diff --git a/tests/unit/data/travis/sphinx-setup.sh b/tests/unit/data/travis/sphinx-setup.sh
index 30ac33e..47bf28c 100755
--- a/tests/unit/data/travis/sphinx-setup.sh
+++ b/tests/unit/data/travis/sphinx-setup.sh
@@ -12,7 +12,11 @@ sudo apt-get install sphinxsearch
 sudo mkdir /var/log/sphinx
 sudo touch /var/log/sphinx/searchd.log
 sudo touch /var/log/sphinx/query.log
-chmod -R 777 /var/log/sphinx # ugly
+sudo chmod -R 777 /var/log/sphinx # ugly (for travis)
+
+# spl dir
+sudo mkdir /var/lib/sphinx
+sudo chmod 777 /var/lib/sphinx # ugly (for travis)
 
 # setup test Sphinx indexes:
 indexer --config $CWD/../sphinx/sphinx.conf --all