diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/error.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/error.go
index b67b395da41..ea0ae67091b 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/error.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/error.go
@@ -73,28 +73,25 @@ type preflightError interface {
 // checkErr formats a given error as a string and calls the passed handleErr
 // func with that string and an exit code.
 func checkErr(err error, handleErr func(string, int)) {
+	if err == nil {
+		return
+	}
 
-	var msg string
-	if err != nil {
-		msg = fmt.Sprintf("%s\nTo see the stack trace of this error execute with --v=5 or higher", err.Error())
-		// check if the verbosity level in klog is high enough and print a stack trace.
-		f := flag.CommandLine.Lookup("v")
-		if f != nil {
-			// assume that the "v" flag contains a parseable Int32 as per klog's "Level" type alias,
-			// thus no error from ParseInt is handled here.
-			if v, e := strconv.ParseInt(f.Value.String(), 10, 32); e == nil {
-				// https://git.k8s.io/community/contributors/devel/sig-instrumentation/logging.md
-				// klog.V(5) - Trace level verbosity
-				if v > 4 {
-					msg = fmt.Sprintf("%+v", err)
-				}
+	msg := fmt.Sprintf("%s\nTo see the stack trace of this error execute with --v=5 or higher", err.Error())
+	// check if the verbosity level in klog is high enough and print a stack trace.
+	f := flag.CommandLine.Lookup("v")
+	if f != nil {
+		// assume that the "v" flag contains a parseable Int32 as per klog's "Level" type alias,
+		// thus no error from ParseInt is handled here.
+		if v, e := strconv.ParseInt(f.Value.String(), 10, 32); e == nil {
+			// https://git.k8s.io/community/contributors/devel/sig-instrumentation/logging.md
+			// klog.V(5) - Trace level verbosity
+			if v > 4 {
+				msg = fmt.Sprintf("%+v", err)
 			}
 		}
 	}
 
-	if err == nil {
-		return
-	}
 	switch {
 	case err == ErrExit:
 		handleErr("", DefaultErrorExitCode)