diff --git a/src/tests/junit/org/apache/tools/ant/types/XMLCatalogTest.java b/src/tests/junit/org/apache/tools/ant/types/XMLCatalogTest.java
index 267164864..cdfb34f88 100644
--- a/src/tests/junit/org/apache/tools/ant/types/XMLCatalogTest.java
+++ b/src/tests/junit/org/apache/tools/ant/types/XMLCatalogTest.java
@@ -89,19 +89,33 @@ public class XMLCatalogTest extends TestCase {
            Source result = catalog.resolve("i/dont/exist.dtd", null);
            String expected = toURLString(new File(project.getBaseDir() +
                                                   "/i/dont/exist.dtd"));
-           //
-           // These shenanigans are necessary b/c Norm Walsh's resolver
-           // has a different idea of how file URLs are created on windoze
-           // ie file://c:/foo instead of file:///c:/foo
-           //
-           String resultStr = new URL(((SAXSource)result).getInputSource().getSystemId()).getFile();
-           assertTrue("Empty catalog should return input",
+           String resultStr =
+               fileURLPartWithoutLeadingSlashes((SAXSource)result);
+           assertTrue("Empty catalog should return input with a system ID like "
+                      + expected + " but was " + resultStr,
                       expected.endsWith(resultStr));
        } catch (Exception e) {
            fail("resolve() failed!" + e.toString());
        }
    }
 
+    private static String fileURLPartWithoutLeadingSlashes(SAXSource result)
+        throws MalformedURLException {
+        //
+        // These shenanigans are necessary b/c Norm Walsh's resolver
+        // has a different idea of how file URLs are created on windoze
+        // ie file://c:/foo instead of file:///c:/foo
+        //
+        String resultStr =
+            new URL(result.getInputSource().getSystemId()).getFile();
+        // on Sun's Java6 this returns an unexpected number of four
+        // leading slashes, at least on Linux - strip all of them
+        while (resultStr.startsWith("/")) {
+            resultStr = resultStr.substring(1);
+        }
+        return resultStr;
+    }
+
     public void testNonExistentEntry() {
 
         ResourceLocation dtd = new ResourceLocation();
@@ -120,8 +134,10 @@ public class XMLCatalogTest extends TestCase {
             Source result = catalog.resolve("i/dont/exist.dtd", null);
             String expected = toURLString(new File(project.getBaseDir().toURL() +
                                                    "/i/dont/exist.dtd"));
-            String resultStr = new URL(((SAXSource)result).getInputSource().getSystemId()).getFile();
-            assertTrue("Nonexistent Catalog entry return input",
+            String resultStr =
+                fileURLPartWithoutLeadingSlashes((SAXSource)result);
+            assertTrue("Nonexistent Catalog entry return input with a system ID like "
+                       + expected + " but was " + resultStr,
                        expected.endsWith(resultStr));
         } catch (Exception e) {
             fail("resolve() failed!" + e.toString());