diff --git a/bin/cpu-count b/bin/cpu-count
index 5f4f9b9a..42b052f7 100755
--- a/bin/cpu-count
+++ b/bin/cpu-count
@@ -18,8 +18,7 @@
 #    along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 
 count=`grep -c "^processor.*:" /proc/cpuinfo`
-[ "$count" = "1" ] || echo $count"x"
+[ "$count" = "1" ] || printf "%sx" "$count"
 if [ "$1" = "--detail" ]; then
-	echo
 	exit 0
 fi
diff --git a/bin/updates-available b/bin/updates-available
index 18cb7517..13b9d61d 100755
--- a/bin/updates-available
+++ b/bin/updates-available
@@ -19,7 +19,12 @@
 
 if [ "$1" = "--detail" ]; then
 	if [ -x "/usr/bin/apt-get" ]; then
-		/usr/bin/apt-get -s -o Debug::NoLocking=true upgrade | grep ^Inst | sed "s/^Inst //"
+		out=`/usr/bin/apt-get -s -o Debug::NoLocking=true upgrade | grep ^Inst | sed "s/^Inst //"`
+		if [ -z "$out" ]; then
+			printf "None"
+		else
+			printf "$out"
+		fi
 	fi
 	exit 0
 fi