diff --git a/ctl b/ctl
index 1b93c214c..bd7896441 100755
--- a/ctl
+++ b/ctl
@@ -1,13 +1,17 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 SERVICES="pandora pandora-tasks pandora-encoding pandora-cron pandora-websocketd"
 if [ -z "$1" ]; then
-    echo "Usage: $0 (start|stop|restart|reload)"
+    echo "Usage: $0 (start|stop|restart|reload|status)"
     exit 1
 else
     action="$1"
 fi
+self=`readlink "$0"`
+if [ -z $self ]; then
+    self="$0"
+fi
 if [ "$action" = "init" ]; then
-    cd "`dirname "$0"`"
+    cd "`dirname "$self"`"
     BASE=`pwd`
     SUDO=""
     PANDORA_USER=`ls -l update.py | cut -f3 -d" "`
@@ -43,6 +47,18 @@ if [ "$action" = "init" ]; then
     fi
     exit 0
 fi
+if [ "$action" = "manage" ]; then
+    cd "`dirname "$self"`"
+    if [ `whoami` != 'root' ]; then
+        manage="./pandora/manage.py"
+    else
+        manage="sudo -u pandora ./pandora/manage.py"
+    fi
+    shift
+    $manage $@
+    exit $?
+
+fi
 if [ `whoami` != 'root' ]; then
     echo you have to be root or run $0 with sudo
     exit 1
@@ -74,6 +90,13 @@ if [ "$action" = "install" ]; then
     fi
     exit 0
 fi
+if [ "status" = "$action" ]; then
+    export SYSTEMD_PAGER=
+fi
 for service in $SERVICES; do
-    service $service $action
+    if [ -x /bin/systemctl ]; then
+        /bin/systemctl $action $service
+    else
+        service $service $action
+    fi
 done
diff --git a/vm/pandora_install.sh b/vm/pandora_install.sh
index 65d776c2b..ec77d3b01 100755
--- a/vm/pandora_install.sh
+++ b/vm/pandora_install.sh
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ NGINX=${NGINX-local}
 BRANCH=${BRANCH-stable}
 
 # add a pandora user
-echo Installing pandora with user: $PANDORA
+echo Installing pandora with user: $PANDORA branch: $BRANCH
 getent passwd $PANDORA > /dev/null 2>&1 || adduser --disabled-password --gecos "" $PANDORA
 
 #
@@ -197,8 +197,9 @@ fi
 if [ "$NGINX" == "local" ]; then
 
 cp "/srv/pandora/etc/nginx/pandora" "/etc/nginx/sites-available/pandora"
-rm -f /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default
+rm -f /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/pandora
 ln -s ../sites-available/pandora /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/pandora
+ln -s /srv/pandora/ctl /usr/local/bin/pandoractl
 
 read -r -d '' GZIP <<EOI
 gzip_static  on;\\