diff --git a/src/udev/libudev-queue-private.c b/src/udev/libudev-queue-private.c
index 71771950a..d3e09e8b2 100644
--- a/src/udev/libudev-queue-private.c
+++ b/src/udev/libudev-queue-private.c
@@ -119,7 +119,7 @@ static int skip_to(FILE *file, long offset)
         old_offset = ftell(file);
         if (offset > old_offset && offset - old_offset <= BUFSIZ) {
                 size_t skip_bytes = offset - old_offset;
-                char buf[skip_bytes];
+                char *buf = alloca(skip_bytes);
 
                 if (fread(buf, skip_bytes, 1, file) != skip_bytes)
                         return -1;
diff --git a/src/udev/scsi_id/scsi_id.c b/src/udev/scsi_id/scsi_id.c
index 9bb0d7f53..206cbfd09 100644
--- a/src/udev/scsi_id/scsi_id.c
+++ b/src/udev/scsi_id/scsi_id.c
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ static void set_type(const char *from, char *to, size_t len)
 {
         int type_num;
         char *eptr;
-        char *type = "generic";
+        const char *type = "generic";
 
         type_num = strtoul(from, &eptr, 0);
         if (eptr != from) {
@@ -122,10 +122,10 @@ static void set_type(const char *from, char *to, size_t len)
  */
 static char *get_value(char **buffer)
 {
-        static char *quote_string = "\"\n";
-        static char *comma_string = ",\n";
+        static const char *quote_string = "\"\n";
+        static const char *comma_string = ",\n";
         char *val;
-        char *end;
+        const char *end;
 
         if (**buffer == '"') {
                 /*