diff --git a/docs/logging.html.in b/docs/logging.html.in
index 5ff9c157f3520dae65b04454aacb1197e967f0e8..a8cb53846e03006b4adfd5b065b76f42e19c06d6 100644
--- a/docs/logging.html.in
+++ b/docs/logging.html.in
@@ -179,6 +179,50 @@
       <dd>The libvirt error code (values from virErrorCode enum), if LIBVIRT_SOURCE="error"</dd>
     </dl>
 
+    <h3><a name="journaldids">Well known message ID values</a></h3>
+
+    <p>
+      Certain areas of the code will emit log records tagged with well known
+      unique id values, which are guaranteed never to change in the future.
+      This allows applications to identify critical log events without doing
+      string matching on the <code>MESSAGE</code> field.
+    </p>
+
+    <dl>
+      <dt><code>MESSAGE_ID=8ae2f3fb-2dbe-498e-8fbd-012d40afa361</code></dt>
+      <dd>Generated by the QEMU driver when it identifies a QEMU system
+        emulator binary, but is unable to extract information about its
+        capabilities. This is usually an indicator of a broken QEMU
+        build or installation. When this is emitted, the <code>LIBVIRT_QEMU_BINARY</code>
+        message field will provide the full path of the QEMU binary that failed.
+      </dd>
+    </dl>
+
+    <p>
+      The <code>journalctl</code> command can be used to search the journal
+      matching on specific message ID values
+    </p>
+
+    <pre>
+ $ journalctl MESSAGE_ID=8ae2f3fb-2dbe-498e-8fbd-012d40afa361 --output=json
+ { ...snip...
+   "LIBVIRT_SOURCE" : "file",
+   "PRIORITY" : "3",
+   "CODE_FILE" : "qemu/qemu_capabilities.c",
+   "CODE_LINE" : "2770",
+   "CODE_FUNC" : "virQEMUCapsLogProbeFailure",
+   "MESSAGE_ID" : "8ae2f3fb-2dbe-498e-8fbd-012d40afa361",
+   "LIBVIRT_QEMU_BINARY" : "/bin/qemu-system-xtensa",
+   "MESSAGE" : "Failed to probe capabilities for /bin/qemu-system-xtensa:" \
+               "internal error: Child process (LC_ALL=C LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/berrange" \
+               "/src/virt/libvirt/src/.libs PATH=/usr/lib64/ccache:/usr/local/sbin:" \
+               "/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/root/bin HOME=/root " \
+               "USER=root LOGNAME=root /bin/qemu-system-xtensa -help) unexpected " \
+               "exit status 127: /bin/qemu-system-xtensa: error while loading shared " \
+               "libraries: libglapi.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such " \
+               "file or directory\n" }
+    </pre>
+
     <h2>
       <a name="log_examples">Examples</a>
     </h2>
diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_capabilities.c b/src/qemu/qemu_capabilities.c
index d618b3fd9cbf45b218a8690101aaf1253ba55426..76a8c7359c06c47c86f496b34229a34354f5bcc1 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_capabilities.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_capabilities.c
@@ -2754,6 +2754,28 @@ cleanup:
 }
 
 
+#define MESSAGE_ID_CAPS_PROBE_FAILURE "8ae2f3fb-2dbe-498e-8fbd-012d40afa361"
+
+static void
+virQEMUCapsLogProbeFailure(const char *binary)
+{
+    virLogMetadata meta[] = {
+        { .key = "MESSAGE_ID", .s = MESSAGE_ID_CAPS_PROBE_FAILURE, .iv = 0 },
+        { .key = "LIBVIRT_QEMU_BINARY", .s = binary, .iv = 0 },
+        { .key = NULL },
+    };
+    virErrorPtr err = virGetLastError();
+
+    virLogMessage(VIR_LOG_FROM_FILE,
+                  VIR_LOG_WARN,
+                  __FILE__, __LINE__, __func__,
+                  meta,
+                  _("Failed to probe capabilities for %s: %s"),
+                  binary, err && err->message ? err->message :
+                  _("unknown failure"));
+}
+
+
 virQEMUCapsPtr virQEMUCapsNewForBinary(const char *binary,
                                        const char *libDir,
                                        uid_t runUid,
@@ -2785,12 +2807,16 @@ virQEMUCapsPtr virQEMUCapsNewForBinary(const char *binary,
         goto error;
     }
 
-    if ((rv = virQEMUCapsInitQMP(qemuCaps, libDir, runUid, runGid)) < 0)
+    if ((rv = virQEMUCapsInitQMP(qemuCaps, libDir, runUid, runGid)) < 0) {
+        virQEMUCapsLogProbeFailure(binary);
         goto error;
+    }
 
     if (!qemuCaps->usedQMP &&
-        virQEMUCapsInitHelp(qemuCaps, runUid, runGid) < 0)
+        virQEMUCapsInitHelp(qemuCaps, runUid, runGid) < 0) {
+        virQEMUCapsLogProbeFailure(binary);
         goto error;
+    }
 
     return qemuCaps;