diff --git a/hw/block/dataplane/virtio-blk.c b/hw/block/dataplane/virtio-blk.c
index b55188cb829a21abd9044b24df30ec77d6870693..5458f9d25f97856e5ee44e9b30cafc38b8384ce1 100644
--- a/hw/block/dataplane/virtio-blk.c
+++ b/hw/block/dataplane/virtio-blk.c
@@ -164,8 +164,8 @@ void virtio_blk_data_plane_create(VirtIODevice *vdev, VirtIOBlkConf *blk,
      * block jobs that can conflict.
      */
     if (bdrv_op_is_blocked(blk->conf.bs, BLOCK_OP_TYPE_DATAPLANE, &local_err)) {
-        error_report("cannot start dataplane thread: %s",
-                      error_get_pretty(local_err));
+        error_setg(errp, "cannot start dataplane thread: %s",
+                   error_get_pretty(local_err));
         error_free(local_err);
         return;
     }