diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_command.c b/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
index 2c963a7297..c836799888 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
@@ -7369,8 +7369,9 @@ qemuBuildMemCommandLine(virCommand *cmd,
          * regular memory because -mem-path and -mem-prealloc are obsolete.
          * However, if domain has one or more NUMA nodes then there is no
          * default RAM and we mustn't generate the memory object. */
-        if (!virDomainNumaGetNodeCount(def->numa))
-            qemuBuildMemCommandLineMemoryDefaultBackend(cmd, def, priv, defaultRAMid);
+        if (!virDomainNumaGetNodeCount(def->numa) &&
+            qemuBuildMemCommandLineMemoryDefaultBackend(cmd, def, priv, defaultRAMid) < 0)
+            return -1;
     } else {
         /*
          * Add '-mem-path' (and '-mem-prealloc') parameter here if
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/hugepages-default-5M.x86_64-latest.err b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/hugepages-default-5M.x86_64-latest.err
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..bf5e54c9e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/hugepages-default-5M.x86_64-latest.err
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+internal error: Unable to find any usable hugetlbfs mount for 5120 KiB
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/hugepages-default-5M.xml b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/hugepages-default-5M.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..280ea4bb71
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/hugepages-default-5M.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+<domain type="kvm">
+  <name>NonExistentPageSize</name>
+  <uuid>21433e10-aea8-434a-8f81-55781c2e9035</uuid>
+  <memory unit="KiB">4194304</memory>
+  <currentMemory unit="KiB">4194304</currentMemory>
+  <memoryBacking>
+    <hugepages>
+      <page size="5" unit="MiB"/>
+    </hugepages>
+  </memoryBacking>
+  <vcpu placement="static">2</vcpu>
+  <os>
+    <type arch="x86_64" machine="pc">hvm</type>
+  </os>
+  <features>
+    <acpi/>
+    <apic/>
+    <pae/>
+  </features>
+  <clock offset="utc"/>
+  <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>
+  <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>
+  <on_crash>restart</on_crash>
+  <devices>
+    <emulator>/usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64</emulator>
+  </devices>
+</domain>
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c b/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
index 9378125da1..ce475df466 100644
--- a/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
@@ -1272,6 +1272,7 @@ mymain(void)
     DO_TEST("hugepages-default", QEMU_CAPS_OBJECT_MEMORY_FILE);
     DO_TEST("hugepages-default-2M", QEMU_CAPS_OBJECT_MEMORY_FILE);
     DO_TEST("hugepages-default-system-size", QEMU_CAPS_OBJECT_MEMORY_FILE);
+    DO_TEST_CAPS_LATEST_FAILURE("hugepages-default-5M");
     DO_TEST_PARSE_ERROR_NOCAPS("hugepages-default-1G-nodeset-2M");
     DO_TEST("hugepages-nodeset", QEMU_CAPS_OBJECT_MEMORY_FILE);
     DO_TEST_PARSE_ERROR("hugepages-nodeset-nonexist",