script and <work dir> is the name of the"
-	echo "scratch directory we can do our work under.  Note that we toast"
-	echo "the scratch directory at the beginning."
+	echo "Where <work dir> is the name of the scratch directory we can do"
+	echo " our work under.  Note that we toast the scratch directory at the"
+	echo " beginning."
 	exit 1
 }
 
 # check our command line
-if [ $# -ne 3 ]; then
+if [ $# -ne 2 ]; then
 	usage
 fi
 
 # setup our directory variables
-plist_dir=$1
-work_dir=$2
-tarball_dir=$3
+#	note the generate_plists.sh script can be used to populate $plist_dir
 home_dir=`dirname $0`
+plist_dir=${home_dir}/plists/`uname -m`
+work_dir=$1
+tarball_dir=$2
 
 # setup the scratch directory
 [ -r ${work_dir} ] && rm -rf ${work_dir}
@@ -47,16 +47,6 @@ if ! ${work_dir}/scripts/build_x.sh ${work_dir}/tmp; then
 	exit 1
 fi
 
-if ! mkdir -p ${plist_dir}; then
-	echo "Could not create plist dir [${plist_dir}]!"
-	echo
-	usage
-fi
-if ! mkdir -p ${tarball_dir}; then
-	echo "Could not create tarball dir [${tarball_dir}]!"
-	echo
-	usage
-fi
 # now package it up into tarballs
 if ! ${work_dir}/scripts/generate_tarballs.sh \
 		 ${work_dir}/tmp/usr/X11R6 ${plist_dir} ${tarball_dir}; then