diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 4588bfd864..8f4a431445 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -1373,12 +1373,16 @@ if not get_option('qatzip').auto() or have_system
 endif
 
 virgl = not_found
+vulkan = not_found
 
 have_vhost_user_gpu = have_tools and host_os == 'linux' and pixman.found()
 if not get_option('virglrenderer').auto() or have_system or have_vhost_user_gpu
   virgl = dependency('virglrenderer',
                      method: 'pkg-config',
                      required: get_option('virglrenderer'))
+  vulkan = dependency('vulkan',
+                      method: 'pkg-config',
+                      required: get_option('virglrenderer'))
 endif
 rutabaga = not_found
 if not get_option('rutabaga_gfx').auto() or have_system or have_vhost_user_gpu
diff --git a/include/qemu/host-gpu.h b/include/qemu/host-gpu.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..45053c2f77
--- /dev/null
+++ b/include/qemu/host-gpu.h
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+/*
+ * Utility functions to probe host GPU
+ *
+ * Copyright (c) 2025 Linaro Ltd
+ *
+ * SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later
+ */
+#ifndef HOST_GPU_H
+#define HOST_GPU_H
+
+#include "qapi/error.h"
+
+/**
+ * validate_vulkan_backend() - verify working backend
+ *
+ * errp: error pointer
+ *
+ * If the system vulkan implementation is known to not work return
+ * false otherwise true.
+ */
+bool validate_vulkan_backend(Error **errp);
+
+#endif /* HOST_GPU_H */
diff --git a/hw/display/virtio-gpu.c b/hw/display/virtio-gpu.c
index 11a7a85750..816eedf838 100644
--- a/hw/display/virtio-gpu.c
+++ b/hw/display/virtio-gpu.c
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@
 #include "qemu/module.h"
 #include "qapi/error.h"
 #include "qemu/error-report.h"
+#include "qemu/host-gpu.h"
 
