diff --git a/helios_auth/auth_systems/openid/util.py b/helios_auth/auth_systems/openid/util.py
index 13cd063c0187ba0d338b13046e52cafdf86d95f8..75272ea2570f3d70d0e205d2f153f4be1a3a423a 100644
--- a/helios_auth/auth_systems/openid/util.py
+++ b/helios_auth/auth_systems/openid/util.py
@@ -41,9 +41,14 @@ def getOpenIDStore(filestore_path, table_prefix):
     The result of this function should be passed to the Consumer
     constructor as the store parameter.
     """
-    if not settings.DATABASES['default'].ENGINE:
+
+    db_engine = settings.DATABASES['default']['ENGINE']
+    if not db_engine:
         return FileOpenIDStore(filestore_path)
 
+    # get the suffix
+    db_engine = db_engine.split('.')[-1]
+
     # Possible side-effect: create a database connection if one isn't
     # already open.
     connection.cursor()
@@ -62,12 +67,12 @@ def getOpenIDStore(filestore_path, table_prefix):
         }
 
     try:
-        s = types[settings.DATABASE_ENGINE](connection.connection,
+        s = types[db_engine](connection.connection,
                                             **tablenames)
     except KeyError:
         raise ImproperlyConfigured, \
               "Database engine %s not supported by OpenID library" % \
-              (settings.DATABASE_ENGINE,)
+              (db_engine,)
 
     try:
         s.createTables()
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 2387077ad67536aa2a905ab57f3811546ba46fac..50eb2a2cb3ba0f0c8587a38727390f916d6651a6 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -5,9 +5,8 @@ anyjson==0.3.1
 celery==2.3.3
 distribute==0.6.24
 django-celery==2.3.3
-django-kombu==0.9.4
 django-picklefield==0.1.9
-kombu==1.4.1
+kombu==2.5.7
 psycopg2==2.4.1
 pyparsing==1.5.6
 python-dateutil==1.5
diff --git a/settings.py b/settings.py
index 7bc42aa7b243348ff19e1ac4a1ba586232f76fb4..1189078e3c85565079c2351ba70fffa21e183ffa 100644
--- a/settings.py
+++ b/settings.py
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ INSTALLED_APPS = (
     'django.contrib.sites',
     ## needed for queues
     'djcelery',
-    'djkombu',
+    'kombu',
     ## needed for schema migration
     'south',
     ## HELIOS stuff
@@ -188,8 +188,8 @@ logging.basicConfig(
 # set up django-celery
 import djcelery
 djcelery.setup_loader()
-BROKER_BACKEND = "djkombu.transport.DatabaseTransport"
+BROKER_BACKEND = "kombu.transport.django"
 CELERY_RESULT_DBURI = DATABASES['default']
 
 # for testing
-CELERY_ALWAYS_EAGER = True
+#CELERY_ALWAYS_EAGER = True