diff --git a/src/gallium/drivers/iris/iris_screen.c b/src/gallium/drivers/iris/iris_screen.c
index c8c7c3d1a70..82146479ddd 100644
--- a/src/gallium/drivers/iris/iris_screen.c
+++ b/src/gallium/drivers/iris/iris_screen.c
@@ -801,7 +801,8 @@ iris_screen_create(int fd, const struct pipe_screen_config *config)
     * Checking the last feature availability will include all previous ones.
     */
    if (iris_getparam_integer(fd, I915_PARAM_HAS_CONTEXT_ISOLATION) <= 0) {
-      debug_error("Kernel is too old for Iris. Consider upgrading to kernel v4.16.\n");
+      debug_error("Kernel is too old (4.16+ required) or unusable for Iris.\n"
+                  "Check your dmesg logs for loading failures.\n");
       return NULL;
    }