diff --git a/dbus/dbus-internals.c b/dbus/dbus-internals.c
index 1fb6f02e..bc3454d5 100644
--- a/dbus/dbus-internals.c
+++ b/dbus/dbus-internals.c
@@ -908,25 +908,8 @@ _dbus_get_local_machine_uuid_encoded (DBusString *uuid_str,
 
   if (machine_uuid_initialized_generation != _dbus_current_generation)
     {
-      DBusError local_error = DBUS_ERROR_INIT;
-
-      if (!_dbus_read_local_machine_uuid (&machine_uuid, FALSE,
-                                          &local_error))
-        {          
-#ifndef DBUS_ENABLE_EMBEDDED_TESTS
-          /* For the test suite, we may not be installed so just continue silently
-           * here. But in a production build, we want to be nice and loud about
-           * this.
-           */
-          _dbus_warn_check_failed ("D-Bus library appears to be incorrectly set up; failed to read machine uuid: %s\n"
-                                   "See the manual page for dbus-uuidgen to correct this issue.\n",
-                                   local_error.message);
-#endif
-          
-          dbus_error_free (&local_error);
-          
-          ok = _dbus_generate_uuid (&machine_uuid, error);
-        }
+      if (!_dbus_read_local_machine_uuid (&machine_uuid, FALSE, error))
+        ok = FALSE;
     }
 
   if (ok)
diff --git a/dbus/dbus-misc.c b/dbus/dbus-misc.c
index a2da562a..851fa2b1 100644
--- a/dbus/dbus-misc.c
+++ b/dbus/dbus-misc.c
@@ -67,11 +67,17 @@
  * The UUID is not a UUID in the sense of RFC4122; the details
  * are explained in the D-Bus specification.
  *
- * @returns a 32-byte-long hex-encoded UUID string, or #NULL if insufficient memory
+ * This function returns #NULL if there was not enough memory to read
+ * the UUID, or if the UUID could not be read because the D-Bus
+ * library was installed incorrectly. In the latter case, a warning
+ * is logged.
+ *
+ * @returns a 32-byte-long hex-encoded UUID string, or #NULL on failure
  */
 char*
 dbus_get_local_machine_id (void)
 {
+  DBusError error = DBUS_ERROR_INIT;
   DBusString uuid;
   char *s;
 
@@ -82,10 +88,20 @@ dbus_get_local_machine_id (void)
 
   /* The documentation says dbus_get_local_machine_id() only fails on OOM;
    * this can actually also fail if the D-Bus installation is faulty
-   * (no UUID) *and* reading a new random UUID fails, but we have no way
-   * to report that */
-  if (!_dbus_get_local_machine_uuid_encoded (&uuid, NULL) ||
-      !_dbus_string_steal_data (&uuid, &s))
+   * (no UUID), but we have no good way to report that. Historically,
+   * _dbus_get_local_machine_uuid_encoded was responsible for issuing the
+   * warning; now we do that here. */
+  if (!_dbus_get_local_machine_uuid_encoded (&uuid, &error))
+    {
+      if (!dbus_error_has_name (&error, DBUS_ERROR_NO_MEMORY))
+        _dbus_warn_check_failed ("%s", error.message);
+
+      _dbus_string_free (&uuid);
+      dbus_error_free (&error);
+      return NULL;
+    }
+
+  if (!_dbus_string_steal_data (&uuid, &s))
     {
       _dbus_string_free (&uuid);
       return NULL;
diff --git a/dbus/dbus-sysdeps-unix.c b/dbus/dbus-sysdeps-unix.c
index 7bfb66fe..92217e35 100644
--- a/dbus/dbus-sysdeps-unix.c
+++ b/dbus/dbus-sysdeps-unix.c
@@ -3905,20 +3905,20 @@ _dbus_read_local_machine_uuid (DBusGUID   *machine_id,
                                dbus_bool_t create_if_not_found,
                                DBusError  *error)
 {
+  DBusError our_error = DBUS_ERROR_INIT;
+  DBusError etc_error = DBUS_ERROR_INIT;
   DBusString filename;
   dbus_bool_t b;
 
   _dbus_string_init_const (&filename, DBUS_MACHINE_UUID_FILE);
 
-  b = _dbus_read_uuid_file (&filename, machine_id, FALSE, error);
+  b = _dbus_read_uuid_file (&filename, machine_id, FALSE, &our_error);
   if (b)
     return TRUE;
 
-  dbus_error_free (error);
-
   /* Fallback to the system machine ID */
   _dbus_string_init_const (&filename, "/etc/machine-id");
-  b = _dbus_read_uuid_file (&filename, machine_id, FALSE, error);
+  b = _dbus_read_uuid_file (&filename, machine_id, FALSE, &etc_error);
 
   if (b)
     {
@@ -3930,14 +3930,26 @@ _dbus_read_local_machine_uuid (DBusGUID   *machine_id,
           _dbus_write_uuid_file (&filename, machine_id, NULL);
         }
 
+      dbus_error_free (&our_error);
       return TRUE;
     }
 
   if (!create_if_not_found)
-    return FALSE;
+    {
+      dbus_set_error (error, etc_error.name,
+                      "D-Bus library appears to be incorrectly set up: "
+                      "see the manual page for dbus-uuidgen to correct "
+                      "this issue. (%s; %s)",
+                      our_error.message, etc_error.message);
+      dbus_error_free (&our_error);
+      dbus_error_free (&etc_error);
+      return FALSE;
+    }
+
+  dbus_error_free (&our_error);
+  dbus_error_free (&etc_error);
 
   /* if none found, try to make a new one */
-  dbus_error_free (error);
   _dbus_string_init_const (&filename, DBUS_MACHINE_UUID_FILE);
 
   if (!_dbus_generate_uuid (machine_id, error))