diff --git a/vm-virtio/src/vsock/csm/txbuf.rs b/vm-virtio/src/vsock/csm/txbuf.rs
index 1601b85ec..8e450b112 100644
--- a/vm-virtio/src/vsock/csm/txbuf.rs
+++ b/vm-virtio/src/vsock/csm/txbuf.rs
@@ -138,7 +138,11 @@ impl TxBuf {
         // Attempt our second write. This will return immediately if a second write isn't
         // needed, since checking for an empty buffer is the first thing we do in this
         // function.
-        Ok(written + self.flush_to(sink)?)
+        //
+        // Interesting corner case: if we've already written some data in the first pass,
+        // and then the second write fails, we will consider the flush action a success
+        // and return the number of bytes written in the first pass.
+        Ok(written + self.flush_to(sink).unwrap_or(0))
     }
 
     /// Check if the buffer holds any data that hasn't yet been flushed out.