diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index a860aaa5b7e..d010a8370b5 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -277,6 +277,8 @@ after_success:
       du . | sort -nr | head -n100
 
 after_failure:
+  # Requested by travis to debug "shutting down NOW" errors
+  - sudo tail -n 500 /var/log/syslog
   - >
       echo "#### Build failed; Disk usage after running script:";
       df -h;