diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index db4561e..65de70a 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -52,3 +52,11 @@ docs/_build/
 
 # PyBuilder
 target/
+
+.debian.stamp
+z3
+capstone
+reil
+smt
+pyroot
+concolica_pyroot
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..21c0cce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,107 @@
+#
+# Makefile to build prerequisites for concolica for a user without requiring superuser privileges.
+#
+# sudo is still needed to install packages - this skip can be stepped using SKIP_APT=1
+#
+
+APT ?= apt-get --no-install-recommends --no-upgrade
+SUDO ?= sudo
+PYROOT := $(shell pwd)/pyroot
+
+# Note: this will probably fail if your `pwd` has spaces in it.
+
+# Generate a sourceable script
+
+all: prereq virtualenv
+	@sed -e 's!@PYROOT@!$(PYROOT)!g' -e 's!@PWD@!'`pwd`'!g' < concolica_pyroot.in > concolica_pyroot
+	@echo "Now run the following to use concolica (or put it into your profile or bashrc):"
+	@echo "   source concolica_pyroot"
+
+prereq: | .debian.stamp reil smt capstone termcolor z3
+
+virtualenv: | $(PYROOT)
+
+$(PYROOT):
+	@test -d $(PYROOT) || virtualenv $(PYROOT)
+
+#
+# TODO:
+#
+#   1. detect if not a Debian/ubuntu system and skip this bit, use other methods to detect prerequisites
+# and print a warning accordingly
+#   2. If debian, allow user to override this step if they have satisified these dependencies in other ways
+#   3. The apt-get command will fail if you have a complex dependency setup (like I do), so again we need a way to avoid this step
+#
+#   `make SKIP_APT=1` will do this for all the above cases
+#
+.debian.stamp:
+ifeq ($(SKIP_APT),)
+	$(SUDO) $(APT) install asciidoc build-essential git python-pip python-dev python-virtualenv
+endif
+	@touch .debian.stamp
+
+termcolor: | $(PYROOT)
+	@{ . $(PYROOT)/bin/activate ; pip -q install termcolor ; }
+
+reil: | $(PYROOT)
+	test -d reil || git clone https://github.com/c01db33f/reil.git $(PYROOT)/lib/python2.6/site-packages/reil
+
+smt:
+	test -d smt || git clone https://github.com/c01db33f/smt.git
+
+capstone: | $(PYROOT)
+	test -d capstone || git clone https://github.com/aquynh/capstone.git
+	export DESTDIR=$(PYROOT) && cd capstone && MAKEFLAGS=-j ./make.sh install
+	{ . $(PYROOT)/bin/activate ; cd capstone/bindings/python && python setup.py install ; }
+
+#
+# NOTE
+#
+# z3 is hosted on codeplex which seems to have a completely different git+TLS setup from the rest of the planet
+# So in most cases except for very bleeding edge installations of git, git clone fails with the following message:
+#
+# error: RPC failed; result=56, HTTP code = 200
+#
+# So we have to workaround by using git fetch instead
+#
+# See: http://z3.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=Git%20HTTPS%20cloning%20errors
+# See: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnutls26/+bug/1111882
+#
+# The alternative solution is to rebuild git from source against libcurl4-openssl-dev but not everyone wants to do that
+#
+z3: | $(PYROOT)
+	test -d z3 || { mkdir z3 && cd z3 && git init && { git remote add -f origin https://git01.codeplex.com/z3 ; git fetch && git checkout -B master origin/master ; } ; }
+	cd z3 && autoconf && ./configure --prefix=$(PYROOT)
+	{ . "$(PYROOT)/bin/activate" ; cd z3 && python scripts/mk_make.py ; }
+	cd z3/build && $(MAKE) && $(MAKE) install
+
+clean: prereq-clean virtualenv-clean
+
+virtualenv-clean:
+	@-rm -rf $(PYROOT)
+
+prereq-clean:
+	@-rm -rf .debian.stamp reil smt capstone z3
+
+help:
+	@echo "Recommended usage:"
+	@echo
+	@echo "    make -jX"
+	@echo
+	@echo "where X is the number of CPU/cores available for use by make."
+	@echo
+	@echo "Primary targets:"
+	@echo
+	@echo "    all clean"
+	@echo
+	@echo "This makefile constructs a python virtual environment at $(PYROOT)"
+	@echo "To use the python virtual environment for concolic analysis do:"
+	@echo
+	@echo "    source concolica_pyroot"
+	@echo
+	@echo "If your system is not based on Debian, skip the package prerequisites using 'make SKIP_APT=1'"
+	@echo "The following source prerequisites are downloaded and built once: reil smt capstone z3"
+	@echo "To recompile a previously built prerequisite use (for example) 'make -B capstone'"
+
+.PHONY: help clean virtualenv virtualenv-clean prereq-clean
+
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index bcd6596..ac3a55b 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -10,46 +10,11 @@ concolica has a handful of dependencies - the reil translation code requires
 capstone to provide disassembly support, the smt code currently supports only
 the Microsoft Z3 solver as a backend.
 
