diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 07b5913..2b7b15e 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -24,15 +24,16 @@ install_requires = [
 ]
 
 # Default user (considers non virtualenv method)
-user = os.environ.get('SUDO_USER', os.environ['USER'])
+user = os.environ.get('SUDO_USER', os.environ.get('USER', None))
 
 # Copy default config if not exists
 default = os.path.expanduser("~") + os.sep + '.rainbow_config.json'
 if not os.path.isfile(default):
     cmd = 'cp rainbowstream/colorset/config ' + default
     os.system(cmd)
-    cmd = 'chown ' + quote(user) + ' ' + default
-    os.system(cmd)
+    if user:
+        cmd = 'chown ' + quote(user) + ' ' + default
+        os.system(cmd)
     cmd = 'chmod 777 ' + default
     os.system(cmd)