diff --git a/doc/lxc-create.sgml.in b/doc/lxc-create.sgml.in
index 2cb6bb5fa..97354609e 100644
--- a/doc/lxc-create.sgml.in
+++ b/doc/lxc-create.sgml.in
@@ -126,13 +126,14 @@ Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
 	</term>
 	<listitem>
 	  <para>
-	    'backingstore' is one of 'none', 'dir', 'lvm', 'loop', 'btrfs', or 'best'.  The
-	    default is 'none', meaning that the container root filesystem
+	    'backingstore' is one of 'dir', 'lvm', 'loop', 'btrfs', or 'best'.  The
+	    default is 'dir', meaning that the container root filesystem
 	    will be a directory under <filename>@LXCPATH@/container/rootfs</filename>.
-	    'dir' has the same meaning as 'none', but also allows the optional
+	    This backing store type allows the optional
 	    <replaceable>--dir ROOTFS</replaceable> to be specified, meaning
 	    that the container rootfs should be placed under the specified path,
-	    rather than the default.  If 'btrfs' is specified, then the
+	    rather than the default.  (The 'none' backingstore type is an alias for
+	    'dir'.)  If 'btrfs' is specified, then the
 	    target filesystem must be btrfs, and the container rootfs will be
 	    created as a new subvolume.  This allows snapshotted clones to be
 	    created, but also causes rsync --one-filesystem to treat it as a
diff --git a/src/lxc/lxc_create.c b/src/lxc/lxc_create.c
index 6b595f986..caca056ef 100644
--- a/src/lxc/lxc_create.c
+++ b/src/lxc/lxc_create.c
@@ -218,6 +218,9 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
 	if (!validate_bdev_args(&my_args))
 		exit(1);
 
+	if (strcmp(my_args.bdevtype, "none") == 0)
+		my_args.bdevtype = "dir";
+
 	if (geteuid()) {
 		if (mkdir_p(my_args.lxcpath[0], 0755)) {
 			exit(1);