diff --git a/incusd/storage/drivers/driver_zfs_utils.go b/incusd/storage/drivers/driver_zfs_utils.go
index db922531e54..30dd04821ee 100644
--- a/incusd/storage/drivers/driver_zfs_utils.go
+++ b/incusd/storage/drivers/driver_zfs_utils.go
@@ -285,7 +285,7 @@ func (d *zfs) version() (string, error) {
 	// This function is only really ever relevant on Ubuntu as the only
 	// distro that ships out of sync tools and kernel modules
 	out, err := shared.RunCommand("dpkg-query", "--showformat=${Version}", "--show", "zfsutils-linux")
-	if err == nil {
+	if out != "" && err == nil {
 		return strings.TrimSpace(string(out)), nil
 	}
 
diff --git a/shared/version/version.go b/shared/version/version.go
index b4bfc0db970..48becdd907c 100644
--- a/shared/version/version.go
+++ b/shared/version/version.go
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ func Parse(s string) (*DottedVersion, error) {
 
 	matches := r.FindStringSubmatch(s)
 	if len(matches) == 0 {
-		return nil, fmt.Errorf("Can't parse a version")
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("Can't parse a version: %s", s)
 	}
 
 	return NewDottedVersion(matches[1])