diff --git a/apps/hott_telemetry/hott_telemetry_main.c b/apps/hott_telemetry/hott_telemetry_main.c
index d67ab06a98..31c9247aa5 100644
--- a/apps/hott_telemetry/hott_telemetry_main.c
+++ b/apps/hott_telemetry/hott_telemetry_main.c
@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@
 #include <stdio.h>
 #include <string.h>
 #include <termios.h>
+#include <sys/ioctl.h>
 #include <unistd.h>
 #include <systemlib/systemlib.h>
 
diff --git a/apps/mavlink/mavlink_receiver.c b/apps/mavlink/mavlink_receiver.c
index 9491ce7e3b..86732d07c0 100644
--- a/apps/mavlink/mavlink_receiver.c
+++ b/apps/mavlink/mavlink_receiver.c
@@ -587,12 +587,12 @@ receive_thread(void *arg)
 		struct pollfd fds[] = { { .fd = uart_fd, .events = POLLIN } };
 
 		if (poll(fds, 1, timeout) > 0) {
-			/* non-blocking read */
-			size_t nread = read(uart_fd, buf, sizeof(buf));
-			ASSERT(nread > 0)
+			/* non-blocking read. read may return negative values */
+			ssize_t nread = read(uart_fd, buf, sizeof(buf));
 
-			for (size_t i = 0; i < nread; i++) {
-				if (mavlink_parse_char(chan, buf[i], &msg, &status)) { //parse the char
+			/* if read failed, this loop won't execute */
+			for (ssize_t i = 0; i < nread; i++) {
+				if (mavlink_parse_char(chan, buf[i], &msg, &status)) {
 					/* handle generic messages and commands */
 					handle_message(&msg);