diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index 08596afa7..f44f50db3 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -14,6 +14,10 @@ For a complete change history, see the SVN log.
 Mapnik 2.0.1
 ------------
 
+- Fixed SQLite open stability across platforms/versions (#854)
+
+- Fixed `mapnik-config --version` (#903)
+
 - Switched back to "libmapnik" and "import mapnik" rather than "mapnik2" (#941)
 
 - Support for PostGIS 2.0 (#956,#1083)
@@ -28,7 +32,7 @@ Mapnik 2.0.1
 
 - Restored Python 2.5 compatibility (#904)
 
-- Fixed ability to save to jpeg format from python (7387afd9)
+- Fixed ability to save to jpeg format from python (7387afd9) (#896)
 
 
 Mapnik 2.0.0
@@ -238,8 +242,6 @@ Mapnik 0.7.0 Release
 
 - Python: Fixed potential crash if pycairo support is enabled but python-cairo module is missing (#392)
 
-- Python: Added 'mapnik.mapnik_svn_revision()' function to svn revision of Mapnik was compiled at.
-
 - Python: Added 'mapnik.has_pycairo()' function to test for pycairo support (r1278) (#284)
 
 - Python: Added 'mapnik.register_plugins()' and 'mapnik.register_fonts()' functions (r1256)
diff --git a/plugins/input/sqlite/sqlite_types.hpp b/plugins/input/sqlite/sqlite_types.hpp
index 75767ee59..e73e76b29 100644
--- a/plugins/input/sqlite/sqlite_types.hpp
+++ b/plugins/input/sqlite/sqlite_types.hpp
@@ -142,27 +142,26 @@ public:
     sqlite_connection (const std::string& file)
         : db_(0)
     {
-        // sqlite3_open_v2 is available earlier but 
-        // shared cache not available until >= 3.6.18
-        #if SQLITE_VERSION_NUMBER >= 3006018
-        int rc = sqlite3_enable_shared_cache(1);
+#if SQLITE_VERSION_NUMBER >= 3005000
+        int mode = SQLITE_OPEN_READWRITE;
+#if SQLITE_VERSION_NUMBER >= 3006018
+        // shared cache flag not available until >= 3.6.18
+        mode |= SQLITE_OPEN_NOMUTEX | SQLITE_OPEN_SHAREDCACHE;
+#endif
+        const int rc = sqlite3_open_v2 (file_.c_str(), &db_, mode, 0);
+#else
+#warning "Mapnik's sqlite plugin is compiling against a version of sqlite older than 3.5.x which may make rendering slow..."
+        const int rc = sqlite3_open (file_.c_str(), &db_);
+#endif
         if (rc != SQLITE_OK)
-        {
-           throw mapnik::datasource_exception (sqlite3_errmsg (db_));
-        }
-        
-        int mode = SQLITE_OPEN_READWRITE | SQLITE_OPEN_NOMUTEX | SQLITE_OPEN_SHAREDCACHE;
-        if (sqlite3_open_v2 (file.c_str(), &db_, mode, NULL))
-        #else
-        #warning "Mapnik's sqlite plugin is compiling against a version of sqlite older than 3.6.18 which may make rendering slow..."
-        if (sqlite3_open (file.c_str(), &db_))
-        #endif
         {
             std::ostringstream s;
-            s << "Sqlite Plugin: ";
-            throw mapnik::datasource_exception (sqlite3_errmsg (db_));
+            s << "Sqlite Plugin: " << sqlite3_errmsg (db_);
+
+            throw mapnik::datasource_exception (s.str());
         }
-        //sqlite3_enable_load_extension(db_, 1);
+
+        sqlite3_busy_timeout(db_,5000);
     }
 
     ~sqlite_connection ()