diff --git a/doc/test/customize.txt b/doc/test/customize.txt
index d0f82d3f6..8a1fd5808 100644
--- a/doc/test/customize.txt
+++ b/doc/test/customize.txt
@@ -353,6 +353,26 @@ Python module.  The return value is a custom `collection node`_ or None.
 .. XXX or ``False`` if you want to indicate that the given item should not be collected. 
 
 
+Gateway initialization (distributed testing)
+----------------------------------------------------
+
+(alpha) For distributed testing it can be useful to prepare the
+remote environment.  For this you can implement the newgateway hook:
+
+.. sourcecode:: python
+
+    def pytest_gwmanage_newgateway(gateway, platinfo):
+        """ called after a gateway is instantiated. """
+
+The ``gateway`` object here has a ``spec`` attribute which is an ``py.execnet.XSpec`` 
+object, which has attributes that map key/values as specified from a ``--txspec``
+option. The platinfo object is a dictionary with information about the remote process: 
+
+* ``version``: remote python's ``sys.version_info`` 
+* ``platform``: remote ``sys.platform``
+* ``cwd``: remote ``os.getcwd``
+
+
 .. _`collection process`: 
 .. _`collection node`: 
 .. _`test collection`:
diff --git a/testing/execnet/conftest.py b/testing/execnet/conftest.py
index 6c14134d3..056d5397b 100644
--- a/testing/execnet/conftest.py
+++ b/testing/execnet/conftest.py
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ def pytest_generate_tests(metafunc):
             metafunc.addcall(id=gwtype, param=gwtype)
 
 def pytest_funcarg__gw(request):
-    scope = "module"
+    scope = "session" # XXX module causes problems with -n 3!
     if request.param == "popen":
         return request.cached_setup(
                 setup=py.execnet.PopenGateway,