diff --git a/net.c b/net.c
index 1922d8abd19cdb4e45d6b1fd9a067b2fb9a506de..f5d9cc75b8e36984fb1877b2c9fb4e71baa30f73 100644
--- a/net.c
+++ b/net.c
@@ -1136,10 +1136,14 @@ int net_client_init(Monitor *mon, QemuOpts *opts, int is_netdev)
     for (i = 0; i < NET_CLIENT_TYPE_MAX; i++) {
         if (net_client_types[i].type != NULL &&
             !strcmp(net_client_types[i].type, type)) {
+            Error *local_err = NULL;
             VLANState *vlan = NULL;
             int ret;
 
-            if (qemu_opts_validate(opts, &net_client_types[i].desc[0]) == -1) {
+            qemu_opts_validate(opts, &net_client_types[i].desc[0], &local_err);
+            if (error_is_set(&local_err)) {
+                qerror_report_err(local_err);
+                error_free(local_err);
                 return -1;
             }
 
diff --git a/qemu-option.c b/qemu-option.c
index 6d3697003b99e46405f916000825658b67c119d5..eee3b45d23f58f3bfa876f9606c83de6f3ad11a8 100644
--- a/qemu-option.c
+++ b/qemu-option.c
@@ -1041,7 +1041,7 @@ QDict *qemu_opts_to_qdict(QemuOpts *opts, QDict *qdict)
 /* Validate parsed opts against descriptions where no
  * descriptions were provided in the QemuOptsList.
  */
-int qemu_opts_validate(QemuOpts *opts, const QemuOptDesc *desc)
+void qemu_opts_validate(QemuOpts *opts, const QemuOptDesc *desc, Error **errp)
 {
     QemuOpt *opt;
     Error *local_err = NULL;
@@ -1057,21 +1057,18 @@ int qemu_opts_validate(QemuOpts *opts, const QemuOptDesc *desc)
             }
         }
         if (desc[i].name == NULL) {
-            qerror_report(QERR_INVALID_PARAMETER, opt->name);
-            return -1;
+            error_set(errp, QERR_INVALID_PARAMETER, opt->name);
+            return;
         }
 
         opt->desc = &desc[i];
 
         qemu_opt_parse(opt, &local_err);
         if (error_is_set(&local_err)) {
-            qerror_report_err(local_err);
-            error_free(local_err);
-            return -1;
+            error_propagate(errp, local_err);
+            return;
         }
     }
-
-    return 0;
 }
 
 int qemu_opts_foreach(QemuOptsList *list, qemu_opts_loopfunc func, void *opaque,
diff --git a/qemu-option.h b/qemu-option.h
index 4d5b3d3f4261a3ca63fa9a7dea08f755f83ea3a6..e9fbbb56b69c00df6fa8a18f57276760818d95c3 100644
--- a/qemu-option.h
+++ b/qemu-option.h
@@ -125,7 +125,7 @@ int qemu_opts_set(QemuOptsList *list, const char *id,
                   const char *name, const char *value);
 const char *qemu_opts_id(QemuOpts *opts);
 void qemu_opts_del(QemuOpts *opts);
-int qemu_opts_validate(QemuOpts *opts, const QemuOptDesc *desc);
+void qemu_opts_validate(QemuOpts *opts, const QemuOptDesc *desc, Error **errp);
 int qemu_opts_do_parse(QemuOpts *opts, const char *params, const char *firstname);
 QemuOpts *qemu_opts_parse(QemuOptsList *list, const char *params, int permit_abbrev);
 void qemu_opts_set_defaults(QemuOptsList *list, const char *params,