diff --git a/tools/travis/before_install.sh b/tools/travis/before_install.sh
index 4b789e19931..9ced6d0b72b 100755
--- a/tools/travis/before_install.sh
+++ b/tools/travis/before_install.sh
@@ -66,9 +66,12 @@ sudo mkdir -p /opt/tomcat
 sudo tar xfv tomcat.tar.gz -C /opt/tomcat --strip 1 > /dev/null
 
 echo -e "\nInstalling Development tools: "
+RETRY_COUNT=3
 
 sudo apt-get -q -y install uuid-runtime genisoimage python-setuptools python-pip netcat > /dev/null
-
+if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]; then
+  echo "\napt-get packages failed to install"
+fi
 echo "<settings>
   <mirrors>
     <mirror>
@@ -82,11 +85,18 @@ echo "<settings>
 
 echo -e "\nInstalling some python packages: "
 
-sudo pip install lxml > /dev/null
-sudo pip install texttable > /dev/null
+for ((i=0;i<$RETRY_COUNT;i++))
+do
+  sudo pip install lxml texttable > /tmp/piplog
+  if [[ $? -eq 0 ]]; then
+    echo "\npython packages installed successfully"
+    break;
+  fi
+  echo -e "\npython packages failed to install"
+  cat /tmp/piplog
+done
 
 #Download project dependencies in a way we can retry if there's a failure, without failing the whole build
-RETRY_COUNT=3
 
 #Resolve plugins first
 echo -e "\nDownloading Plugin dependencies"
diff --git a/tools/travis/downloadDeps.sh b/tools/travis/downloadDeps.sh
index 0edd27abc93..a124fe86503 100755
--- a/tools/travis/downloadDeps.sh
+++ b/tools/travis/downloadDeps.sh
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ for line in $(find ../../ -name pom.xml -exec sed -n '/<dependencies>/{:a;n;/<\/
   elif [ $1 == "/dependency" ]; then
     #Check if version is empty to fix maven 3.2.5 run
     if [[ $ARTIFACT != *version* ]]; then
-      ARTIFACT="$ARTIFACT<version>LATEST</version>"
+      continue;
     fi
     #Filter out project modules interdependencies and noredist artifacts
     if [[ $ARTIFACT != *org.apache.cloudstack* ]] && [[ $ARTIFACT != *com.cloud* ]] && [[ $ARTIFACT != *org.midonet* ]] && [[ $ARTIFACT != *net.juniper* ]] ; then
@@ -42,6 +42,8 @@ for line in $(find ../../ -name pom.xml -exec sed -n '/<dependencies>/{:a;n;/<\/
 
 done
 
+#For some reason, travis seems to be using surefire plugin 2.14.2
+echo "<dependency><groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId><artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId><version>2.12.4</version></dependency>"  >> pom.xml
 
 #Finish dummy pom
 echo "</dependencies></project>" >> pom.xml