diff --git a/src/misc/setrlimit.c b/src/misc/setrlimit.c
index 8a1b8cc6..7130d719 100644
--- a/src/misc/setrlimit.c
+++ b/src/misc/setrlimit.c
@@ -32,16 +32,16 @@ struct ctx {
 static void do_setrlimit(void *p)
 {
 	struct ctx *c = p;
-	if (c->err) return;
+	if (c->err>0) return;
 	c->err = -__setrlimit(c->res, c->rlim);
 }
 
 int setrlimit(int resource, const struct rlimit *rlim)
 {
-	struct ctx c = { .res = resource, .rlim = rlim };
+	struct ctx c = { .res = resource, .rlim = rlim, .err = -1 };
 	__synccall(do_setrlimit, &c);
 	if (c.err) {
-		errno = c.err;
+		if (c.err>0) errno = c.err;
 		return -1;
 	}
 	return 0;
diff --git a/src/unistd/setxid.c b/src/unistd/setxid.c
index 9e37ddc4..0239f8af 100644
--- a/src/unistd/setxid.c
+++ b/src/unistd/setxid.c
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ int __setxid(int nr, int id, int eid, int sid)
 	struct ctx c = { .nr = nr, .id = id, .eid = eid, .sid = sid, .err = -1 };
 	__synccall(do_setxid, &c);
 	if (c.err) {
-		errno = c.err;
+		if (c.err>0) errno = c.err;
 		return -1;
 	}
 	return 0;