diff --git a/lib/Cake/Console/Shell.php b/lib/Cake/Console/Shell.php
index a16dafe0d..08ee6bd1e 100644
--- a/lib/Cake/Console/Shell.php
+++ b/lib/Cake/Console/Shell.php
@@ -690,12 +690,14 @@ class Shell extends Object {
  * @return boolean Success
  */
 	protected function _checkUnitTest() {
-		if (App::import('Vendor', 'phpunit', array('file' => 'PHPUnit' . DS . 'Autoload.php'))) {
-			return true;
-		}
-		if (@include 'PHPUnit' . DS . 'Autoload.php') {
+		if (class_exists('PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase')) {
+			return true;
+		} elseif (@include 'PHPUnit' . DS . 'Autoload.php') {
+			return true;
+		} elseif (App::import('Vendor', 'phpunit', array('file' => 'PHPUnit' . DS . 'Autoload.php'))) {
 			return true;
 		}
+
 		$prompt = __d('cake_console', 'PHPUnit is not installed. Do you want to bake unit test files anyway?');
 		$unitTest = $this->in($prompt, array('y', 'n'), 'y');
 		$result = strtolower($unitTest) == 'y' || strtolower($unitTest) == 'yes';
diff --git a/lib/Cake/Model/Model.php b/lib/Cake/Model/Model.php
index 15dcf5743..bc3dea4c0 100644
--- a/lib/Cake/Model/Model.php
+++ b/lib/Cake/Model/Model.php
@@ -1129,9 +1129,7 @@ class Model extends Object implements CakeEventListener {
 		if (is_array($one)) {
 			$data = $one;
 			if (empty($one[$this->alias])) {
-				if ($this->getAssociated(key($one)) === null) {
-					$data = array($this->alias => $one);
-				}
+				$data = $this->_setAliasData($one);
 			}
 		} else {
 			$data = array($this->alias => array($one => $two));
@@ -1160,6 +1158,24 @@ class Model extends Object implements CakeEventListener {
 		return $data;
 	}
 
+/**
+ * Move values to alias
+ *
+ * @param array $data
+ * @return array
+ */
+	protected function _setAliasData($data) {
+		$models = array_keys($this->getAssociated());
+		$schema = array_keys($this->schema());
+		foreach ($data as $field => $value) {
+			if (in_array($field, $schema) || !in_array($field, $models)) {
+				$data[$this->alias][$field] = $value;
+				unset($data[$field]);
+			}
+		}
+		return $data;
+	}
+
 /**
  * Normalize Xml::toArray() to use in Model::save()
  *
@@ -2118,7 +2134,8 @@ class Model extends Object implements CakeEventListener {
 			if ($options['deep']) {
 				$validates = $this->validateAssociated($record, $options);
 			} else {
-				$validates = $this->create($record) && $this->validates($options);
+				$this->create(null);
+				$validates = $this->set($record) && $this->validates($options);
 				$data[$key] = $this->data;
 			}
 			if ($validates === false || (is_array($validates) && in_array(false, $validates, true))) {
@@ -2318,20 +2335,18 @@ class Model extends Object implements CakeEventListener {
 	public function validateAssociated(&$data, $options = array()) {
 		$options = array_merge(array('atomic' => true, 'deep' => false), $options);
 		$this->validationErrors = $validationErrors = $return = array();
-		if (!($this->create($data) && $this->validates($options))) {
+		$this->create(null);
+		if (!($this->set($data) && $this->validates($options))) {
 			$validationErrors[$this->alias] = $this->validationErrors;
 			$return[$this->alias] = false;
 		} else {
 			$return[$this->alias] = true;
 		}
-
-		if (empty($options['deep'])) {
-			$data = $this->data;
-		} else {
-			$modelData = $this->data;
-			$recordData = $modelData[$this->alias];
-			unset($modelData[$this->alias]);
-			$data = $modelData + array_merge($data, $recordData);
+		$data = $this->data;
+		if (!empty($options['deep']) && isset($data[$this->alias])) {
+			$recordData = $data[$this->alias];
+			unset($data[$this->alias]);
+			$data = array_merge($data, $recordData);
 		}
 
