diff --git a/tools/catalog-local.js b/tools/catalog-local.js
index 0dd8a752fe..f84fdfa302 100644
--- a/tools/catalog-local.js
+++ b/tools/catalog-local.js
@@ -49,10 +49,6 @@ var LocalCatalog = function (options) {
 
   self.packageSources = null;
   self.built = null;
-
-  //???? PASCAL Do we need those
-  self.refreshing = false;
-  self.needRefresh = false;
 };
 
 _.extend(LocalCatalog.prototype, {
@@ -205,7 +201,7 @@ _.extend(LocalCatalog.prototype, {
     // one, in case our local cache says "version exists but only for the wrong
     // arch" and the right arch has been recently published.
     // XXX should ensure at most one refresh
-    // PASCAL - check with Ekate
+    // PASCAL - check with Ekate that it is ok to not explicitely refresh again
     var allBuilds = _.where(self.builds, { versionId: versionInfo._id });
     var solution = null;
     utils.generateSubsetsOfIncreasingSize(allBuilds, function (buildSubset) {
@@ -278,18 +274,9 @@ _.extend(LocalCatalog.prototype, {
   // and self.localPackages.
   _recomputeEffectiveLocalPackages: function () {
     var self = this;
-    // console.log("refrehsing for " + self.localPackageDirs);
 
     self.effectiveLocalPackages = _.clone(self.localPackages);
 
-    //PASCAL Does this still applies?
-    // XXX If this is the forUniload catalog, we should only consider
-    // uniload.ROOT_PACKAGES and their dependencies. Unfortunately, that takes a
-    // fair amount of refactoring (since we don't know dependencies until we
-    // start reading them).  So for now, the uniload catalog (in checkout mode)
-    // does include information about all the packages in the meteor repo, not
-    // just the ones that can be uniloaded. (But it doesn't contain information
-    // about app packages!)
     _.each(self.localPackageDirs, function (localPackageDir) {
       if (! utils.isDirectory(localPackageDir))
         return;
diff --git a/tools/catalog-remote.js b/tools/catalog-remote.js
index e0628fbd08..9ca82f58f0 100644
--- a/tools/catalog-remote.js
+++ b/tools/catalog-remote.js
@@ -168,7 +168,8 @@ _.extend(RemoteCatalog.prototype, {
     future.wait();
   },
 
-  purgeDB: function () {
+  // This function empties the DB. This is called from the package-client.
+  reset: function () {
     var self = this;
     var future = new Future;
     self.db.serialize(function() {
@@ -214,7 +215,7 @@ _.extend(RemoteCatalog.prototype, {
     }
     if (updateResult.resetData) {
       tropohouse.default.wipeAllPackages();
-      self.purgeDB();
+      self.reset();
     }
 
   },
@@ -261,10 +262,10 @@ _.extend(RemoteCatalog.prototype, {
     return false;
   },
 
-  _queryWithRetry: function (query, values) {
+  _queryWithRetry: function (query, values, options) {
     var self = this;
     var result = self._justQuery(query, values);
-    if (result.length !== 0)
+    if ( result.length !== 0 || ( options && options.noRetry ) )
       return result;
     self.refresh();
     return self._justQuery(query, values);
@@ -291,8 +292,8 @@ _.extend(RemoteCatalog.prototype, {
 
   // Execute a query using the values as arguments of the query and return the result as JSON.
   // This code assumes that the table being queried always have a column called "entity"
-  _queryAsJSON: function (query, values) {
-    var rows = this._queryWithRetry(query, values);
+  _queryAsJSON: function (query, values, options) {
+    var rows = this._queryWithRetry(query, values, options);
     return _.map(rows, function(entity) {
         return JSON.parse(entity.content);
     });
@@ -381,7 +382,7 @@ _.extend(RemoteCatalog.prototype, {
 
   getSyncToken : function() {
     var self = this;
-    var result = self._queryAsJSON("SELECT content FROM syncToken", []);
+    var result = self._queryAsJSON("SELECT content FROM syncToken", [], { noRetry: true });
     if (!result || result.length === 0)
       return {};
     delete result[0]._id;