diff -Nur debian.old/rules debian/rules
--- debian.old/rules	2016-02-20 08:53:50.000000000 -0500
+++ debian/rules	2016-02-20 14:08:06.000000000 -0500
@@ -150,6 +150,7 @@
 endif
 
 
+ifndef DEB_OPT_NOCHECK
 # I'm not trying to be difficult: this check exists because building as
 # root really _does_ fail.  The failure mode as of 1.4.0 is test 17
 # from switch_tests.py.  Upstream response is "so don't build as root".
@@ -164,6 +165,7 @@
 		false; \
 	fi
 endef
+endif
 
 debian/stamp-autogen: $(QUILT_STAMPFN)
 	$(DONT_BE_ROOT)