diff --git a/gui/cfgparse.tcl b/gui/cfgparse.tcl
index 8ccfa53b..2ef5f7ed 100755
--- a/gui/cfgparse.tcl
+++ b/gui/cfgparse.tcl
@@ -464,7 +464,7 @@ proc loadCfg { cfg } {
 	    # uses 'key=value' instead of 'key value'
 	    if  { $object == "session" } {
 		# 'key=value', values with space needs quoting 'key={space val}'
-		setSessionOptions "" $line
+		setSessionOptions "" [split $line "\n"]
 		set class ""
 		set object ""
 		continue
diff --git a/gui/plugins.tcl b/gui/plugins.tcl
index 98c6a6d3..1c4b53c8 100644
--- a/gui/plugins.tcl
+++ b/gui/plugins.tcl
@@ -1471,12 +1471,12 @@ proc resetSessionOptions {} {
 proc setSessionOptions { types vals } {
     global g_session_options
     foreach kv $vals {
-	set kvs [split $kv =]
+	set kvs [splitKeyValue $kv]
 	if {[llength $kvs] < 2} {
 	    puts "error with session option: $kv"
 	    continue
 	}
-	set key [lindex $kvs 0]
+	set key [string trim [lindex $kvs 0]]
 	set value [lindex $kvs 1]
         array set g_session_options [list $key $value]
     }