diff --git a/vpn-daemons/openvpn/ChangeLog b/vpn-daemons/openvpn/ChangeLog
index 0c20a2be9..cdece3609 100644
--- a/vpn-daemons/openvpn/ChangeLog
+++ b/vpn-daemons/openvpn/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,11 @@
+2008-09-29  Dan Williams  <dcbw@redhat.com>
+
+	Patch from Robert Buchholz <rbu@gentoo.org>
+
+	* src/nm-openvpn-service.c
+		- (openvpn_watch_cb): don't access socket_channel if it doesn't exist
+			because openvpn exited before the management socket could be set up
+
 2008-09-24  Dan Williams  <dcbw@redhat.com>
 
 	* common-gnome/*
diff --git a/vpn-daemons/openvpn/src/nm-openvpn-service.c b/vpn-daemons/openvpn/src/nm-openvpn-service.c
index ab9fc9a27..e65e2775e 100644
--- a/vpn-daemons/openvpn/src/nm-openvpn-service.c
+++ b/vpn-daemons/openvpn/src/nm-openvpn-service.c
@@ -452,7 +452,7 @@ openvpn_watch_cb (GPid pid, gint status, gpointer user_data)
 	}
 
 	/* Try to get the last bits of data from openvpn */
-	if (priv->io_data) {
+	if (priv->io_data && priv->io_data->socket_channel) {
 		GIOChannel *channel = priv->io_data->socket_channel;
 		GIOCondition condition;