diff --git a/loader/glibc.c b/loader/glibc.c
index 28a8d193d4a..e312cf31717 100644
--- a/loader/glibc.c
+++ b/loader/glibc.c
@@ -56,11 +56,23 @@ static void *xmalloc( size_t size )
 /* separate thread to check for NPTL and TLS features */
 static void *needs_pthread( void *arg )
 {
+    const char *loader;
     pid_t tid = gettid();
     /* check for NPTL */
     if (tid != -1 && tid != getpid()) return (void *)1;
     /* check for TLS glibc */
-    return (void *)(wine_get_gs() != 0);
+    if (wine_get_gs() != 0) return (void *)1;
+    /* check for exported epoll_create to detect new glibc versions without TLS */
+    if (wine_dlsym( RTLD_DEFAULT, "epoll_create", NULL, 0 ))
+        fprintf( stderr,
+                 "wine: glibc >= 2.3 without NPTL or TLS is not a supported combination.\n"
+                 "      Please upgrade to a glibc with NPTL support.\n" );
+    else
+        fprintf( stderr,
+                 "wine: Your C library is too old. You need at least glibc 2.3 with NPTL support.\n" );
+    if (!(loader = getenv( "WINELOADER" )) || !strstr( loader, "wine-kthread" ))
+        exit(1);
+    return 0;
 }
 
 /* return the name of the Wine threading variant to use */
diff --git a/loader/kthread.c b/loader/kthread.c
index c791ef6faeb..fcdd34db67f 100644
--- a/loader/kthread.c
+++ b/loader/kthread.c
@@ -907,14 +907,6 @@ void __pthread_initialize(void)
     if (!done)
     {
         done = 1;
-        /* check for exported epoll_create to detect glibc versions that we cannot support */
-        if (wine_dlsym( RTLD_DEFAULT, "epoll_create", NULL, 0 ))
-        {
-            static const char warning[] =
-                "wine: glibc >= 2.3 without NPTL or TLS is not a supported combination.\n"
-                "      It will most likely crash. Please upgrade to a glibc with NPTL support.\n";
-            write( 2, warning, sizeof(warning)-1 );
-        }
         libc_fork = wine_dlsym( RTLD_NEXT, "fork", NULL, 0 );
         libc_sigaction = wine_dlsym( RTLD_NEXT, "sigaction", NULL, 0 );
         libc_uselocale = wine_dlsym( RTLD_DEFAULT, "uselocale", NULL, 0 );