diff --git a/src/main/c/src/SerialImp.c b/src/main/c/src/SerialImp.c
index 3b7c5e25..5c690411 100644
--- a/src/main/c/src/SerialImp.c
+++ b/src/main/c/src/SerialImp.c
@@ -4458,11 +4458,6 @@ JNIEXPORT jboolean  JNICALL RXTXCommDriver(testRead)(
 		int saved_flags;
 		struct termios saved_termios;
 
-		if (tcgetattr(fd, &ttyset) < 0) {
-			ret = JNI_FALSE;
-			goto END;
-		}
-
 		/* save, restore later */
 		if ( ( saved_flags = fcntl(fd, F_GETFL ) ) < 0 )
 		{
@@ -4471,6 +4466,12 @@ JNIEXPORT jboolean  JNICALL RXTXCommDriver(testRead)(
 			goto END;
 		}
 
+		if (tcgetattr(fd, &ttyset) < 0) {
+			if (errno == EINVAL || errno == ENOTTY) goto NOT_TERMINAL;
+			ret = JNI_FALSE;
+			goto END;
+		}
+
 		memcpy( &saved_termios, &ttyset, sizeof( struct termios ) );
 
 		if ( fcntl( fd, F_SETFL, O_NONBLOCK ) < 0 )
@@ -4490,7 +4491,7 @@ JNIEXPORT jboolean  JNICALL RXTXCommDriver(testRead)(
 			tcsetattr( fd, TCSANOW, &saved_termios );
 			goto END;
 		}
-
+NOT_TERMINAL:
 /*
 
               The following may mess up if both EAGAIN and EWOULDBLOCK