diff --git a/vl.c b/vl.c
index 7643f16351..7f86a40f6f 100644
--- a/vl.c
+++ b/vl.c
@@ -2941,6 +2941,8 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv, char **envp)
     nb_numa_nodes = 0;
     nb_nics = 0;
 
+    bdrv_init_with_whitelist();
+
     autostart= 1;
 
     /* first pass of option parsing */
@@ -4199,8 +4201,6 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv, char **envp)
 
     cpu_exec_init_all();
 
-    bdrv_init_with_whitelist();
-
     blk_mig_init();
 
     /* open the virtual block devices */