diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index d5dd565431f67d0576d1e71e768bd4bf9f5f9b4a..a2c53a069f5bf9cf7449ee5c3f43b4067ec39051 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ documents those changes that are of interest to users and admins.
  -- Add support for srun --cpus-per-task through task allocation in 
     slurmctld.
  -- fixed partition_allocator to work without curses
+ -- made change to srun to start message thread before other threads 
+    to make sure localtime doesn't interfere.   
 
 * Changes in SLURM 0.6.0
 ========================
diff --git a/src/common/hostlist.c b/src/common/hostlist.c
index 9b22f5c2a9421057d9ef528b2aec11357916e513..8f571f4153105e59d249ed31f0480e4918c14b8d 100644
--- a/src/common/hostlist.c
+++ b/src/common/hostlist.c
@@ -2220,7 +2220,7 @@ _get_boxes(char *buf, int max_len)
 			end_box = i;
 		}
 		if (((len+8) < max_len) && (start_box != -1)
-		&& ((is_box == 0) || (i == axis_max_x))) {
+		    && ((is_box == 0) || (i == axis_max_x))) {
 			sprintf(buf+len,"%d%d%dx%d%d%d,",
 				start_box, axis_min_y, axis_min_z,
 				end_box, axis_max_y, axis_max_z);
diff --git a/src/srun/srun.c b/src/srun/srun.c
index c93f63fc81fec89c5aaf698edd3f4c868e7cd17e..8906859e262e583d90fdd860b76e393e23fe03d9 100644
--- a/src/srun/srun.c
+++ b/src/srun/srun.c
@@ -264,12 +264,12 @@ int srun(int ac, char **av)
 
 	_run_srun_prolog(job);
 
-	if (slurm_mpi_thr_create(job) < 0)
-		job_fatal (job, "Failed to initialize MPI");
-
 	if (msg_thr_create(job) < 0)
 		job_fatal(job, "Unable to create msg thread");
 
+	if (slurm_mpi_thr_create(job) < 0)
+		job_fatal (job, "Failed to initialize MPI");
+
 	if (io_thr_create(job) < 0) 
 		job_fatal(job, "failed to initialize IO");