diff --git a/packages/genodelabs/targets.nix b/packages/genodelabs/targets.nix
index 10bb479..c8c896b 100644
--- a/packages/genodelabs/targets.nix
+++ b/packages/genodelabs/targets.nix
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ in {
 
   gpt_write.portInputs = [ jitterentropy ];
 
-  init.patches = [ ./sandbox.patch ];
+  init.patches = [ ./sandbox.patch ./xml-fail.patch ];
 
   event_filter.patches = [ ./event_filter.patch ];
 
@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ in {
   vesa_drv.portInputs = [ libc x86emu ];
 
   vfs.outputs = [ "out" "lib" ];
-  vfs_audit = {};
+  vfs_audit = { };
   vfs_block = { };
   vfs_import.patches = [ ./vfs_import.patch ];
   vfs_jitterentropy.portInputs = [ jitterentropy libc ];
diff --git a/packages/genodelabs/xml-fail.patch b/packages/genodelabs/xml-fail.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7f17e6b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/genodelabs/xml-fail.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+From 3898cf557ada28312731292074a8a09621d45abb Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
+From: Emery Hemingway <ehmry@posteo.net>
+Date: Sat, 7 Nov 2020 13:49:41 +0100
+Subject: [PATCH] init: log error when configuration cannot be parsed
+
+---
+ repos/os/src/init/main.cc | 4 ++++
+ 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+)
+
+diff --git a/repos/os/src/init/main.cc b/repos/os/src/init/main.cc
+index 7b69c95721..f1c1a1435a 100644
+--- a/repos/os/src/init/main.cc
++++ b/repos/os/src/init/main.cc
+@@ -47,6 +47,10 @@ struct Init::Main : Sandbox::State_handler
+ 		_config.update();
+ 
+ 		Xml_node const config = _config.xml();
++		if (config.has_type("empty")) {
++			error("failed to parse config ROM");
++			return;
++		};
+ 
+ 		bool reporter_enabled = false;
+ 		config.with_sub_node("report", [&] (Xml_node report) {
+-- 
+2.28.0
+