diff --git a/daemon/libvirtd.c b/daemon/libvirtd.c
index a1f64adf7e..7a59afef94 100644
--- a/daemon/libvirtd.c
+++ b/daemon/libvirtd.c
@@ -365,10 +365,15 @@ static void daemonInitialize(void)
 {
     /*
      * Note that the order is important: the first ones have a higher
-     * priority when calling virStateInitialize. We must register
-     * the network, storage and nodedev drivers before any domain
-     * drivers, since their resources must be auto-started before
-     * any domains can be auto-started.
+     * priority when calling virStateInitialize. We must register the
+     * network, storage and nodedev drivers before any stateful domain
+     * driver, since their resources must be auto-started before any
+     * domains can be auto-started. Moreover, some stateless drivers
+     * implement their own subdrivers (e.g. the vbox driver has its
+     * own network and storage subdriers) which need to have higher
+     * priority. Otherwise, when connecting to such driver the generic
+     * subdriver may be opened instead of the one corresponding to the
+     * stateless driver.
      */
 #ifdef WITH_DRIVER_MODULES
     /* We don't care if any of these fail, because the whole point
@@ -376,9 +381,15 @@ static void daemonInitialize(void)
      * If they try to open a connection for a module that
      * is not loaded they'll get a suitable error at that point
      */
+# ifdef WITH_VBOX
+    virDriverLoadModule("vbox");
+# endif
 # ifdef WITH_NETWORK
     virDriverLoadModule("network");
 # endif
+# ifdef WITH_INTERFACE
+    virDriverLoadModule("interface");
+# endif
 # ifdef WITH_STORAGE
     virDriverLoadModule("storage");
 # endif
@@ -391,9 +402,6 @@ static void daemonInitialize(void)
 # ifdef WITH_NWFILTER
     virDriverLoadModule("nwfilter");
 # endif
-# ifdef WITH_INTERFACE
-    virDriverLoadModule("interface");
-# endif
 # ifdef WITH_XEN
     virDriverLoadModule("xen");
 # endif
@@ -409,13 +417,13 @@ static void daemonInitialize(void)
 # ifdef WITH_UML
     virDriverLoadModule("uml");
 # endif
-# ifdef WITH_VBOX
-    virDriverLoadModule("vbox");
-# endif
 # ifdef WITH_BHYVE
     virDriverLoadModule("bhyve");
 # endif
 #else
+# ifdef WITH_VBOX
+    vboxRegister();
+# endif
 # ifdef WITH_NETWORK
     networkRegister();
 # endif
@@ -449,9 +457,6 @@ static void daemonInitialize(void)
 # ifdef WITH_UML
     umlRegister();
 # endif
-# ifdef WITH_VBOX
-    vboxRegister();
-# endif
 # ifdef WITH_BHYVE
     bhyveRegister();
 # endif