diff --git a/lib/libspl/os/freebsd/getmntany.c b/lib/libspl/os/freebsd/getmntany.c
index b41e763cee..0ef24059e8 100644
--- a/lib/libspl/os/freebsd/getmntany.c
+++ b/lib/libspl/os/freebsd/getmntany.c
@@ -37,10 +37,6 @@
 #include <sys/stat.h>
 #include <unistd.h>
 
-#define	BUFSIZE	(MNT_LINE_MAX + 2)
-
-__thread char buf[BUFSIZE];
-
 int
 getextmntent(const char *path, struct extmnttab *entry, struct stat64 *statbuf)
 {
diff --git a/lib/libzfs/libzfs_util.c b/lib/libzfs/libzfs_util.c
index 651bca2978..a457fbfd06 100644
--- a/lib/libzfs/libzfs_util.c
+++ b/lib/libzfs/libzfs_util.c
@@ -1010,8 +1010,7 @@ libzfs_init(void)
 	int error;
 	char *env;
 
-	error = libzfs_load_module();
-	if (error) {
+	if ((error = libzfs_load_module()) != 0) {
 		errno = error;
 		return (NULL);
 	}
diff --git a/lib/libzfs/os/freebsd/libzfs_compat.c b/lib/libzfs/os/freebsd/libzfs_compat.c
index 037ba56efe..2de90c7cee 100644
--- a/lib/libzfs/os/freebsd/libzfs_compat.c
+++ b/lib/libzfs/os/freebsd/libzfs_compat.c
@@ -176,11 +176,26 @@ execvpe(const char *name, char * const argv[], char * const envp[])
 	return (execvPe(name, path, argv, envp));
 }
 
+#define	ERRBUFLEN 256
+
+__thread static char errbuf[ERRBUFLEN];
+
 const char *
 libzfs_error_init(int error)
 {
+	char *msg = errbuf;
+	size_t len, msglen = ERRBUFLEN;
 
-	return (strerror(error));
+	if (modfind("zfs") < 0) {
+		len = snprintf(msg, msglen, dgettext(TEXT_DOMAIN,
+		    "Failed to load %s module: "), ZFS_KMOD);
+		msg += len;
+		msglen -= len;
+	}
+
+	(void) snprintf(msg, msglen, "%s", strerror(error));
+
+	return (errbuf);
 }
 
 int
@@ -193,10 +208,6 @@ zfs_ioctl(libzfs_handle_t *hdl, int request, zfs_cmd_t *zc)
  * Verify the required ZFS_DEV device is available and optionally attempt
  * to load the ZFS modules.  Under normal circumstances the modules
  * should already have been loaded by some external mechanism.
- *
- * Environment variables:
- * - ZFS_MODULE_LOADING="YES|yes|ON|on" - Attempt to load modules.
- * - ZFS_MODULE_TIMEOUT="<seconds>"     - Seconds to wait for ZFS_DEV
  */
 int
 libzfs_load_module(void)