diff --git a/gdb/testsuite/ChangeLog b/gdb/testsuite/ChangeLog
index 9de6777596..0d36c9a28f 100644
--- a/gdb/testsuite/ChangeLog
+++ b/gdb/testsuite/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+2009-11-22  Pedro Alves  <pedro@codesourcery.com>
+
+	* gdb.base/catch-syscall.exp (test_catch_syscall_fail_nodatadir)
+	(do_syscall_tests_without_xml): Set data-directory to
+	/the/path/to/nowhere.
+
 2009-11-21  Pedro Alves  <pedro@codesourcery.com>
 
 	* gdb.threads/local-watch-wrong-thread.c,
diff --git a/gdb/testsuite/gdb.base/catch-syscall.exp b/gdb/testsuite/gdb.base/catch-syscall.exp
index b68aa8a65e..b08f534411 100644
--- a/gdb/testsuite/gdb.base/catch-syscall.exp
+++ b/gdb/testsuite/gdb.base/catch-syscall.exp
@@ -258,6 +258,10 @@ proc test_catch_syscall_fail_nodatadir {} {
     # Sanitizing.
     delete_breakpoints
 
+    # Make sure GDB doesn't load the syscalls xml from the system data
+    # directory.
+    gdb_test "set data-directory /the/path/to/nowhere" ""
+
     # Testing to see if we receive a warning when calling "catch syscall"
     # without XML support (without datadir).
     set thistest "Catch syscall displays a warning when there is no XML support (no datadir set)"
@@ -382,9 +386,9 @@ proc test_catch_syscall_with_wrong_args_noxml {} {
 proc do_syscall_tests_without_xml {} {
     global gdb_prompt srcdir
 
-    # In this case, we don't need to set GDB's datadir because
-    # we want GDB to display only numbers, not names.  So, let's
-    # begin with the tests.
+    # Make sure GDB doesn't load the syscalls xml from the system data
+    # directory.
+    gdb_test "set data-directory /the/path/to/nowhere" ""
 
     # Let's test if we can catch syscalls without XML support.
     # We should succeed, but GDB is not supposed to print syscall names.