diff --git a/src/index/base.cpp b/src/index/base.cpp
index 6f2ce2efe4a..7c570d4534f 100644
--- a/src/index/base.cpp
+++ b/src/index/base.cpp
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ static void FatalError(const char* fmt, const Args&... args)
     std::string strMessage = tfm::format(fmt, args...);
     SetMiscWarning(Untranslated(strMessage));
     LogPrintf("*** %s\n", strMessage);
-    AbortError(_("A fatal internal error occurred, see debug.log for details"));
+    InitError(_("A fatal internal error occurred, see debug.log for details"));
     StartShutdown();
 }
 
diff --git a/src/node/interface_ui.cpp b/src/node/interface_ui.cpp
index 08d1e03541b..9dd1e7d9cf9 100644
--- a/src/node/interface_ui.cpp
+++ b/src/node/interface_ui.cpp
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 
 #include <node/interface_ui.h>
 
+#include <util/string.h>
 #include <util/translation.h>
 
 #include <boost/signals2/optional_last_value.hpp>
@@ -62,6 +63,18 @@ bool InitError(const bilingual_str& str)
     return false;
 }
 
+bool InitError(const bilingual_str& str, const std::vector<std::string>& details)
+{
+    // For now just flatten the list of error details into a string to pass to
+    // the base InitError overload. In the future, if more init code provides
+    // error details, the details could be passed separately from the main
+    // message for rich display in the GUI. But currently the only init
+    // functions which provide error details are ones that run during early init
+    // before the GUI uiInterface is registered, so there's no point passing
+    // main messages and details separately to uiInterface yet.
+    return InitError(details.empty() ? str : strprintf(Untranslated("%s:\n%s"), str, MakeUnorderedList(details)));
+}
+
 void InitWarning(const bilingual_str& str)
 {
     uiInterface.ThreadSafeMessageBox(str, "", CClientUIInterface::MSG_WARNING);
diff --git a/src/node/interface_ui.h b/src/node/interface_ui.h
index 9f6503b4a14..22c241cb78e 100644
--- a/src/node/interface_ui.h
+++ b/src/node/interface_ui.h
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ void InitWarning(const bilingual_str& str);
 
 /** Show error message **/
 bool InitError(const bilingual_str& str);
-constexpr auto AbortError = InitError;
+bool InitError(const bilingual_str& str, const std::vector<std::string>& details);
 
 extern CClientUIInterface uiInterface;
 
diff --git a/src/shutdown.cpp b/src/shutdown.cpp
index 57d6d2325de..2fffc0663c7 100644
--- a/src/shutdown.cpp
+++ b/src/shutdown.cpp
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ bool AbortNode(const std::string& strMessage, bilingual_str user_message)
     if (user_message.empty()) {
         user_message = _("A fatal internal error occurred, see debug.log for details");
     }
-    AbortError(user_message);
+    InitError(user_message);
     StartShutdown();
     return false;
 }