@@ -607,8 +607,11 @@ def _get_push_info(self, proc, progress):
 		# END for each line
 		try:
 			proc.wait()
-		except GitCommandError:
+		except GitCommandError,e:
 			# if a push has rejected items, the command has non-zero return status
+			# a return status of 128 indicates a connection error - reraise the previous one
+			if proc.poll() == 128:
+				raise
 			pass
 		# END exception handling 
 		return output
 
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 # the BSD License: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.php
 
 import os
-from git import Repo, Remote
+from git import Repo, Remote, GitCommandError
 from unittest import TestCase
 import tempfile
 import shutil
@@ -166,7 +166,15 @@ def remote_repo_creator(self):
 			# by the user, not by us
 			d_remote = Remote.create(rw_repo, "daemon_origin", remote_repo_dir)
 			d_remote.fetch()
-			d_remote.config_writer.set('url', "git://localhost%s" % remote_repo_dir)
+			remote_repo_url = "git://localhost%s" % remote_repo_dir
+			d_remote.config_writer.set('url', remote_repo_url)
+			
+			# try to list remotes to diagnoes whether the server is up
+			try:
+				rw_repo.git.ls_remote(d_remote)
+			except GitCommandError,e:
+				print str(e)
+				raise AssertionError('Please start a git-daemon to run this test, execute: git-daemon "%s"'%tempfile.gettempdir())
 
 			try:
 				return func(self, rw_repo, rw_remote_repo)