--- Makefile
+++ Makefile
@@ -4,10 +4,8 @@
 CC        = cc
 RM        = rm -f
 
-CFLAGS    += -I$(XROOT)/include # remove the + for this and the next line if make complains about being unable to add to a non-existing macro
-LDFLAGS   += -lX11 -L$(XROOT)/lib
 CFLAGS    += -DSHAPE # comment out this line to disable shape support
-LDFLAGS   += -lXext # if shape support is disabled, this normally is no longer necessary and schould probally be commented out too
+LIBS      += -lXext -lX11 # if shape support is disabled, this normally is no longer necessary and schould probally be commented out too
 
 #CFLAGS    += -DDEBUG -ggdb3 # -DDEBUG_EVENTS -DSYNC # for debugging
 CFLAGS    += -Wall -Wextra -Wno-unused-parameter
@@ -19,7 +17,7 @@
 all: matwm2
 
 matwm2: $(OBJFILES) $(HEADERS)
-	$(CC) -o $@ $(OBJFILES) $(LDFLAGS)
+	$(CC) $(LDFLAGS) -o $@ $(OBJFILES) $(LIBS)
 
 clean:
 	$(RM) matwm2 *.o