diff --git a/src/backends/native/meta-renderer-native.c b/src/backends/native/meta-renderer-native.c
index 08b9befbb..6eaa0b45f 100644
--- a/src/backends/native/meta-renderer-native.c
+++ b/src/backends/native/meta-renderer-native.c
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 /*
  * Copyright (C) 2011 Intel Corporation.
  * Copyright (C) 2016 Red Hat
+ * Copyright (c) 2018 DisplayLink (UK) Ltd.
  *
  * Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person
  * obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation
@@ -2246,6 +2247,15 @@ init_dumb_fb (MetaDumbBuffer  *dumb_fb,
 
   if (fb_id == 0)
     {
+      if (format != DRM_FORMAT_XRGB8888)
+        {
+          g_set_error (error, G_IO_ERROR,
+                       G_IO_ERROR_FAILED,
+                       "drmModeAddFB does not support format 0x%x",
+                       format);
+          goto err_add_fb;
+        }
+
       if (drmModeAddFB (kms_fd, width, height,
                         24 /* depth of RGBX8888 */,
                         32 /* bpp of RGBX8888 */,