diff --git a/src/lib/Hydra/Helper/AddBuilds.pm b/src/lib/Hydra/Helper/AddBuilds.pm
index 220f2bd6..62232068 100644
--- a/src/lib/Hydra/Helper/AddBuilds.pm
+++ b/src/lib/Hydra/Helper/AddBuilds.pm
@@ -88,10 +88,7 @@ sub fetchInputBuild {
         { order_by => "me.id DESC", rows => 1
         , where => \ attrsToSQL($attrs, "me.id") });
 
-    if (!defined $prevBuild || !isValidPath(getMainOutput($prevBuild)->path)) {
-        print STDERR "input `", $name, "': no previous build available\n";
-        return ();
-    }
+    return () if !defined $prevBuild || !isValidPath(getMainOutput($prevBuild)->path);
 
     #print STDERR "input `", $name, "': using build ", $prevBuild->id, "\n";
 
diff --git a/src/lib/Hydra/Schema/Jobsets.pm b/src/lib/Hydra/Schema/Jobsets.pm
index 49e57b85..f31a75f7 100644
--- a/src/lib/Hydra/Schema/Jobsets.pm
+++ b/src/lib/Hydra/Schema/Jobsets.pm
@@ -124,6 +124,11 @@ __PACKAGE__->table("Jobsets");
   default_value: 100
   is_nullable: 0
 
+=head2 fetcherrormsg
+
+  data_type: 'text'
+  is_nullable: 1
+
 =cut
 
 __PACKAGE__->add_columns(
@@ -159,6 +164,8 @@ __PACKAGE__->add_columns(
   { data_type => "integer", default_value => 300, is_nullable => 0 },
   "schedulingshares",
   { data_type => "integer", default_value => 100, is_nullable => 0 },
+  "fetcherrormsg",
+  { data_type => "text", is_nullable => 1 },
 );
 
 =head1 PRIMARY KEY
@@ -280,7 +287,7 @@ __PACKAGE__->belongs_to(
 );
 
 
-# Created by DBIx::Class::Schema::Loader v0.07033 @ 2013-09-20 12:15:23
-# DO NOT MODIFY THIS OR ANYTHING ABOVE! md5sum:pD6tGW0Ob3fuA1p0uQnBWw
+# Created by DBIx::Class::Schema::Loader v0.07033 @ 2013-09-25 14:10:28
+# DO NOT MODIFY THIS OR ANYTHING ABOVE! md5sum:cAZ4+c7OhqGW8ATru8Foiw
 
 1;
diff --git a/src/root/jobset.tt b/src/root/jobset.tt
index d3645b24..72f939e6 100644
--- a/src/root/jobset.tt
+++ b/src/root/jobset.tt
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@
 
 <ul class="nav nav-tabs">
   <li class="active"><a href="#tabs-evaluations" data-toggle="tab">Evaluations</a></li>
-  [% IF jobset.errormsg %]
+  [% IF jobset.errormsg || jobset.fetcherrormsg %]
     <li><a href="#tabs-errors" data-toggle="tab"><span class="text-warning">Evaluation errors</span></a></li>
   [% END %]
   <li><a href="#tabs-jobs" data-toggle="tab">Jobs</a></li>
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@
         <th>Last checked:</th>
         <td>
           [% IF jobset.lastcheckedtime %]
-            [% INCLUDE renderDateTime timestamp = jobset.lastcheckedtime %], [% IF jobset.errormsg %]<em class="text-warning">with errors!</em>[% ELSE %]<em>no errors</em>[% END %]
+            [% INCLUDE renderDateTime timestamp = jobset.lastcheckedtime %], [% IF jobset.errormsg || jobset.fetcherrormsg %]<em class="text-warning">with errors!</em>[% ELSE %]<em>no errors</em>[% END %]
           [% ELSE %]
             <em>never</em>
           [% END %]
@@ -91,10 +91,10 @@
 
   </div>
 
-  [% IF jobset.errormsg %]
+  [% IF jobset.errormsg || jobset.fetcherrormsg %]
     <div id="tabs-errors" class="tab-pane">
       <p>Errors occurred at [% INCLUDE renderDateTime timestamp=jobset.errortime %].</p>
-      <pre class="alert alert-error">[% HTML.escape(jobset.errormsg) %]</pre>
+      <pre class="alert alert-error">[% HTML.escape(jobset.fetcherrormsg || jobset.errormsg) %]</pre>
     </div>
   [% END %]
 
diff --git a/src/script/hydra-evaluator b/src/script/hydra-evaluator
index 3a089e58..73f0ed9e 100755
--- a/src/script/hydra-evaluator
+++ b/src/script/hydra-evaluator
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ sub setJobsetError {
 
     eval {
         txn_do($db, sub {
-            $jobset->update({errormsg => $errorMsg, errortime => time});
+            $jobset->update({ errormsg => $errorMsg, errortime => time, fetcherrormsg => undef });
         });
     };
     if ($errorMsg ne $prevError) {
@@ -115,7 +115,17 @@ sub checkJobsetWrapped {
 
     # Fetch all values for all inputs.
     my $checkoutStart = time;
-    fetchInputs($project, $jobset, $inputInfo);
+    eval {
+        fetchInputs($project, $jobset, $inputInfo);
+    };
+    if ($@) {
+        my $msg = $@;
+        print STDERR $msg;
+        txn_do($db, sub {
+            $jobset->update({ lastcheckedtime => time, fetcherrormsg => $msg });
+        });
+        return;
+    }
     my $checkoutStop = time;
 
     # Hash the arguments to hydra-eval-jobs and check the
@@ -127,7 +137,7 @@ sub checkJobsetWrapped {
     if (defined $prevEval && $prevEval->hash eq $argsHash) {
         print STDERR "  jobset is unchanged, skipping\n";
         txn_do($db, sub {
-            $jobset->update({lastcheckedtime => time});
+            $jobset->update({ lastcheckedtime => time, fetcherrormsg => undef });
         });
         return;
     }
@@ -253,7 +263,7 @@ sub checkJobsetWrapped {
         }
         $msg .=
             ($error->{location} ne "" ? "in job ‘$error->{location}’" : "at top-level") .
-            " [$bindings]:\n" . $error->{msg} . "\n\n";
+            ":\n" . $error->{msg} . "\n\n";
     }
     setJobsetError($jobset, $msg);
 }
@@ -275,7 +285,7 @@ sub checkJobset {
 
     if ($@) {
         my $msg = $@;
-        print STDERR "error evaluating jobset ", $jobset->name, ": $msg";
+        print STDERR $msg;
         txn_do($db, sub {
             $jobset->update({lastcheckedtime => time});
             setJobsetError($jobset, $msg);
diff --git a/src/sql/hydra.sql b/src/sql/hydra.sql
index 388fd7c9..a1fe253d 100644
--- a/src/sql/hydra.sql
+++ b/src/sql/hydra.sql
@@ -62,6 +62,7 @@ create table Jobsets (
     keepnr        integer not null default 3,
     checkInterval integer not null default 300, -- minimum time in seconds between polls (0 = disable polling)
     schedulingShares integer not null default 100,
+    fetchErrorMsg text,
     primary key   (project, name),
     foreign key   (project) references Projects(name) on delete cascade on update cascade
 #ifdef SQLITE
diff --git a/src/sql/upgrade-22.sql b/src/sql/upgrade-22.sql
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..c2a182c4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/sql/upgrade-22.sql
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+alter table Jobsets add column fetchErrorMsg text;