diff --git a/tools/perf/util/annotate.c b/tools/perf/util/annotate.c
index 0fc8d7a2fea5..f2974da0185a 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/annotate.c
+++ b/tools/perf/util/annotate.c
@@ -1084,6 +1084,7 @@ int symbol__annotate(struct symbol *sym, struct map *map, size_t privsize)
 	struct kcore_extract kce;
 	bool delete_extract = false;
 	int lineno = 0;
+	int nline;
 
 	if (filename)
 		symbol__join_symfs(symfs_filename, filename);
@@ -1179,6 +1180,9 @@ fallback:
 
 		ret = decompress_to_file(m.ext, symfs_filename, fd);
 
+		if (ret)
+			pr_err("Cannot decompress %s %s\n", m.ext, symfs_filename);
+
 		free(m.ext);
 		close(fd);
 
@@ -1204,13 +1208,25 @@ fallback:
 	pr_debug("Executing: %s\n", command);
 
 	file = popen(command, "r");
-	if (!file)
+	if (!file) {
+		pr_err("Failure running %s\n", command);
+		/*
+		 * If we were using debug info should retry with
+		 * original binary.
+		 */
 		goto out_remove_tmp;
+	}
 
-	while (!feof(file))
+	nline = 0;
+	while (!feof(file)) {
 		if (symbol__parse_objdump_line(sym, map, file, privsize,
 			    &lineno) < 0)
 			break;
+		nline++;
+	}
+
+	if (nline == 0)
+		pr_err("No output from %s\n", command);
 
 	/*
 	 * kallsyms does not have symbol sizes so there may a nop at the end.