diff --git a/scripts/runqemu b/scripts/runqemu
index 55b8c05217..2be7a0f286 100755
--- a/scripts/runqemu
+++ b/scripts/runqemu
@@ -1692,9 +1692,6 @@ to your build configuration.
         self.cleaned = True
 
     def run_bitbake_env(self, mach=None, target=''):
-        bitbake = shutil.which('bitbake')
-        if not bitbake:
-            return
 
         if not mach:
             mach = self.get('MACHINE')
@@ -1711,6 +1708,10 @@ to your build configuration.
         else:
             cmd = 'bitbake -e %s %s' % (multiconfig, target)
 
+        bitbake = shutil.which('bitbake')
+        if not bitbake:
+            raise OEPathError("Bitbake is needed to run '%s', but it is not found in PATH. Please source the bitbake build environment." % cmd.strip())
+
         logger.info('Running %s...' % cmd)
         try:
             return subprocess.check_output(cmd, shell=True).decode('utf-8')