diff --git a/notmuch.c b/notmuch.c
index 37286b8f..69a18131 100644
--- a/notmuch.c
+++ b/notmuch.c
@@ -584,6 +584,8 @@ main (int argc, char *argv[])
 	case NOTMUCH_STATUS_SUCCESS:
 	    break;
 	default:
+	    fputs ("Error: unable to load config file.\n", stderr);
+	    ret = 1;
 	    goto DONE;
 	}
 
diff --git a/test/T030-config.sh b/test/T030-config.sh
index c416e781..2d3017da 100755
--- a/test/T030-config.sh
+++ b/test/T030-config.sh
@@ -196,7 +196,6 @@ output=$(notmuch config get built_with.nonexistent)
 test_expect_equal "$output" "false"
 
 test_begin_subtest "Bad utf8 reported as error"
-test_subtest_known_broken
 cp initial-config bad-config
 printf '[query]\nq3=from:\xff\n' >>bad-config
 test_expect_code 1 "notmuch --config=./bad-config config list"