diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/net/msg_zerocopy.c b/tools/testing/selftests/net/msg_zerocopy.c
index 406cc70c571dea0c1bfef19165e8cfa251a2cf39..c539591937a17412e819ea2df7e599f8c503c309 100644
--- a/tools/testing/selftests/net/msg_zerocopy.c
+++ b/tools/testing/selftests/net/msg_zerocopy.c
@@ -125,9 +125,8 @@ static int do_setcpu(int cpu)
 	CPU_ZERO(&mask);
 	CPU_SET(cpu, &mask);
 	if (sched_setaffinity(0, sizeof(mask), &mask))
-		error(1, 0, "setaffinity %d", cpu);
-
-	if (cfg_verbose)
+		fprintf(stderr, "cpu: unable to pin, may increase variance.\n");
+	else if (cfg_verbose)
 		fprintf(stderr, "cpu: %u\n", cpu);
 
 	return 0;