diff --git a/hw/i386/pc.c b/hw/i386/pc.c
index b5b660f941..77198d5f71 100644
--- a/hw/i386/pc.c
+++ b/hw/i386/pc.c
@@ -1045,7 +1045,14 @@ static void x86_load_linux(PCMachineState *pcms,
 
     /* load the kernel header */
     f = fopen(kernel_filename, "rb");
-    if (!f || !(kernel_size = get_file_size(f)) ||
+    if (!f) {
+        fprintf(stderr, "qemu: could not open kernel file '%s': %s\n",
+                kernel_filename, strerror(errno));
+        exit(1);
+    }
+
+    kernel_size = get_file_size(f);
+    if (!kernel_size ||
         fread(header, 1, MIN(ARRAY_SIZE(header), kernel_size), f) !=
         MIN(ARRAY_SIZE(header), kernel_size)) {
         fprintf(stderr, "qemu: could not load kernel '%s': %s\n",