diff --git a/python/qemu/machine/machine.py b/python/qemu/machine/machine.py
index 37191f433b..748a0d807c 100644
--- a/python/qemu/machine/machine.py
+++ b/python/qemu/machine/machine.py
@@ -373,6 +373,7 @@ class QEMUMachine:
         Called to cleanup the VM instance after the process has exited.
         May also be called after a failed launch.
         """
+        LOG.debug("Cleaning up after VM process")
         try:
             self._close_qmp_connection()
         except Exception as err:  # pylint: disable=broad-except
@@ -497,6 +498,7 @@ class QEMUMachine:
         # for QEMU to exit, while QEMU is waiting for the socket to
         # become writable.
         if self._console_socket is not None:
+            LOG.debug("Closing console socket")
             self._console_socket.close()
             self._console_socket = None
 
@@ -507,6 +509,7 @@ class QEMUMachine:
         :raise subprocess.Timeout: When timeout is exceeds 60 seconds
             waiting for the QEMU process to terminate.
         """
+        LOG.debug("Performing hard shutdown")
         self._early_cleanup()
         self._subp.kill()
         self._subp.wait(timeout=60)
@@ -523,8 +526,18 @@ class QEMUMachine:
         :raise subprocess.TimeoutExpired: When timeout is exceeded waiting for
             the QEMU process to terminate.
         """
+        LOG.debug("Attempting graceful termination")
+
         self._early_cleanup()
 
+        if self._quit_issued:
+            LOG.debug(
+                "Anticipating QEMU termination due to prior 'quit' command, "
+                "or explicit call to wait()"
+            )
+        else:
+            LOG.debug("Politely asking QEMU to terminate")
+
         if self._qmp_connection:
             try:
                 if not self._quit_issued:
@@ -534,8 +547,18 @@ class QEMUMachine:
             finally:
                 # Regardless, we want to quiesce the connection.
                 self._close_qmp_connection()
+        elif not self._quit_issued:
+            LOG.debug(
+                "Not anticipating QEMU quit and no QMP connection present, "
+                "issuing SIGTERM"
+            )
+            self._subp.terminate()
 
         # May raise subprocess.TimeoutExpired
+        LOG.debug(
+            "Waiting (timeout=%s) for QEMU process (pid=%s) to terminate",
+            timeout, self._subp.pid
+        )
         self._subp.wait(timeout=timeout)
 
     def _do_shutdown(self, timeout: Optional[int]) -> None:
@@ -553,6 +576,10 @@ class QEMUMachine:
         try:
             self._soft_shutdown(timeout)
         except Exception as exc:
+            if isinstance(exc, subprocess.TimeoutExpired):
+                LOG.debug("Timed out waiting for QEMU process to exit")
+            LOG.debug("Graceful shutdown failed", exc_info=True)
+            LOG.debug("Falling back to hard shutdown")
             self._hard_shutdown()
             raise AbnormalShutdown("Could not perform graceful shutdown") \
                 from exc
@@ -575,6 +602,10 @@ class QEMUMachine:
         if not self._launched:
             return
 
+        LOG.debug("Shutting down VM appliance; timeout=%s", timeout)
+        if hard:
+            LOG.debug("Caller requests immediate termination of QEMU process.")
+
         try:
             if hard:
                 self._user_killed = True
diff --git a/python/setup.cfg b/python/setup.cfg
index c2c61c7519..5641815706 100644
--- a/python/setup.cfg
+++ b/python/setup.cfg
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ classifiers =
     Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8
     Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9
     Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10
+    Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11
     Typing :: Typed
 
 [options]
@@ -71,7 +72,8 @@ console_scripts =
     qmp-tui = qemu.qmp.qmp_tui:main [tui]
 
 [flake8]
-extend-ignore = E722  # Prefer pylint's bare-except checks to flake8's
+# Prefer pylint's bare-except checks to flake8's
+extend-ignore = E722
 exclude = __pycache__,
 
 [mypy]
@@ -158,7 +160,7 @@ multi_line_output=3
 # of python available on your system to run this test.
 
 [tox:tox]
-envlist = py36, py37, py38, py39, py310
+envlist = py36, py37, py38, py39, py310, py311
 skip_missing_interpreters = true
 
 [testenv]
diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/check b/tests/qemu-iotests/check
index 75de1b4691..9bdda1394e 100755
--- a/tests/qemu-iotests/check
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/check
@@ -159,7 +159,7 @@ if __name__ == '__main__':
         if not tests:
             raise ValueError('No tests selected')
     except ValueError as e:
-        sys.exit(e)
+        sys.exit(str(e))
 
     if args.dry_run:
         print('\n'.join(tests))