diff --git a/src/common/librlist/rhwloc.c b/src/common/librlist/rhwloc.c
index 45badacc7183..20f006e6ffc9 100644
--- a/src/common/librlist/rhwloc.c
+++ b/src/common/librlist/rhwloc.c
@@ -60,13 +60,24 @@ static int init_topo_from_xml (hwloc_topology_t *tp,
                                const char *xml,
                                unsigned long flags)
 {
-    if ((topo_init_common (tp, flags) < 0)
-        || (hwloc_topology_set_xmlbuffer (*tp, xml, strlen (xml)) < 0)
-        || (hwloc_topology_load (*tp) < 0)) {
-        hwloc_topology_destroy (*tp);
-        return (-1);
+    int len = strlen (xml) + 1;
+
+    if (topo_init_common (tp, flags) < 0)
+        return -1;
+    if (hwloc_topology_set_xmlbuffer (*tp, xml, len) < 0) {
+        /* In some versions of hwloc/libxml, the NUL character on the XML
+         * buffer cannot be included in len. Therefore, if set_xmlbuffer fails
+         * above, retry with len-1.
+         */
+        if (hwloc_topology_set_xmlbuffer (*tp, xml, len - 1) < 0)
+            goto error;
     }
-    return (0);
+    if (hwloc_topology_load (*tp) < 0)
+        goto error;
+    return 0;
+error:
+    hwloc_topology_destroy (*tp);
+    return -1;
 }
 
 static int topo_restrict (hwloc_topology_t topo)