diff --git a/cmd/zdb/zdb.c b/cmd/zdb/zdb.c
index fb9c4be6f0..5aa9426e19 100644
--- a/cmd/zdb/zdb.c
+++ b/cmd/zdb/zdb.c
@@ -2330,7 +2330,7 @@ main(int argc, char **argv)
 
 	kernel_init(FREAD);
 	g_zfs = libzfs_init();
-	ASSERT(g_zfs != NULL);
+	VERIFY(g_zfs != NULL);
 
 	for (c = 0; c < 256; c++) {
 		if (dump_all && c != 'l' && c != 'R')
diff --git a/lib/libzfs/libzfs_util.c b/lib/libzfs/libzfs_util.c
index 2d4b6cb75b..65bb078196 100644
--- a/lib/libzfs/libzfs_util.c
+++ b/lib/libzfs/libzfs_util.c
@@ -560,16 +560,10 @@ libzfs_init(void)
 	}
 
 	if ((hdl->libzfs_fd = open(ZFS_DEV, O_RDWR)) < 0) {
-		/* XXX: Allow this failure on linux systems for now.  It
-		 * occurs when we attempt to open the /dev/zfs without the
-		 * ZFS module stack loaded.  This is normally a problem but
-		 * tools such as zdb call this function and never use the
-		 * ioctl() interface.  Long term this should be cleaned up.
-		 */
-		if (errno != ENXIO) {
-			free(hdl);
-			return (NULL);
-		}
+		(void) fprintf(stderr, "Unable to open %s: (%d) %s\n",
+			       ZFS_DEV, errno, strerror(errno));
+		free(hdl);
+		return (NULL);
 	}
 
 #ifdef HAVE_SETMNTENT
@@ -593,8 +587,7 @@ libzfs_init(void)
 void
 libzfs_fini(libzfs_handle_t *hdl)
 {
-	if (hdl->libzfs_fd != -1)
-		(void) close(hdl->libzfs_fd);
+	(void) close(hdl->libzfs_fd);
 	if (hdl->libzfs_mnttab)
 #ifdef HAVE_SETMNTENT
 		(void) endmntent(hdl->libzfs_mnttab);