 		$associations = $this->getAssociated();
diff --git a/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Model/ModelReadTest.php b/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Model/ModelReadTest.php
index 2d1d88591..58a2ff472 100644
--- a/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Model/ModelReadTest.php
+++ b/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Model/ModelReadTest.php
@@ -7868,7 +7868,7 @@ class ModelReadTest extends BaseModelTest {
 		$Article = new CustomArticle();
 		$data = array('user_id' => 3, 'title' => 'Fourth Article', 'body' => 'Article Body, unpublished', 'published' => 'N');
 		$Article->create($data);
-		$Article->save();
+		$Article->save(null, false);
 		$this->assertEquals(4, $Article->id);
 
 		$result = $Article->find('published');
diff --git a/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Model/ModelValidationTest.php b/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Model/ModelValidationTest.php
index caee7a392..67b0df78c 100644
--- a/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Model/ModelValidationTest.php
+++ b/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Model/ModelValidationTest.php
@@ -1054,22 +1054,34 @@ class ModelValidationTest extends BaseModelTest {
 		);
 		$result = $model->saveAll($data, array('validate' => 'first'));
 		$this->assertTrue($result);
+		$this->assertFalse($model->findMethods['unPublished'], 'beforeValidate was run twice');
 
-		$title = $model->field('title', array('body' => 'foo0'));
+		$model->findMethods['unPublished'] = true;
+		$data = array(
+			'CustomArticle' => array(
+				'body' => 'foo1'
+			)
+		);
+		$result = $model->saveAll($data, array('validate' => 'first', 'deep' => true));
+		$this->assertTrue($result);
+		$title = $model->field('title', array('body' => 'foo1'));
 		$this->assertEquals('foo', $title);
+		$this->assertFalse($model->findMethods['unPublished'], 'beforeValidate was run twice');
 
 		$data = array(
-			array('body' => 'foo1'),
 			array('body' => 'foo2'),
-			array('body' => 'foo3')
+			array('body' => 'foo3'),
+			array('body' => 'foo4')
 		);
 
 		$result = $model->saveAll($data, array('validate' => 'first'));
 		$this->assertTrue($result);
+		$result = $model->saveAll($data, array('validate' => 'first', 'deep' => true));
+		$this->assertTrue($result);
 
-		$this->assertEquals('foo', $model->field('title', array('body' => 'foo1')));
 		$this->assertEquals('foo', $model->field('title', array('body' => 'foo2')));
 		$this->assertEquals('foo', $model->field('title', array('body' => 'foo3')));
+		$this->assertEquals('foo', $model->field('title', array('body' => 'foo4')));
 	}
 
 /**
@@ -1078,7 +1090,7 @@ class ModelValidationTest extends BaseModelTest {
  *
  * @return void
  */
-	public function testValidateAssociatedWithBeforeValidate() {
+	public function testValidateFirstAssociatedWithBeforeValidate() {
 		$this->loadFixtures('Article', 'User');
 		$model = new CustomArticle();
 		$model->validate = array(
@@ -1108,4 +1120,49 @@ class ModelValidationTest extends BaseModelTest {
 		$this->assertEquals('foo', $model->field('title', array('body' => 'foo3')));
 	}
 
+/**
+ * testValidateFirstWithDefaults method
+ *
+ * return @void
+ */
+	public function testFirstWithDefaults() {
+		$this->loadFixtures('Article', 'Tag', 'Comment', 'User', 'ArticlesTag');
+		$TestModel = new Article();
+
+		$result = $TestModel->find('first', array(
+			'conditions' => array('Article.id' => 1)
+		));
+		$expected = array(
+			'Article' => array(
+				'id' => 1,
+				'user_id' => 1,
+				'title' => 'First Article',
+				'body' => 'First Article Body',
+				'published' => 'Y',
+				'created' => '2007-03-18 10:39:23'
+			),
+		);
+		unset($result['Article']['updated']);
+		$this->assertEquals($expected['Article'], $result['Article']);
+
+		$data = array(
+			'Article' => array(
+				'id' => 1,
+				'title' => 'First Article (modified)'
+			),
+			'Comment' => array(
+				array('comment' => 'Article comment', 'user_id' => 1)
+			)
+		);
+		$result = $TestModel->saveAll($data, array('validate' => 'first'));
+		$this->assertTrue($result);
+
+		$result = $TestModel->find('first', array(
+			'conditions' => array('Article.id' => 1)
+		));
+		$expected['Article']['title'] = 'First Article (modified)';
+		unset($result['Article']['updated']);
+		$this->assertEquals($expected['Article'], $result['Article']);
+	}
+
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Model/ModelWriteTest.php b/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Model/ModelWriteTest.php
index c0a3e3a52..d3ac545d7 100644
--- a/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Model/ModelWriteTest.php
+++ b/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Model/ModelWriteTest.php
@@ -4276,7 +4276,7 @@ class ModelWriteTest extends BaseModelTest {
 					'author_id' => '3',
 					'title' => 'Just update the title',
 					'body' => 'Second Post Body',
-					'published' => 'N',
+					'published' => 'Y',
 					'created' => '2007-03-18 10:41:23'
 			)),
 			array(
@@ -4365,7 +4365,7 @@ class ModelWriteTest extends BaseModelTest {
 					'author_id' => '3',
 					'title' => 'Just update the title',
 					'body' => 'Second Post Body',
-					'published' => 'N',
+					'published' => 'Y',
 					'created' => '2007-03-18 10:41:23'
 				)
 			),
@@ -4734,7 +4734,7 @@ class ModelWriteTest extends BaseModelTest {
 				'password' => '5f4dcc3b5aa765d61d8327deb882cf90'
 		)));
 
