diff --git a/src/start.sh b/src/start.sh
index 2a5e68b..c182909 100644
--- a/src/start.sh
+++ b/src/start.sh
@@ -75,9 +75,13 @@ start() {
         sleep 0.5
     done
 
-    #  Wait until the FTL log contains the "FTL started" message before continuing, timeout after 10 seconds
-    logsize_before=$(stat -c%s /var/log/pihole/FTL.log)
-    pihole-FTL wait-for '########## FTL started' /var/log/pihole/FTL.log 10 "${logsize_before}" > /dev/null
+    # Wait until the FTL log contains the "FTL started" message before continuing, timeout after 10 seconds
+    # exit if we do not find it
+    pihole-FTL wait-for '########## FTL started' /var/log/pihole/FTL.log 10 "0 > /dev/null"
+    if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
+        echo "  [✗] FTL did not start"
+        exit 1
+    fi
 
     pihole updatechecker
     local versionsOutput