diff --git a/INSTALL b/INSTALL
index 6240c35..17f4fc1 100644
--- a/INSTALL
+++ b/INSTALL
@@ -124,6 +124,7 @@
 given by the hostname command. If you plan on eventually having several 
 hosts and networks, feel free to add them now.
 
+root@grml:/usr/local/tashi# cd bin
 root@grml:/usr/local/tashi/bin# DEBUG=1 ./clustermanager
 2012-01-26 23:12:33,972 [./clustermanager:INFO] Using configuration file(s) ['/usr/local/tashi/etc/TashiDefaults.cfg']
 2012-01-26 23:12:33,972 [./clustermanager:INFO] Starting cluster manager
@@ -158,9 +159,8 @@
 
 In [4]: data.baseDataObject.save()
 
-In [5]: import os
-
-In [6]: os.kill(os.getpid(), 9)
+In [5]: (^C)
+2012-03-07 20:00:00,456 [./bin/clustermanager:INFO] Exiting cluster manager after receiving a SIGINT signal
 
 Run the cluster manager in the background:
 root@grml:/usr/local/tashi/bin# ./clustermanager &
diff --git a/src/tashi/client/tashi-client.py b/src/tashi/client/tashi-client.py
index a933a0c..261982b 100755
--- a/src/tashi/client/tashi-client.py
+++ b/src/tashi/client/tashi-client.py
@@ -340,7 +340,8 @@
 			print "Unknown function %s" % (func)
 			print
 		functions = argLists
-		print "%s is the client program for Tashi, a system for cloud-computing on BigData." % (os.path.basename(sys.argv[0]))
+		print "%s is the client program for Tashi" % (os.path.basename(sys.argv[0]))
+		print "Tashi, a system for cloud-computing on BigData"
 		print "Visit http://incubator.apache.org/tashi/ for more information."
 		print
 	else:
diff --git a/src/tashi/clustermanager/data/getentoverride.py b/src/tashi/clustermanager/data/getentoverride.py
index d2f68d5..75703ea 100644
--- a/src/tashi/clustermanager/data/getentoverride.py
+++ b/src/tashi/clustermanager/data/getentoverride.py
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
 import subprocess
 import time
 import os
-from tashi.rpycservices.rpyctypes import User, LocalImages
+from tashi.rpycservices.rpyctypes import User, LocalImages, Instance, Host
 from tashi.clustermanager.data import DataInterface
 from tashi.util import instantiateImplementation, humanReadable
 
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@
 		return self.baseDataObject.acquireHost(hostId)
 	
 	def releaseHost(self, host):
-		if type(host) is not Instance:
+		if type(host) is not Host:
 			self.log.exception("Argument is not of type Host, but of type %s" % (type(host)))
 			raise TypeError
 
diff --git a/src/tashi/nodemanager/nodemanagerservice.py b/src/tashi/nodemanager/nodemanagerservice.py
index 569f189..eb22cd5 100755
--- a/src/tashi/nodemanager/nodemanagerservice.py
+++ b/src/tashi/nodemanager/nodemanagerservice.py
@@ -76,6 +76,8 @@
 
 		self.__registerHost()
 
+		# XXXstroucki: should make an effort to retry
+		# otherwise vmm will wait forever
 		self.id = self.cm.registerNodeManager(self.host, self.instances.values())
 
 		# XXXstroucki cut cross check for NM/VMM state
diff --git a/src/tashi/util.py b/src/tashi/util.py
index dd8a28d..1d114d5 100644
--- a/src/tashi/util.py
+++ b/src/tashi/util.py
@@ -211,28 +211,32 @@
 		raise Exception("No config file could be found: %s" % (str(allLocations)))
 	return (config, configFiles)
 
-def __getShellFn(globalDict):
-	if sys.version_info < (2, 6, 1):
+def __getShellFn():
+	try:
 		from IPython.Shell import IPShellEmbed
-		return IPShellEmbed(user_ns=globalDict)
-	else:
+		return (1, IPShellEmbed)
+	except ImportError:
 		import IPython
-		return IPython.embed(user_ns=globalDict)
+		return (2, IPython.embed)
 
 def debugConsole(globalDict):
 	"""A debugging console that optionally uses pysh"""
 	def realDebugConsole(globalDict):
 		try :
 			import atexit
-			shellfn = __getShellFn(globalDict)
+			(calltype, shellfn) = __getShellFn()
 			def resetConsole():
 # XXXpipe: make input window sane
 				(stdin, stdout) = os.popen2("reset")
 				stdout.read()
-			dbgshell = shellfn()
 			atexit.register(resetConsole)
-			dbgshell()
-		except Exception:
+			if calltype == 1:
+				dbgshell=shellfn(user_ns=globalDict)
+				dbgshell()
+			elif calltype == 2:
+				dbgshell=shellfn
+				dbgshell(user_ns=globalDict)
+		except Exception, e:
 			CONSOLE_TEXT=">>> "
 			input = " " 
 			while (input != ""):
@@ -242,6 +246,10 @@
 					exec(input) in globalDict
 				except Exception, e:
 					sys.stdout.write(str(e) + "\n")
+
+		import os
+		os._exit(0)
+
 	if (os.getenv("DEBUG", "0") == "1"):
 		threading.Thread(target=lambda: realDebugConsole(globalDict)).start()