diff --git a/awesome.c b/awesome.c
index aa153606..a25c901e 100644
--- a/awesome.c
+++ b/awesome.c
@@ -300,6 +300,7 @@ main(int argc, char **argv)
     p_clear(&globalconf, 1);
     globalconf.keygrabber = LUA_REFNIL;
     globalconf.mousegrabber = LUA_REFNIL;
+    buffer_init(&globalconf.startup_errors);
 
     /* save argv */
     for(i = 0; i < argc; i++)
diff --git a/awesomerc.lua.in b/awesomerc.lua.in
index e7f9b1c6..a17b8ee5 100644
--- a/awesomerc.lua.in
+++ b/awesomerc.lua.in
@@ -7,6 +7,16 @@ require("beautiful")
 -- Notification library
 require("naughty")
 
+-- {{{ Error handling
+-- Check if awesome encountered an error during startup and fell back to
+-- another config (This code will only ever execute for the fallback config)
+if awesome.startup_errors then
+    naughty.notify({ preset = naughty.config.presets.critical,
+                     title = "Oops, there were errors during startup!",
+                     text = awesome.startup_errors })
+end
+-- }}}
+
 -- {{{ Variable definitions
 -- Themes define colours, icons, and wallpapers
 beautiful.init("@AWESOME_THEMES_PATH@/default/theme.lua")
diff --git a/common/tokenize.gperf b/common/tokenize.gperf
index 84cc0f34..2ba8fb2b 100644
--- a/common/tokenize.gperf
+++ b/common/tokenize.gperf
@@ -95,6 +95,7 @@ skip_taskbar
 south
 start
 started
+startup_errors
 sticky
 system
 systray
diff --git a/globalconf.h b/globalconf.h
index a1575c5c..f68098b6 100644
--- a/globalconf.h
+++ b/globalconf.h
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@
 #include "color.h"
 #include "font.h"
 #include "common/xembed.h"
+#include "common/buffer.h"
 
 typedef struct wibox_t wibox_t;
 typedef struct a_screen screen_t;
@@ -81,6 +82,8 @@ typedef struct
     char *argv;
     /** Lua VM state */
     lua_State *L;
+    /** All errors messages from loading config files */
+    buffer_t startup_errors;
     /** Default colors */
     struct
     {
diff --git a/luaa.c b/luaa.c
index d8d0229e..a053fd96 100644
--- a/luaa.c
+++ b/luaa.c
@@ -574,6 +574,10 @@ luaA_awesome_index(lua_State *L)
       case A_TK_RELEASE:
         lua_pushliteral(L, AWESOME_RELEASE);
         break;
+      case A_TK_STARTUP_ERRORS:
+        if (globalconf.startup_errors.len == 0)
+            return 0;
+        lua_pushstring(L, globalconf.startup_errors.s);
       default:
         return 0;
     }
@@ -846,6 +850,14 @@ luaA_init(xdgHandle* xdg)
     lua_setfield(L, 1, "path"); /* package.path = "concatenated string" */
 }
 
+static void
+luaA_startup_error(const char *err)
+{
+    if (globalconf.startup_errors.len > 0)
+        buffer_addsl(&globalconf.startup_errors, "\n\n");
+    buffer_adds(&globalconf.startup_errors, err);
+}
+
 static bool
 luaA_loadrc(const char *confpath, bool run)
 {
@@ -858,7 +870,9 @@ luaA_loadrc(const char *confpath, bool run)
             globalconf.conffile = a_strdup(confpath);
             if(lua_pcall(globalconf.L, 0, LUA_MULTRET, 0))
             {
-                fprintf(stderr, "%s\n", lua_tostring(globalconf.L, -1));
+                const char *err = lua_tostring(globalconf.L, -1);
+                luaA_startup_error(err);
+                fprintf(stderr, "%s\n", err);
                 /* An error happened, so reset this. */
                 globalconf.conffile = NULL;
             }
@@ -872,7 +886,11 @@ luaA_loadrc(const char *confpath, bool run)
         }
     }
     else
-        fprintf(stderr, "%s\n", lua_tostring(globalconf.L, -1));
+    {
+        const char *err = lua_tostring(globalconf.L, -1);
+        luaA_startup_error(err);
+        fprintf(stderr, "%s\n", err);
+    }
 
     return false;
 }