diff --git a/plugins/input/osm/build.py b/plugins/input/osm/build.py
index 8355ef5cc..2e95f66d9 100644
--- a/plugins/input/osm/build.py
+++ b/plugins/input/osm/build.py
@@ -41,6 +41,8 @@ libraries = [ 'xml2' ]
 libraries.append('curl')
 libraries.append('mapnik')
 libraries.append(env['ICU_LIB_NAME'])
+libraries.append('boost_system%s' % env['BOOST_APPEND'])
+libraries.append('boost_filesystem%s' % env['BOOST_APPEND'])
 
 input_plugin = plugin_env.SharedLibrary('../osm', source=osm_src, SHLIBPREFIX='', SHLIBSUFFIX='.input', LIBS=libraries, LINKFLAGS=env['CUSTOM_LDFLAGS'])
 
diff --git a/plugins/input/osm/dataset_deliverer.cpp b/plugins/input/osm/dataset_deliverer.cpp
index 6bb33670d..694bcd8a7 100644
--- a/plugins/input/osm/dataset_deliverer.cpp
+++ b/plugins/input/osm/dataset_deliverer.cpp
@@ -20,6 +20,8 @@
  *
  *****************************************************************************/
 
+#include <mapnik/datasource.hpp>
+#include <boost/filesystem/operations.hpp>
 #include "dataset_deliverer.h"
 #include "basiccurl.h"
 #include <sstream>
@@ -33,6 +35,11 @@ osm_dataset* dataset_deliverer::load_from_file(const string& file, const string&
     // Only actually load from file if we haven't done so already
     if (dataset == NULL)
     {
+        if (!boost::filesystem::exists(file))
+        {
+            throw mapnik::datasource_exception("OSM Plugin: '" + file + "' does not exist");
+        }
+
         dataset = new osm_dataset;
         if (dataset->load(file.c_str(), parser) == false)
         {
diff --git a/plugins/input/osm/osm_datasource.cpp b/plugins/input/osm/osm_datasource.cpp
index 570346670..3098c992f 100644
--- a/plugins/input/osm/osm_datasource.cpp
+++ b/plugins/input/osm/osm_datasource.cpp
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 
 // stl
 #include <iostream>
+#include <sstream>
 #include <fstream>
 #include <stdexcept>
 #include <set>
@@ -91,7 +92,9 @@ void osm_datasource::bind() const
     {
         if ((osm_data_= dataset_deliverer::load_from_file(osm_filename, parser)) == NULL)
         {
-            throw datasource_exception("Error loading from file");
+            std::ostringstream s;
+            s << "OSM Plugin: Error loading from file '" << osm_filename << "'";
+            throw datasource_exception(s.str());
         }
 
         do_process = true;