diff --git a/node/src/main/kotlin/net/corda/node/Corda.kt b/node/src/main/kotlin/net/corda/node/Corda.kt
index b5fcf0ccae..175c5b7491 100644
--- a/node/src/main/kotlin/net/corda/node/Corda.kt
+++ b/node/src/main/kotlin/net/corda/node/Corda.kt
@@ -166,7 +166,11 @@ fun main(args: Array<String>) {
         }
         node.run()
     } catch (e: Exception) {
-        log.error("Exception during node startup", e)
+        if (e.message!!.startsWith("Unknown named curve:")) {
+            log.error("Exception during node startup - ${e.message}. " +
+                    "This is a known OpenJDK issue on some Linux distributions, please use OpenJDK from zulu.org or Oracle JDK.")
+        } else
+            log.error("Exception during node startup", e)
         exitProcess(1)
     }