 #define VIRTIO_GPU_VM_VERSION 1
 
@@ -1498,6 +1499,9 @@ void virtio_gpu_device_realize(DeviceState *qdev, Error **errp)
             error_setg(errp, "venus requires enabled blob and hostmem options");
             return;
         }
+        if (!validate_vulkan_backend(errp)) {
+            return;
+        }
     #else
         error_setg(errp, "old virglrenderer, venus unsupported");
         return;
diff --git a/stubs/host-gpu.c b/stubs/host-gpu.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..7bf76ee4f6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/stubs/host-gpu.c
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+/*
+ * Stub of utility functions to probe host GPU
+ *
+ * Copyright (c) 2025 Linaro Ltd
+ *
+ * SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later
+ */
+
+#include "qemu/osdep.h"
+#include "qapi/error.h"
+#include "qemu/host-gpu.h"
+
+bool validate_vulkan_backend(Error **errp)
+{
+    error_setg(errp, "No vulkan library present");
+    return false;
+}
diff --git a/util/host-gpu.c b/util/host-gpu.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..5e7bf2557c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/util/host-gpu.c
@@ -0,0 +1,102 @@
+/*
+ * Utility functions to probe host GPU
+ *
+ * Copyright (c) 2025 Linaro Ltd
+ *
+ * SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later
+ */
+
+#include "qemu/osdep.h"
+#include "qapi/error.h"
+#include "qemu/host-gpu.h"
+
+#include <vulkan/vulkan.h>
+
+const char *extensions[] = {
+    /* needed to query the driver details */
+    "VK_KHR_get_physical_device_properties2",
+};
+
+/*
+ * Info for known broken drivers. Sadly driver version info tends to
+ * be in the driverInfo text field which is free form so tricky to
+ * parse.
+ */
+struct VkDriverBlockList {
+    VkDriverId id;
+    const char *reason;
+};
+
+struct VkDriverBlockList vulkan_blocklist[] = {
+    /* at least 535.183.01 is reported to SEGV in libnvidia-eglcore.so */
+    { VK_DRIVER_ID_NVIDIA_PROPRIETARY, "proprietary nVidia driver is broken" },
+};
+
+static bool is_driver_blocked(VkPhysicalDevice dev, Error **errp)
+{
+    VkPhysicalDeviceDriverProperties driverProperties = {
+        .sType = VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_PHYSICAL_DEVICE_DRIVER_PROPERTIES,
+        .pNext = NULL
+    };
+    VkPhysicalDeviceProperties2 deviceProperties2 = {
+        .sType = VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_PHYSICAL_DEVICE_PROPERTIES_2,
+        .pNext = &driverProperties
+    };
+    VkPhysicalDeviceProperties *deviceProperties = &deviceProperties2.properties;
+
+    vkGetPhysicalDeviceProperties2(dev, &deviceProperties2);
+
+    for (int i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE(vulkan_blocklist); i++) {
+        if (driverProperties.driverID == vulkan_blocklist[i].id) {
+            error_setg(errp, "Blocked GPU %s because %s",
+                       deviceProperties->deviceName,
+                       vulkan_blocklist[i].reason);
+            return true;
+        }
+    }
+
+    return false;
+}
+
+bool validate_vulkan_backend(Error **errp)
+{
+    VkInstanceCreateInfo instance_info = {
+        VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_INSTANCE_CREATE_INFO,
+        NULL, /* pNext extension */
+        0,    /* VkInstanceCreateFlags */
+        NULL, /* Application Info */
+        0, NULL, /* no Enabled Layers */
+        ARRAY_SIZE(extensions), extensions, /* Extensions */
+    };
+
+    VkInstance inst;
+    VkResult res;
+
+    res = vkCreateInstance(&instance_info, NULL, &inst);
+
+    if ( res == VK_SUCCESS ) {
+        uint32_t count;
+        VkPhysicalDevice *devices;
+
+        /* Do the enumeration two-step */
+        vkEnumeratePhysicalDevices(inst, &count, NULL);
+        devices = g_new0(VkPhysicalDevice, count);
+        vkEnumeratePhysicalDevices(inst, &count, devices);
+
+        for (int i = 0; i  < count; i++) {
+            if (is_driver_blocked(devices[i], errp)) {
+                return false;
+            }
+        }
+    } else {
+        error_setg(errp, "Could not initialise a Vulkan instance");
+        return false;
+    }
+
+    /*
+     * It would be nice to g_autofree the instance, but returning
+     * false will abort start-up anyway.
+     */
+    vkDestroyInstance(inst, NULL);
+    return true;
+}
diff --git a/stubs/meson.build b/stubs/meson.build
index b0fee37e05..c18501aa6d 100644
--- a/stubs/meson.build
+++ b/stubs/meson.build
@@ -89,3 +89,7 @@ if have_system or have_user
   stub_ss.add(files('hotplug-stubs.c'))
   stub_ss.add(files('sysbus.c'))
 endif
+
+if not vulkan.found()
+  stubs_ss.add(files('host-gpu.c'))
+endif
diff --git a/tests/functional/test_aarch64_virt_gpu.py b/tests/functional/test_aarch64_virt_gpu.py
index 7a8471d1ca..9a0e694049 100755
--- a/tests/functional/test_aarch64_virt_gpu.py
+++ b/tests/functional/test_aarch64_virt_gpu.py
@@ -79,6 +79,8 @@ def _run_virt_gpu_test(self, gpu_device,  weston_cmd, weston_pattern):
                 self.skipTest("Can't access host DRM render node")
             elif "'type' does not accept value 'egl-headless'" in excp.output:
                 self.skipTest("egl-headless support is not available")
+            elif "Blocked GPU" in excp.output:
+                self.skipTest("GPU is in block list")
             else:
                 self.log.info(f"unhandled launch failure: {excp.output}")
                 raise excp
diff --git a/util/meson.build b/util/meson.build
index 780b5977a8..7c6cc36e07 100644
--- a/util/meson.build
+++ b/util/meson.build
@@ -132,3 +132,5 @@ elif cpu in ['ppc', 'ppc64']
 elif cpu in ['riscv32', 'riscv64']
   util_ss.add(files('cpuinfo-riscv.c'))
 endif
+
+util_ss.add(when: vulkan, if_true: files('host-gpu.c'))
