diff --git a/daemon/core/misc/utils.py b/daemon/core/misc/utils.py
index 52b18c45..ba42a568 100644
--- a/daemon/core/misc/utils.py
+++ b/daemon/core/misc/utils.py
@@ -100,6 +100,22 @@ def mutedetach(*args, **kwds):
     kwds["stderr"] = subprocess.STDOUT
     return subprocess.Popen(*args, **kwds).pid
 
+def cmdresult(args):
+    ''' Execute a command on the host and return a tuple containing the
+        exit status and result string. stderr output
+        is folded into the stdout result string.
+    '''
+    cmdid = subprocess.Popen(args, stdin = subprocess.PIPE,
+                             stdout = subprocess.PIPE,
+                             stderr = subprocess.PIPE)
+    cmdid.stdin.close()
+    result = cmdid.stdout.read()
+    result += cmdid.stderr.read()
+    cmdid.stdout.close()
+    cmdid.stderr.close()
+    status = cmdid.wait()
+    return (status, result)
+
 def hexdump(s, bytes_per_word = 2, words_per_line = 8):
     dump = ""
     count = 0
@@ -243,3 +259,16 @@ def readfileintodict(filename, d):
             d[key] = value.strip()
         except ValueError:
             pass
+
+
+def checkforkernelmodule(name):
+    ''' Return a string if a Linux kernel module is loaded, None otherwise.
+    The string is the line from /proc/modules containing the module name,
+    memory size (bytes), number of loaded instances, dependencies, state,
+    and kernel memory offset.
+    '''
+    with open('/proc/modules', 'r') as f:
+        for line in f:
+            if line[:len(name)] == name:
+                return line
+    return None
diff --git a/daemon/sbin/core-daemon b/daemon/sbin/core-daemon
index a3ea7a2d..bd50309f 100755
--- a/daemon/sbin/core-daemon
+++ b/daemon/sbin/core-daemon
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ except ImportError:
 from core.constants import *
 from core.api import coreapi
 from core.coreobj import PyCoreNet
-from core.misc.utils import hexdump, daemonize
+from core.misc.utils import hexdump, daemonize, cmdresult, mutedetach
 from core.misc.xmlutils import opensessionxml, savesessionxml
 
 DEFAULT_MAXFD = 1024
@@ -786,7 +786,8 @@ class CoreRequestHandler(SocketServer.BaseRequestHandler):
         exectime = msg.gettlv(coreapi.CORE_TLV_EXEC_TIME)
         cmd = msg.gettlv(coreapi.CORE_TLV_EXEC_CMD)
         
-        if nodenum is None:
+        # local flag indicates command executed locally, not on a node
+        if nodenum is None and not msg.flags & coreapi.CORE_API_LOC_FLAG:
             raise ValueError, "Execute Message is missing node number."
         if execnum is None:
             raise ValueError, "Execute Message is missing execution number."
@@ -799,16 +800,23 @@ class CoreRequestHandler(SocketServer.BaseRequestHandler):
         except KeyError:
             # XXX wait and queue this message to try again later
             # XXX maybe this should be done differently
-            time.sleep(0.125)
-            self.queuemsg(msg)
-            return ()
+            if not msg.flags & coreapi.CORE_API_LOC_FLAG:
+                time.sleep(0.125)
+                self.queuemsg(msg)
+                return ()
+            else:
+                pass
         # build common TLV items for reply
         tlvdata = ""
-        tlvdata += coreapi.CoreExecTlv.pack(coreapi.CORE_TLV_EXEC_NODE, nodenum)
+        if nodenum is not None:
+            tlvdata += coreapi.CoreExecTlv.pack(coreapi.CORE_TLV_EXEC_NODE,
+                                                nodenum)
         tlvdata += coreapi.CoreExecTlv.pack(coreapi.CORE_TLV_EXEC_NUM, execnum)
         tlvdata += coreapi.CoreExecTlv.pack(coreapi.CORE_TLV_EXEC_CMD, cmd)
         
         if msg.flags & coreapi.CORE_API_TTY_FLAG:
+            if nodenum is None:
+                raise NotImplementedError
             # echo back exec message with cmd for spawning interactive terminal
             if cmd == "bash":
                 cmd = "/bin/bash"
@@ -825,7 +833,10 @@ class CoreRequestHandler(SocketServer.BaseRequestHandler):
             if msg.flags & coreapi.CORE_API_STR_FLAG or \
                msg.flags & coreapi.CORE_API_TXT_FLAG:
                 # shlex.split() handles quotes within the string
-                status, res = n.cmdresult(shlex.split(cmd))
+                if msg.flags & coreapi.CORE_API_LOC_FLAG:
+                    status, res = cmdresult(shlex.split(cmd))
+                else:
+                    status, res = n.cmdresult(shlex.split(cmd))
                 if self.verbose:
                     self.info("done exec cmd='%s' with status=%d res=(%d bytes)"
                               % (cmd, status, len(res)))
@@ -839,7 +850,10 @@ class CoreRequestHandler(SocketServer.BaseRequestHandler):
                 return (reply, )
             # execute the command with no response
             else:
-                n.cmd(shlex.split(cmd), wait=False)
+                if msg.flags & coreapi.CORE_API_LOC_FLAG:
+                    mutedetach(shlex.split(cmd))
+                else:
+                    n.cmd(shlex.split(cmd), wait=False)
         return ()