diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 3dc1ca25c82f56fbddd08cf22d8ef354769e5ce9..ce7524daf1680e4d1aad92988158751db896ce2d 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -282,12 +282,13 @@ documents those changes that are of interest to users and admins.
     Moved existing digital signature logic into new plugin: crypto/openssl.
     Added new support for crypto/munge (available with GPL license).
 
-* Changes in SLURM 1.2.29
+* Changes in SLURM 1.2.30
 =========================
  -- Fix for gold not to print out 720 error messages since they are
     potentally harmful.
  -- In sched/wiki2 (Moab), permit changes to a pending job's required features:
     CMD=CHANGEJOB ARG=<jobid> RFEATURES=<features>
+ -- Fix for not aborting when node selection doesn't load, fatal error instead
 
 * Changes in SLURM 1.2.29
 =========================
diff --git a/src/slurmctld/read_config.c b/src/slurmctld/read_config.c
index c1bd2188f4da39cc3b429f875f94e624ed8ab936..bf839eb66c2be017df165ddffbc3cfa31fdb9bcf 100644
--- a/src/slurmctld/read_config.c
+++ b/src/slurmctld/read_config.c
@@ -801,12 +801,12 @@ int read_slurm_conf(int recover)
 
 	_build_bitmaps_pre_select();
 	if ((select_g_node_init(node_record_table_ptr, node_record_count)
-			!= SLURM_SUCCESS) ||
-	    (select_g_block_init(part_list) != SLURM_SUCCESS) ||
-	    (select_g_state_restore(state_save_dir) != SLURM_SUCCESS) ||
-	    (select_g_job_init(job_list) != SLURM_SUCCESS)) { 
-		error("failed to initialize node selection plugin state");
-		abort();
+	     != SLURM_SUCCESS) 
+	    || (select_g_block_init(part_list) != SLURM_SUCCESS) 
+	    || (select_g_state_restore(state_save_dir) != SLURM_SUCCESS) 
+	    || (select_g_job_init(job_list) != SLURM_SUCCESS)) {
+		fatal("failed to initialize node selection plugin state, "
+		      "Clean start required.");
 	}
 	xfree(state_save_dir);
 	reset_job_bitmaps();		/* must follow select_g_job_init() */