diff --git a/build.xml b/build.xml
index cad8ca46e5..7997231126 100644
--- a/build.xml
+++ b/build.xml
@@ -2244,7 +2244,7 @@
   </target>
 
 
-  <!-- Publish artifacts to Maven repositories -->
+  <!-- Installs artifacts to local Maven repository -->
   <target name="mvn-install"
           depends="maven-declare-dependencies,jar,sources-jar,javadoc-jar"
           description="Installs the artifacts in the Maven Local Repository">
@@ -2265,8 +2265,9 @@
              classifier="javadoc"/>
   </target>
 
+  <!-- Publish artifacts to remote Maven repository -->
   <target name="publish"
-          depends="mvn-install"
+          depends="mvn-install,artifacts"
           description="Publishes the artifacts to the Maven repository">
 
     <!-- the parent -->
diff --git a/debian/patches/cassandra_logdir_fix.diff b/debian/patches/cassandra_logdir_fix.diff
index 8597331332..a13dec0a90 100644
--- a/debian/patches/cassandra_logdir_fix.diff
+++ b/debian/patches/cassandra_logdir_fix.diff
@@ -2,33 +2,21 @@
 +++ b/bin/cassandra
 @@ -109,7 +109,7 @@
  fi
- 
+
  if [ -z "$CASSANDRA_LOG_DIR" ]; then
 -  CASSANDRA_LOG_DIR=$CASSANDRA_HOME/logs
 +  CASSANDRA_LOG_DIR=/var/log/cassandra
  fi
- 
+
  # Special-case path variables.
 --- a/conf/cassandra-env.sh
 +++ b/conf/cassandra-env.sh
-@@ -93,16 +93,16 @@
-     echo "$JVM_OPTS" | grep -q "^-[X]log:gc"
-     if [ "$?" = "1" ] ; then # [X] to prevent ccm from replacing this line
-         # only add -Xlog:gc if it's not mentioned in jvm-server.options file
--        mkdir -p ${CASSANDRA_HOME}/logs
--        JVM_OPTS="$JVM_OPTS -Xlog:gc=info,heap*=trace,age*=debug,safepoint=info,promotion*=trace:file=${CASSANDRA_HOME}/logs/gc.log:time,uptime,pid,tid,level:filecount=10,filesize=10485760"
-+        mkdir -p /var/log/cassandra
-+        JVM_OPTS="$JVM_OPTS -Xlog:gc=info,heap*=trace,age*=debug,safepoint=info,promotion*=trace:file=/var/log/cassandra/gc.log:time,uptime,pid,tid,level:filecount=10,filesize=10485760"
-     fi
- else
-     # Java 8
-     echo "$JVM_OPTS" | grep -q "^-[X]loggc"
-     if [ "$?" = "1" ] ; then # [X] to prevent ccm from replacing this line
-         # only add -Xlog:gc if it's not mentioned in jvm-server.options file
--        mkdir -p ${CASSANDRA_HOME}/logs
--        JVM_OPTS="$JVM_OPTS -Xloggc:${CASSANDRA_HOME}/logs/gc.log"
-+        mkdir -p /var/log/cassandra
-+        JVM_OPTS="$JVM_OPTS -Xloggc:/var/log/cassandra/gc.log"
-     fi
+@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ calculate_heap_sizes()
+
+ # Sets the path where logback and GC logs are written.
+ if [ "x$CASSANDRA_LOG_DIR" = "x" ] ; then
+-    CASSANDRA_LOG_DIR="$CASSANDRA_HOME/logs"
++    CASSANDRA_LOG_DIR=/var/log/cassandra
  fi
- 
+
+ #GC log path has to be defined here because it needs to access CASSANDRA_HOME