-The following should work on Debian based systems:
+The installer has been mostly automated and can be invoked simply as `make`; only package prerequisites now require sudo.
 
-`sudo apt-get install asciidoc build-essential gettext git libcurl4-openssl-dev python-pip python-dev zlib1g-dev
-
-git clone https://github.com/git/git.git
-cd git
-make configure
-./configure --prefix=/usr
-make all
-sudo make install
-cd ../
-
-git clone https://github.com/c01db33f/reil.git
-git clone https://github.com/c01db33f/smt.git
-
-git clone https://github.com/aquynh/capstone.git
-cd capstone
-./make.sh
-sudo ./make.sh install
-cd bindings/python
-sudo python ./setup.py install
-cd ../../../
-
-sudo pip install termcolor
-
-git clone https://git01.codeplex.com/z3
-cd z3
-autoconf
-./configure
-python scripts/mk_make.py
-cd build
-make -j 8
-sudo make install
-cd ../../`
-
-Then add the following to your .bash_aliases
-
-`export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:/path/to/concolica/smt/and/reil
-export VDB_EXT_DIR=/path/to/conolica/vdb`
+    make -j
 
+This creates a file `concolica_pyroot` which you can then source so the correct Python and library paths are set.
 
 Usage
 -----
@@ -58,28 +23,28 @@ All depends what you want to use it for... See the examples directory for some
 completely undocumented example code. run_state.py is used with a process dump
 made using vdb; something like
 
-`c01db33f@ctf$ vdb
-vdb> exec my_program
-vdb> bp program.main
-vdb> go
-vdb> dump_state -a=x86_64 -f=dump.cc
-vdb> quit
-
-c01db33f@ctf$ ./run_state.py`
+    c01db33f@ctf$ vdb
+    vdb> exec my_program
+    vdb> bp program.main
+    vdb> go
+    vdb> dump_state -a=x86_64 -f=dump.cc
+    vdb> quit
+    
+    c01db33f@ctf$ ./run_state.py
 
 test_trace.py is used to validate the REIL translation code against an execution 
 trace made using vdb; something like
 
-`c01db33f@ctf$ vdb
-vdb> exec my_program
-vdb> bp my_program.main
-vdb> go
-vdb> save_trace -a=x86_64 -f=output.trace
-^C
-vdb> quit
-
-c01db33f@ctf$ ./test_trace.py -f=output.trace`
-
+    c01db33f@ctf$ vdb
+    vdb> exec my_program
+    vdb> bp my_program.main
+    vdb> go
+    vdb> save_trace -a=x86_64 -f=output.trace
+    ^C
+    vdb> quit
+    
+    c01db33f@ctf$ ./test_trace.py -f=output.trace`
 
 
+For more information about the Python-hosted debugger vdb, see http://visi.kenshoto.com/viki/Vdb
 
diff --git a/concolica b/concolica
new file mode 120000
index 0000000..945c9b4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/concolica
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/concolica_pyroot.in b/concolica_pyroot.in
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..734f1b0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/concolica_pyroot.in
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+source @PYROOT@/bin/activate
+export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:@PWD@:@PWD@/smt:@PWD@/reil
+export VDB_EXT_DIR=@PWD@/vdb
+# The following line may vary on some systems. TBH I am a little surprised that virtualenv doesnt add it in for 64-bit Debian
+export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:@PYROOT@/usr/lib64