diff --git a/src/gsiqt/qt5/QtCore/gsiDeclQtCoreAdd.cc b/src/gsiqt/qt5/QtCore/gsiDeclQtCoreAdd.cc
index c534efbc4..6954d7252 100644
--- a/src/gsiqt/qt5/QtCore/gsiDeclQtCoreAdd.cc
+++ b/src/gsiqt/qt5/QtCore/gsiDeclQtCoreAdd.cc
@@ -28,7 +28,6 @@
 #include <QPoint>
 #include <QColor>
 #include <QSize>
-#include <QAbstractMessageHandler>
 
 //  NOTE: this is required because HitTestAccuracy is defined here, but goes into Qt
 //  namespace which is in QtCore ... this introduces a dependency of QtCore GSI lib on QtGui.
diff --git a/src/klayout.pri b/src/klayout.pri
index 5dcc9b30f..f3fcea4ef 100644
--- a/src/klayout.pri
+++ b/src/klayout.pri
@@ -186,10 +186,6 @@ equals(HAVE_QT, "0") {
 
     QT += widgets gui printsupport
 
-    lessThan(QT_MAJOR_VERSION, 6) {
-      QT += xmlpatterns
-    }
-
     equals(HAVE_QTBINDINGS, "1") {
       !equals(HAVE_QT_DESIGNER, "0") {
         # designer isn't needed by the base application
@@ -207,6 +203,12 @@ equals(HAVE_QT, "0") {
         # uitools isn't needed by the base application
         QT += uitools
       }
+      !equals(HAVE_QT_XML, "0") {
+        lessThan(QT_MAJOR_VERSION, 6) {
+          QT += xmlpatterns
+        }
+      }
+
     }
 
   } else {
diff --git a/src/laybasic/laybasic/layNetlistBrowserPage.cc b/src/laybasic/laybasic/layNetlistBrowserPage.cc
index 17db0cfb9..f69b537d7 100644
--- a/src/laybasic/laybasic/layNetlistBrowserPage.cc
+++ b/src/laybasic/laybasic/layNetlistBrowserPage.cc
@@ -168,22 +168,16 @@ NetlistBrowserPage::NetlistBrowserPage (QWidget * /*parent*/)
   for (int i = 0; i < 4; ++i) {
     delegate = new lay::HTMLItemDelegate (this);
     delegate->set_text_margin (2);
-    delegate->set_plain_text (true);
-    /* currently, HTML is not used:
     delegate->set_anchors_clickable (true);
     connect (delegate, SIGNAL (anchor_clicked (const QString &)), this, SLOT (anchor_clicked (const QString &)));
-    */
     directory_tree->setItemDelegateForColumn (i, delegate);
   }
 
   for (int i = 0; i < 2; ++i) {
     delegate = new lay::HTMLItemDelegate (this);
     delegate->set_text_margin (2);
-    delegate->set_plain_text (true);
-    /* currently, HTML is not used:
     delegate->set_anchors_clickable (true);
     connect (delegate, SIGNAL (anchor_clicked (const QString &)), this, SLOT (anchor_clicked (const QString &)));
-    */
     hierarchy_tree->setItemDelegateForColumn (i, delegate);
   }
 
diff --git a/src/plugins/streamers/lefdef/db_plugin/dbLEFDEFPlugin.cc b/src/plugins/streamers/lefdef/db_plugin/dbLEFDEFPlugin.cc
index d93afec52..1cce6e831 100644
--- a/src/plugins/streamers/lefdef/db_plugin/dbLEFDEFPlugin.cc
+++ b/src/plugins/streamers/lefdef/db_plugin/dbLEFDEFPlugin.cc
@@ -116,7 +116,12 @@ LEFDEFReader::read_lefdef (db::Layout &layout, const db::LoadLayoutOptions &opti
     effective_options = *lefdef_options;
   }
 
-  db::LEFDEFReaderState state (&effective_options, layout, effective_options.paths_relative_to_cwd () ? std::string () : tl::dirname (m_stream.absolute_path ()));
+  std::string base_path;
+  if (! effective_options.paths_relative_to_cwd ()) {
+    base_path = tl::dirname (m_stream.absolute_path ());
+  }
+
+  db::LEFDEFReaderState state (&effective_options, layout, base_path);
 
   layout.dbu (effective_options.dbu ());
 
@@ -131,7 +136,7 @@ LEFDEFReader::read_lefdef (db::Layout &layout, const db::LoadLayoutOptions &opti
 
     for (std::vector<std::string>::const_iterator l = effective_options.begin_lef_files (); l != effective_options.end_lef_files (); ++l) {
 
-      std::string lp = correct_path (*l, layout, tl::dirname (m_stream.absolute_path ()));
+      std::string lp = correct_path (*l, layout, base_path);
 
       tl::InputStream lef_stream (lp);
       tl::log << tl::to_string (tr ("Reading")) << " " << lp;
@@ -152,7 +157,7 @@ LEFDEFReader::read_lefdef (db::Layout &layout, const db::LoadLayoutOptions &opti
 
     for (std::vector<std::string>::const_iterator l = effective_options.begin_lef_files (); l != effective_options.end_lef_files (); ++l) {
 
-      std::string lp = correct_path (*l, layout, tl::dirname (m_stream.absolute_path ()));
+      std::string lp = correct_path (*l, layout, base_path);
 
       tl::SelfTimer timer (tl::verbosity () >= 21, tl::to_string (tr ("Reading LEF file: ")) + lp);
 
@@ -205,7 +210,7 @@ LEFDEFReader::read_lefdef (db::Layout &layout, const db::LoadLayoutOptions &opti
     tl::shared_collection<db::Layout> macro_layout_object_holder;
     for (std::vector<std::string>::const_iterator l = effective_options.begin_macro_layout_files (); l != effective_options.end_macro_layout_files (); ++l) {
 
-      std::string lp = correct_path (*l, layout, tl::dirname (m_stream.absolute_path ()));
+      std::string lp = correct_path (*l, layout, base_path);
 
       tl::SelfTimer timer (tl::verbosity () >= 21, tl::to_string (tr ("Reading LEF macro layout file: ")) + lp);