diff --git a/ci/AppImage.sh b/ci/AppImage.sh
index da5e41766..1bb067b1e 100644
--- a/ci/AppImage.sh
+++ b/ci/AppImage.sh
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 #
 #   SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-2-Clause
 #
-# Copyright 2019 Adriaan de Groot <adridg@FreeBSD.org>
+# Copyright 2019 Adriaan de Groot <groot@kde.org>
 #
 # Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
 # modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
@@ -56,7 +56,11 @@
 # The build process for AppImage proceeds in a directory build-AppImage
 # that is created in the current directory.
 #
-# TODO: Conda / Python support doesn't work yet.
+# The resulting AppImage has XDG_* enabled, and appends the in-image
+# directories to the current environment. You can set XDG_* in the
+# current environment to use other configurations and data, e.g. the
+# data in the current live environment. Or leave it unset, to try
+# Calamares with only the configuration contained in the AppImage.
 #
 ### END USAGE
 
@@ -207,10 +211,13 @@ mv "$IMAGE_DIR/usr/bin/calamares" "$IMAGE_DIR/usr/bin/calamares.bin"
 cat > "$IMAGE_DIR/usr/bin/calamares" <<"EOF"
 #! /bin/sh
 #
-# Calamares proxy-script
-export XDG_DATA_DIRS="$APPDIR/usr/share/calamares:"
-export XDG_CONFIG_DIRS="$APPDIR/etc/calamares:$D/usr/share:"
-export PYTHONPATH=$APPDIR/usr/lib:
+# Calamares proxy-script. Runs Calamares with XDG support enabled,
+# and in-image XDG dirs set up so that compiled-in configuration can be used.
+test -n "${XDG_DATA_DIRS}" && XDG_DATA_DIRS="${XDG_DATA_DIRS}:"
+test -n "${XDG_CONFIG_DIRS}" $$ XDG_CONFIG_DIRS="${XDG_CONFIG_DIRS}:"
+export XDG_DATA_DIRS="${XDG_DATA_DIRS}${APPDIR}/usr/share/"
+export XDG_CONFIG_DIRS="${XDG_CONFIG_DIRS}${APPDIR}/etc/:${APPDIR}/usr/share/"
+export PYTHONPATH="${APPDIR}/usr/lib:"
 cd "$APPDIR"
 exec "$APPDIR"/usr/bin/calamares.bin -X "$@"
 EOF
diff --git a/src/libcalamares/utils/CalamaresUtils.cpp b/src/libcalamares/utils/CalamaresUtils.cpp
index 3ab758522..4a8b1f528 100644
--- a/src/libcalamares/utils/CalamaresUtils.cpp
+++ b/src/libcalamares/utils/CalamaresUtils.cpp
@@ -99,21 +99,32 @@ setAppDataDir( const QDir& dir )
 
 /* Split $ENV{@p name} on :, append to @p l, making sure each ends in / */
 static void
-mungeEnvironment( QStringList& l, const char *name )
+mungeEnvironment( QStringList& l, const char* name, const char* defaultDirs )
 {
-    for ( auto s : QString( qgetenv( name ) ).split(':') )
+    static const QString calamaresSubdir = QStringLiteral( "calamares/" );
+
+    QStringList dirs = QString( qgetenv( name ) ).split( ':' );
+    if ( dirs.isEmpty() )
+        dirs = QString( defaultDirs ).split( ':' );
+
+    for ( auto s : dirs )
+    {
+        if ( s.isEmpty() )
+            continue;
         if ( s.endsWith( '/' ) )
-            l << s;
+            l << ( s + calamaresSubdir ) << s;
         else
-            l << ( s + '/' );
+            l << ( s + '/' + calamaresSubdir ) << ( s + '/' );
+    }
 }
 
 void
 setXdgDirs()
 {
-    s_haveExtraDirs = true;
-    mungeEnvironment( s_extraConfigDirs, "XDG_CONFIG_DIRS" );
-    mungeEnvironment( s_extraDataDirs, "XDG_DATA_DIRS" );
+    mungeEnvironment( s_extraConfigDirs, "XDG_CONFIG_DIRS", "/etc/xdg" );
+    mungeEnvironment( s_extraDataDirs, "XDG_DATA_DIRS", "/usr/local/share/:/usr/share/" );
+
+    s_haveExtraDirs = !( s_extraConfigDirs.isEmpty() && s_extraDataDirs.isEmpty() );
 }
 
 QStringList