diff --git a/plugins/sysinfo/unix/pci.c b/plugins/sysinfo/unix/pci.c
index a887245c..10addf6f 100644
--- a/plugins/sysinfo/unix/pci.c
+++ b/plugins/sysinfo/unix/pci.c
@@ -92,6 +92,11 @@ int pci_find_by_class(u16 *class, char *vendor, char *device)
 	struct pci_dev *p;
 	int nomatch = 1;
 
+	/* libpci has no way to report errors it calls exit()
+	 * so we need to manually avoid potential failures like this one */
+	if (!g_file_test ("/proc/bus/pci", G_FILE_TEST_EXISTS))
+		return 1;
+
 	pacc = pci_alloc();
 	pci_filter_init(pacc, &filter);
 	pci_init(pacc);
@@ -161,6 +166,6 @@ void pci_find_fullname(char *fullname, char *vendor, char *device)
 	if (cardfound == 1)
 		g_snprintf(fullname, bsize, "%s %s", vendorname, devicename);
 	else
-		g_snprintf(fullname, bsize, "%s:%s", vendor, device);	
+		g_snprintf(fullname, bsize, "%s:%s", vendor, device);
 	fclose(fp);
 }