diff --git a/NEWS.txt b/NEWS.txt
index cd297f260d..ba369f6780 100644
--- a/NEWS.txt
+++ b/NEWS.txt
@@ -38,6 +38,11 @@ Upgrading
 2.1.1
 =====
 
+Upgrading
+---------
+    - Nothing specific to this release, but please see 2.1 if you are upgrading
+      from a previous version.
+
 New features
 ------------
    - Netty support for epoll on linux is now enabled.  If for some
@@ -113,14 +118,22 @@ Upgrading
 
 2.0.11
 ======
+
+Upgrading
+---------
+    - Nothing specific to this release, but refer to previous entries if you
+      are upgrading from a previous version.
+
 New features
 ------------
     - DateTieredCompactionStrategy added, optimized for time series data and groups
       data that is written closely in time (CASSANDRA-6602 for details). Consider
       this experimental for now.
 
+
 2.0.10
 ======
+
 New features
 ------------
     - CqlPaginRecordReader and CqlPagingInputFormat have both been removed.
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index f2eccebf48..4e240eb06f 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+cassandra (2.1.1) unstable; urgency=medium
+
+  * New release
+
+ -- Sylvain Lebresne <slebresne@apache.org>  Fri, 17 Oct 2014 13:43:46 +0200
+
 cassandra (2.1.0) unstable; urgency=medium
 
   * New release
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/gms/Gossiper.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/gms/Gossiper.java
index ebe05d21f0..e698adfe17 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/gms/Gossiper.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/gms/Gossiper.java
@@ -995,7 +995,7 @@ public class Gossiper implements IFailureDetectionEventListener, GossiperMBean
                 if (logger.isTraceEnabled())
                     logger.trace("{} local generation {}, remote generation {}", ep, localGeneration, remoteGeneration);
 
-                if (remoteGeneration > localGeneration + MAX_GENERATION_DIFFERENCE)
+                if (localGeneration != 0 && remoteGeneration > localGeneration + MAX_GENERATION_DIFFERENCE)
                 {
                     // assume some peer has corrupted memory and is broadcasting an unbelievable generation about another peer (or itself)
                     logger.warn("received an invalid gossip generation for peer {}; local generation = {}, received generation = {}", ep, localGeneration, remoteGeneration);