diff --git a/svr-main.c b/svr-main.c
index ea19d2d..4d82ec1 100644
--- a/svr-main.c
+++ b/svr-main.c
@@ -83,6 +83,13 @@ static void main_inetd() {
 	/* Set up handlers, syslog, seed random */
 	commonsetup();
 
+#if DEBUG_TRACE
+	if (debug_trace) {
+		/* -v output goes to stderr which would get sent over the inetd network socket */
+		dropbear_exit(LOG_ERR, "Dropbear inetd mode is incompatible with debug -v");
+	}
+#endif
+
 	/* In case our inetd was lax in logging source addresses */
 	get_socket_address(0, NULL, NULL, &host, &port, 0);
 	dropbear_log(LOG_INFO, "Child connection from %s:%s", host, port);