diff --git a/src/Makefile b/src/Makefile
index 36d97be..6f36d56 100644
--- a/src/Makefile
+++ b/src/Makefile
@@ -107,7 +107,8 @@ INSTALL_FILES = \
 
 mips/egrep:
 	@mkdir -p mips
-	wget -O mips/egrep -c https://busybox.net/downloads/binaries/latest/busybox-mips
+	wget -O $@ -c https://busybox.net/downloads/binaries/latest/busybox-mips
+	chmod a+x $@
 
 dist.mips.tar.gz: mips/$(TARGET) $(INSTALL_FILES) mips/egrep
 	tar -c -z -f $@ --transform='s/^mips\///' mips/$(TARGET) $(INSTALL_FILES) mips/egrep
diff --git a/src/shinc/common.sh b/src/shinc/common.sh
index 43d496c..4e49344 100644
--- a/src/shinc/common.sh
+++ b/src/shinc/common.sh
@@ -55,6 +55,13 @@ get_model_id() {
   fi
 }
 
+# run JSON.sh
+JSONsh() {
+  "$ROOT"/shinc/JSON.sh
+}
+# workaround for https://github.com/dominictarr/JSON.sh/issues/50
+[ -x "$ROOT"/egrep ] && PATH="$ROOT:$PATH" && export PATH
+
 # perform an inform request
 # use netcat instead of wget, because busybox misses wget's --post-file argument
 inform_request() {
diff --git a/src/unifi-inform-process b/src/unifi-inform-process
index 113f992..82decc9 100755
--- a/src/unifi-inform-process
+++ b/src/unifi-inform-process
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ INTERVAL_TMPFILE=/tmp/unifi-inform-process_interval.tmp
 
 export CFG_DIR INTERVAL_TMPFILE
 
-"$ROOT"/shinc/JSON.sh -l | awk '
+JSONsh -l | awk '
   /^\["_type"\]/ {
     TYPE = $2
   }
diff --git a/src/unifi-inform-status b/src/unifi-inform-status
index c8a7482..9e2d148 100755
--- a/src/unifi-inform-status
+++ b/src/unifi-inform-status
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ export CFGVERSION MODEL
 
 (
   # the status JSON converted to single lines
-  toughswitch_status | "$ROOT"/shinc/JSON.sh -l
+  toughswitch_status | JSONsh -l
   # and port names from the system configuration
   toughswitch_config | grep '^switch\.port\.[0-9]\+\.name='
 ) | awk '