diff --git a/t/lib/Percona/Toolkit.t b/t/lib/Percona/Toolkit.t
index fdccdcfe..9accbc7d 100644
--- a/t/lib/Percona/Toolkit.t
+++ b/t/lib/Percona/Toolkit.t
@@ -75,6 +75,8 @@ SKIP: {
       unless $root eq $trunk;
    
    my @tags          = split /\n/, `$bzr tags`;
+   # sort the version numbers (some bzr versions do not sort them)
+   @tags = sort { calc_value($a) <=> calc_value($b) } @tags; 
    my ($current_tag) = $tags[-1] =~ /^(\S+)/;
 
    is(
@@ -84,4 +86,18 @@ SKIP: {
    );
 }
 
+# we use this function to help sort version numbers
+sub calc_value {
+   my $version = shift;
+   $version =~ s/ +[^ ]*$//;
+   my $value = 0;
+   my $exp = 0;
+   foreach my $num (reverse split /\./, $version) {
+      $value += $num * 10 ** $exp++;
+   }
+   print "$version = $value\n";
+   return $value;
+}
+
+
 done_testing;
diff --git a/t/pt-duplicate-key-checker/standard_options.t b/t/pt-duplicate-key-checker/standard_options.t
index 606ea2ad..2c5f85c7 100644
--- a/t/pt-duplicate-key-checker/standard_options.t
+++ b/t/pt-duplicate-key-checker/standard_options.t
@@ -28,7 +28,32 @@ diag(`rm -f $pid_file >/dev/null`);
 
 diag(`touch $pid_file`);
 
-$output = `$cmd -d issue_295 --pid $pid_file 2>&1`;
+
+# to test this issue I must set a timeout in case the command doesn't come back 
+
+eval {
+   # we define an alarm signal handler
+   local $SIG{'ALRM'} = sub { die "timed out\n" }; 
+
+   # and set the alarm 'clock' to 5 seconds
+   alarm(5);  
+
+   # here's the actual command. correct bahaviour is to die with messsage "PID file <pid_file> exists"
+   # Incorrect behavior is anything else, including not returning control after 5 seconds
+   $output = `$cmd -d issue_295 --pid $pid_file 2>&1`;
+
+};
+
+if ($@) {
+        if ($@ eq "timed out\n") {
+                print "I timed out\n";
+        }
+        else {
+                print "Something else went wrong: $@\n";
+        }
+}
+
+
 like(
    $output,
    qr{PID file $pid_file exists},
diff --git a/t/pt-fifo-split/pt-fifo-split.t b/t/pt-fifo-split/pt-fifo-split.t
index c7a6e39f..f45ae850 100644
--- a/t/pt-fifo-split/pt-fifo-split.t
+++ b/t/pt-fifo-split/pt-fifo-split.t
@@ -47,6 +47,12 @@ sub read_fifo {
    my ($n_reads) = @_;
    my $last_inode = 0;
    my @data;
+
+   # This test still freezes on some centos systems, 
+   # so we're going to bluntly sleep for a few secs to avoid deadlock 
+   # TODO: figure out if there is a proper way to do this. 
+   sleep(3);
+
    for (1..$n_reads) {
       PerconaTest::wait_until(sub {
          my $inode;