diff --git a/0001-allow-kojid-to-start-when-not-using-ssl-cert-auth.patch b/0001-allow-kojid-to-start-when-not-using-ssl-cert-auth.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..08d2ddc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/0001-allow-kojid-to-start-when-not-using-ssl-cert-auth.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+From 952465a544a0243b6112a10bfcfdffb1ad081fab Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
+From: Dennis Gilmore <dennis@ausil.us>
+Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2017 14:51:19 -0500
+Subject: [PATCH] allow kojid to start when not using ssl cert auth
+
+kojid in koji 1.12.0 fails to start when not using ssl cert auth
+Traceback (most recent call last):
+   File "/usr/sbin/kojid", line 5627, in <module>
+     if os.path.isfile(options.cert):
+   File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/genericpath.py", line 37, in isfile
+     st = os.stat(path)
+ TypeError: coercing to Unicode: need string or buffer, NoneType found
+if you do not have a cert option defined we should move on. so add
+to the if statement a check that the option is actually defined
+
+Signed-off-by: Dennis Gilmore <dennis@ausil.us>
+---
+ builder/kojid | 2 +-
+ 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
+
+diff --git a/builder/kojid b/builder/kojid
+index 6f3837a..dd46d4a 100755
+--- a/builder/kojid
++++ b/builder/kojid
+@@ -5624,7 +5624,7 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
+     #start a session and login
+     session_opts = koji.grab_session_options(options)
+     session = koji.ClientSession(options.server, session_opts)
+-    if os.path.isfile(options.cert):
++    if options.cert and os.path.isfile(options.cert):
+         try:
+             # authenticate using SSL client certificates
+             session.ssl_login(options.cert, None,
+-- 
+2.12.2
+
diff --git a/koji.spec b/koji.spec
index ce04481..482c315 100644
--- a/koji.spec
+++ b/koji.spec
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 
 Name: koji
 Version: 1.12.0
-Release: 1%{?dist}
+Release: 2%{?dist}
 # koji.ssl libs (from plague) are GPLv2+
 License: LGPLv2 and GPLv2+
 Summary: Build system tools
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ Group: Applications/System
 URL: https://pagure.io/koji/
 Source0: https://releases.pagure.org/koji/koji-%{version}.tar.bz2
 
+Patch1: 0001-allow-kojid-to-start-when-not-using-ssl-cert-auth.patch
 # Not upstreamable
 Patch100: fedora-config.patch
 
@@ -154,6 +155,7 @@ koji-web is a web UI to the Koji system.
 
 %prep
 %setup -q
+%patch1 -p1 -b
 %patch100 -p1 -b .fedoraconfig
 
 %build
@@ -323,6 +325,9 @@ fi
 %endif
 
 %changelog
+* Wed Apr 19 2017 Dennis Gilmore <dennis@ausil.us> - 1.12.0-2
+- add patch so that kojid starts without ssl auth configured
+
 * Tue Apr 18 2017 Dennis Gilmore <dennis@ausil.us> - 1.12.0-1
 - update to upstream 1.12.0
 - remove rhel 5 conditionals as its no longer supported in epel