diff --git a/cmd/control/config.go b/cmd/control/config.go
index 91d47f62..ee21aaa9 100644
--- a/cmd/control/config.go
+++ b/cmd/control/config.go
@@ -255,7 +255,7 @@ func validate(c *cli.Context) error {
 	if err != nil {
 		log.Fatal(err)
 	}
-	validationErrors, err := config.Validate(bytes)
+	validationErrors, err := config.ValidateBytes(bytes)
 	if err != nil {
 		log.Fatal(err)
 	}
diff --git a/config/disk.go b/config/disk.go
index 31df5a7f..9b351c29 100755
--- a/config/disk.go
+++ b/config/disk.go
@@ -71,8 +71,19 @@ func LoadConfigWithPrefix(dirPrefix string) *CloudConfig {
 
 	cfg := &CloudConfig{}
 	if err := util.Convert(rawCfg, cfg); err != nil {
-		log.Errorf("Failed to parse configuration: %s", err)
+		log.Errorf("EXITING: Failed to parse configuration: %s", err)
 		log.Debugf("Bad cfg:\n%v\n", rawCfg)
+		// no point returning {}, it'll just sit there broken
+		// TODO: print some context around what failed..
+		validationErrors, err := ValidateRawCfg(rawCfg)
+		if err != nil {
+			log.Fatal(err)
+		}
+		for _, validationError := range validationErrors.Errors() {
+			log.Error(validationError)
+		}
+		// TODO: I'd love to panic & recover(), for issues on boot, but it doesn't work yet
+		os.Exit(-1)
 		return &CloudConfig{}
 	}
 	cfg = amendNils(cfg)
diff --git a/config/validate.go b/config/validate.go
index 142ec923..7f2c243b 100644
--- a/config/validate.go
+++ b/config/validate.go
@@ -31,11 +31,15 @@ func ConvertKeysToStrings(item interface{}) interface{} {
 	}
 }
 
-func Validate(bytes []byte) (*gojsonschema.Result, error) {
+func ValidateBytes(bytes []byte) (*gojsonschema.Result, error) {
 	var rawCfg map[string]interface{}
 	if err := yaml.Unmarshal([]byte(bytes), &rawCfg); err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
+	return ValidateRawCfg(rawCfg)
+}
+
+func ValidateRawCfg(rawCfg interface{}) (*gojsonschema.Result, error) {
 	rawCfg = ConvertKeysToStrings(rawCfg).(map[string]interface{})
 	loader := gojsonschema.NewGoLoader(rawCfg)
 	schemaLoader := gojsonschema.NewStringLoader(schema)
diff --git a/init/init.go b/init/init.go
index f4825bee..5e83f2bf 100755
--- a/init/init.go
+++ b/init/init.go
@@ -94,6 +94,7 @@ func sysInit(c *config.CloudConfig) (*config.CloudConfig, error) {
 
 func MainInit() {
 	log.InitDeferedLogger()
+	// TODO: this breaks and does nothing if the cfg is invalid (or is it due to threading?)
 	defer func() {
 		if r := recover(); r != nil {
 			fmt.Printf("Starting Recovery console: %v\n", r)