diff --git a/source/creator/SConscript b/source/creator/SConscript
index a4c218f89d6..15f73040f4b 100644
--- a/source/creator/SConscript
+++ b/source/creator/SConscript
@@ -22,4 +22,7 @@ if env['WITH_BF_BINRELOC']==1:
 if env['WITH_BF_OPENEXR']==1:
     defs.append('WITH_OPENEXR')
 
+if not env['WITH_BF_SDL']:
+	defs.append('DISABLE_SDL')
+
 env.BlenderLib ( libname = 'blender_creator', sources = Split(sources), includes = Split(incs), defines = defs, libtype='core', priority = 1 )
diff --git a/source/creator/creator.c b/source/creator/creator.c
index 38c37575bd1..b5360b31a0a 100644
--- a/source/creator/creator.c
+++ b/source/creator/creator.c
@@ -237,8 +237,10 @@ static void print_help(void)
 	printf ("  $TEMP\t\tStore temporary files here.\n");
 #else
 	printf ("  $TMP or $TMPDIR\tStore temporary files here.\n");
-	printf ("  $SDL_AUDIODRIVER\tLibSDL audio driver - alsa, esd, alsa, dma.\n");
 	printf ("  $BF_TIFF_LIB\t\tUse an alternative libtiff.so for loading tiff image files.\n");
+#endif
+#ifndef DISABLE_SDL
+	printf ("  $SDL_AUDIODRIVER\tLibSDL audio driver - alsa, esd, alsa, dma.\n");
 #endif
 	printf ("  $IMAGEEDITOR\t\tImage editor executable, launch with the IKey from the file selector.\n");
 	printf ("  $WINEDITOR\t\tText editor executable, launch with the EKey from the file selector.\n");
@@ -326,10 +328,6 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 #ifdef __linux__
     #ifdef __alpha__
 	signal (SIGFPE, fpe_handler);
-    #else
-	if ( getenv("SDL_AUDIODRIVER") == NULL) {
-		setenv("SDL_AUDIODRIVER", "alsa", 1);
-	}
     #endif
 #endif
 #if defined(__sgi)
@@ -432,7 +430,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 
 	/* for all platforms, even windos has it! */
 	if(G.background) signal(SIGINT, blender_esc);	/* ctrl c out bg render */
-
+	
 	/* background render uses this font too */
 	BKE_font_register_builtin(datatoc_Bfont, datatoc_Bfont_size);
 	
@@ -530,6 +528,15 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 		
 		BLI_where_is_temp( btempdir, 1 ); /* call after loading the .B.blend so we can read U.tempdir */
 
+#ifndef DISABLE_SDL
+#ifdef __linux__
+		/* On linux the default SDL driver dma often would not play
+		 * use alsa if none is set */
+		if ( getenv("SDL_AUDIODRIVER") == NULL) {
+			setenv("SDL_AUDIODRIVER", "alsa", 1);
+		}
+#endif
+#endif
 	}
 	else {
 		BPY_start_python(argc, argv);