diff --git a/vl.c b/vl.c
index d451f45dc5..a37dfe4684 100644
--- a/vl.c
+++ b/vl.c
@@ -4134,6 +4134,12 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv, char **envp)
     }
 
     if (is_daemonized()) {
+        if (!preconfig_exit_requested) {
+            error_report("'preconfig' and 'daemonize' options are "
+                         "mutually exclusive");
+            exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
+        }
+
         /* According to documentation and historically, -nographic redirects
          * serial port, parallel port and monitor to stdio, which does not work
          * with -daemonize.  We can redirect these to null instead, but since