diff --git a/hw/i386/pc_piix.c b/hw/i386/pc_piix.c
index 523baac6ed..2782e1d260 100644
--- a/hw/i386/pc_piix.c
+++ b/hw/i386/pc_piix.c
@@ -91,6 +91,11 @@ static void pc_init1(MemoryRegion *system_memory,
     DeviceState *icc_bridge;
     FWCfgState *fw_cfg = NULL;
 
+    if (xen_enabled() && xen_hvm_init() != 0) {
+        fprintf(stderr, "xen hardware virtual machine initialisation failed\n");
+        exit(1);
+    }
+
     icc_bridge = qdev_create(NULL, TYPE_ICC_BRIDGE);
     object_property_add_child(qdev_get_machine(), "icc-bridge",
                               OBJECT(icc_bridge), NULL);
@@ -320,9 +325,6 @@ static void pc_init_isa(QEMUMachineInitArgs *args)
 #ifdef CONFIG_XEN
 static void pc_xen_hvm_init(QEMUMachineInitArgs *args)
 {
-    if (xen_hvm_init() != 0) {
-        hw_error("xen hardware virtual machine initialisation failed");
-    }
     pc_init_pci(args);
 }
 #endif
diff --git a/xen-stub.c b/xen-stub.c
index 6f0516aa3e..47c8e73e0f 100644
--- a/xen-stub.c
+++ b/xen-stub.c
@@ -63,3 +63,8 @@ void qmp_xen_set_global_dirty_log(bool enable, Error **errp)
 void xen_modified_memory(ram_addr_t start, ram_addr_t length)
 {
 }
+
+int xen_hvm_init(void)
+{
+    return 0;
+}