diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index af20bec4..e7944d8a 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -1,11 +1,20 @@
 language: python
 python:
   - "2.7"
+
+#Set virtual env with system-site-packages to true
+virtualenv:
+  system_site_packages: true
+
 # command to install dependencies, e.g. pip install -r requirements.txt --use-mirrors
-install: 
-  - sudo apt-get install python-scipy
-  - pip install sphinx
+before_install: 
+  - sudo apt-get install -qq python-scipy python-pip
+  - sudo apt-get install -qq python-matplotlib
+
+install:
+  - pip install sphinx 
+  - pip install nose
   - pip install . --use-mirrors
 # command to run tests, e.g. python setup.py test
 script: 
-  - nosetests --with-xcoverage --with-xunit --cover-package=GPy --cover-erase GPy/testing
+  - nosetests GPy/testing
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/GPy/kern/linear.py b/GPy/kern/linear.py
index 89e87314..d36e40b7 100644
--- a/GPy/kern/linear.py
+++ b/GPy/kern/linear.py
@@ -28,6 +28,9 @@ class linear(kernpart):
             self.Nparam = 1
             self.name = 'linear'
             if variances is not None:
+                if isinstance(variances, float):
+                    variances = np.array([variances])
+                    
                 assert variances.shape == (1,)
             else:
                 variances = np.ones(1)
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index c69352b8..0b5d00ce 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 GPy
 ===
 
-A Gaussian processes framework in python.
+A Gaussian processes framework in python
 
 * [Online documentation](https://gpy.readthedocs.org/en/latest/)
 * [Unit tests (Travis-CI)](https://travis-ci.org/SheffieldML/GPy)
\ No newline at end of file