diff --git a/plugins/plugin_manager/plugin_list.cs b/plugins/plugin_manager/plugin_list.cs
index 971b302..81954fd 100644
--- a/plugins/plugin_manager/plugin_list.cs
+++ b/plugins/plugin_manager/plugin_list.cs
@@ -61,8 +61,8 @@
 					var:html_escape(Lang.Plugins.plugin_manager.Button.Up) ?>"
 					title="<?cs var:html_escape(Lang.Plugins.plugin_manager.Button.Up)
 					?>" /></a><?cs /if ?>
-				<input type="hidden" name="<?cs var:html_escape(name(x)) ?>_rank"
-					value="<?cs var:html_escape(x.Rank) ?>" />
+				<input type="hidden" name="<?cs var:html_escape(name(x))
+					?>_rank" value="<?cs var:html_escape(x.Rank) ?>" />
 				<input type="hidden" name="<?cs var:name(x) ?>_listed" value="1" /></td>
 		</tr><?cs /if ?><?cs /each ?><?cs /loop ?>
 	</table>
@@ -113,7 +113,8 @@
 					var:html_escape(Lang.Plugins.plugin_manager.Button.Up) ?>"
 					title="<?cs var:html_escape(Lang.Plugins.plugin_manager.Button.Up)
 					?>" /></a><?cs /if ?>
-				<input type="hidden" name="<?cs var:html_escape(name(x)) ?>_rank" value="<?cs var:html_escape(x.Rank) ?>" />
+				<input type="hidden" name="<?cs var:html_escape(name(x))
+					?>_rank" value="<?cs var:html_escape(x.Rank) ?>" />
 				<input type="hidden" name="<?cs var:name(x) ?>_listed" value="1" /></td>
 		</tr><?cs /if ?><?cs /each ?><?cs /loop ?>
 	</table>
@@ -121,6 +122,7 @@
 </fieldset>
 
 <p>
+	<input type="hidden" name="store" value="1" />
 	<button type="submit"><?cs var:html_escape(Lang.Plugins.plugin_manager.Button.SaveSettings) ?></button>
 </p>
 
diff --git a/plugins/plugin_manager/plugin_manager.py b/plugins/plugin_manager/plugin_manager.py
index d9c6238..699e1e4 100644
--- a/plugins/plugin_manager/plugin_manager.py
+++ b/plugins/plugin_manager/plugin_manager.py
@@ -58,8 +58,9 @@ class plugin_manager(cryptobox.plugins.base.CryptoBoxPlugin):
 								str(key[:-7]))
 			try:
 				self.cbox.prefs.plugin_conf.write()
-			except IOError:
-				self.cbox.log.warn("failed to write plugin configuration")
+				self.cbox.log.info("Successfully stored plugin configuration")
+			except IOError, err_msg:
+				self.cbox.log.warn("Failed to write plugin configuration: %s" % err_msg)
 		return "plugin_list"
 
 
@@ -141,5 +142,4 @@ class plugin_manager(cryptobox.plugins.base.CryptoBoxPlugin):
 			setting["requestAuth"] = True
 		else:
 			setting["requestAuth"] = False
-		self.cbox.prefs.plugin_conf[name] = setting
 
diff --git a/src/cryptobox/core/container.py b/src/cryptobox/core/container.py
index c5e977a..106e277 100644
--- a/src/cryptobox/core/container.py
+++ b/src/cryptobox/core/container.py
@@ -673,7 +673,8 @@ class CryptoBoxContainer:
 		time.sleep(3)
 		## if the thread exited very fast, then it failed
 		if not bg_task.isAlive():
-			raise CBCreateError("Failed to initialize device: %s" % self.device)
+			raise CBCreateError("formatting of device (%s) failed out " % self.device \
+					+ "of unknown reasons")
 
 
 	def __create_luks(self, password, fs_type="ext3"):
@@ -769,7 +770,8 @@ class CryptoBoxContainer:
 		time.sleep(3)
 		## if the thread exited very fast, then it failed
 		if not bg_task.isAlive():
-			raise CBCreateError("Failed to initilize device: %s" % self.device)
+			raise CBCreateError("formatting of device (%s) failed out " % self.device \
+					+ "of unknown reasons")
 
 
 	def __clean_mount_dirs(self):
diff --git a/src/cryptobox/plugins/base.py b/src/cryptobox/plugins/base.py
index 7f1797d..01b4075 100644
--- a/src/cryptobox/plugins/base.py
+++ b/src/cryptobox/plugins/base.py
@@ -197,14 +197,9 @@ class CryptoBoxPlugin:
 		first step: check plugin configuration
 		second step: check default value of plugin
 		"""
-		try:
-			if self.prefs["requestAuth"] is None:
-				return self.request_auth
-			if self.prefs["requestAuth"]:
-				return True
-			else:
-				return False
-		except KeyError:
+		if ("requestAuth" in self.prefs) and (not self.prefs["requestAuth"] is None):
+			return bool(self.prefs["requestAuth"])
+		else:
 			return self.request_auth
 
 
@@ -213,13 +208,10 @@ class CryptoBoxPlugin:
 		first step: check plugin configuration
 		second step: check default value of plugin
 		"""
-		fallback = bool(self.plugin_visibility)
-		try:
-			if self.prefs["visibility"] is None:
-				return fallback
+		if ("visibility" in self.prefs) and (not self.prefs["visibility"] is None):
 			return bool(self.prefs["visibility"])
-		except KeyError:
-			return fallback
+		else:
+			return bool(self.plugin_visibility)
 
 
 	def get_rank(self):
@@ -227,11 +219,9 @@ class CryptoBoxPlugin:
 		first step: check plugin configuration
 		second step: check default value of plugin
 		"""
-		try:
-			if self.prefs["rank"] is None:
-				return int(self.rank)
+		if ("rank" in self.prefs) and (not self.prefs["rank"] is None):
 			return int(self.prefs["rank"])
-		except (KeyError, TypeError):
+		else:
 			return int(self.rank)