Index: head/cddl/contrib/opensolaris/cmd/zdb/zdb.c
===================================================================
--- head/cddl/contrib/opensolaris/cmd/zdb/zdb.c
+++ head/cddl/contrib/opensolaris/cmd/zdb/zdb.c
@@ -3657,7 +3657,8 @@
 
 	kernel_init(FREAD);
 	g_zfs = libzfs_init();
-	ASSERT(g_zfs != NULL);
+	if (g_zfs == NULL)
+		fatal("Fail to initialize zfs");
 
 	if (dump_all)
 		verbose = MAX(verbose, 1);