diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index 033543b2e3..daea5f180f 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -588,6 +588,9 @@ Release 2.1.0-beta - UNRELEASED
     HDFS-4906. HDFS Output streams should not accept writes after being
     closed. (atm)
 
+    HDFS-4917. Start-dfs.sh cannot pass the parameters correctly.
+    (Fengdong Yu via suresh)
+
   BREAKDOWN OF HDFS-347 SUBTASKS AND RELATED JIRAS
 
     HDFS-4353. Encapsulate connections to peers in Peer and PeerServer classes.
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/bin/start-dfs.sh b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/bin/start-dfs.sh
index fb4edd069f..8cbea16aa6 100755
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/bin/start-dfs.sh
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/bin/start-dfs.sh
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ if [ $# -ge 1 ]; then
 fi
 
 #Add other possible options
-nameStartOpt="$nameStartOpts $@"
+nameStartOpt="$nameStartOpt $@"
 
 #---------------------------------------------------------
 # namenodes