-		$result = $TestModel->find('all');
+		$result = $TestModel->find('all', array('order' => array('Post.id ' => 'ASC')));
 		$expected = array(
 			'Post' => array(
 				'id' => '4',
@@ -5631,7 +5631,7 @@ class ModelWriteTest extends BaseModelTest {
 					'author_id' => '3',
 					'title' => 'Just update the title',
 					'body' => 'Second Post Body',
-					'published' => 'N',
+					'published' => 'Y',
 					'created' => '2007-03-18 10:41:23'
 				)
 			),
@@ -5727,7 +5727,7 @@ class ModelWriteTest extends BaseModelTest {
 					'author_id' => '3',
 					'title' => 'Just update the title',
 					'body' => 'Second Post Body',
-					'published' => 'N',
+					'published' => 'Y',
 			)),
 			array(
 				'Post' => array(
diff --git a/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Model/models.php b/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Model/models.php
index fe0db80a2..e9e79a1b6 100644
--- a/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Model/models.php
+++ b/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Model/models.php
@@ -3119,7 +3119,7 @@ class TranslatedItem2 extends CakeTestModel {
 /**
  * translateModel property
  *
- * @var string 
+ * @var string
  */
 	public $translateModel = 'TranslateWithPrefix';
 
@@ -4975,6 +4975,11 @@ class CustomArticle extends AppModel {
  **/
 	public function beforeValidate($options = array()) {
 		$this->data[$this->alias]['title'] = 'foo';
+		if ($this->findMethods['unPublished'] === true) {
+			$this->findMethods['unPublished'] = false;
+		} else {
+			$this->findMethods['unPublished'] = 'true again';
+		}
 	}
 
 }
diff --git a/lib/Cake/TestSuite/templates/phpunit.php b/lib/Cake/TestSuite/templates/phpunit.php
index 2a3dc6e7f..ae111f762 100644
--- a/lib/Cake/TestSuite/templates/phpunit.php
+++ b/lib/Cake/TestSuite/templates/phpunit.php
@@ -25,13 +25,11 @@
 	<p>PHPUnit can be installed with pear, using the pear installer.</p>
 	<p>To install with the PEAR installer run the following commands:</p>
 	<ul>
-		<li><code>pear channel-discover pear.phpunit.de</code></li>
-		<li><code>pear channel-discover components.ez.no</code></li>
-		<li><code>pear channel-discover pear.symfony-project.com</code></li>
-		<li><code>pear install phpunit/PHPUnit-3.6.4</code></li>
+		<li><code>pear config-set auto_discover 1</code></li>
+		<li><code>pear install pear.phpunit.de/PHPUnit</code></li>
 	</ul>
 	<p>Once PHPUnit is installed make sure its located on PHP's <code>include_path</code> by checking your php.ini</p>
-	<p>For full instructions on how to <a href="http://www.phpunit.de/manual/current/en/installation.html">install PHPUnit, see the PHPUnit installation guide</a>.</p>
+	<p>For full instructions on how to <a href="http://www.phpunit.de/manual/current/en/installation.html" target="_blank">install PHPUnit, see the PHPUnit installation guide</a>.</p>
 	<p><a href="http://github.com/sebastianbergmann/phpunit" target="_blank">Download PHPUnit</a></p>
 </div>
 <?php