diff --git a/setup/bindir/cloud-setup-databases.in b/setup/bindir/cloud-setup-databases.in
index 3499a1512cc..0110a2d9be2 100755
--- a/setup/bindir/cloud-setup-databases.in
+++ b/setup/bindir/cloud-setup-databases.in
@@ -154,7 +154,8 @@ def ifaces():
 
 def ip(iface):
     status,lines = commands.getstatusoutput('LANG=C /sbin/ip address show %s'%iface)
-    assert status == 0
+    if status != 0: return False
+    # 7249f168 (Alex Huang             2010-09-09 11:52:12 -0700 175)     # used to say: assert status == 0 but it caused a bug in ifaces without IP
     lines = [ l for l in lines.splitlines() if l.startswith('    inet ') ]
     if not lines: return None
     toks = lines[0].split()