diff --git a/src/lxc/start.c b/src/lxc/start.c
index bb7009ba8..fc98eb396 100644
--- a/src/lxc/start.c
+++ b/src/lxc/start.c
@@ -710,6 +710,7 @@ static int do_start(void *data)
 {
 	struct lxc_list *iterator;
 	struct lxc_handler *handler = data;
+	int devnull_fd = -1;
 
 	if (sigprocmask(SIG_SETMASK, &handler->oldmask, NULL)) {
 		SYSERROR("failed to set sigprocmask");
@@ -788,6 +789,13 @@ static int do_start(void *data)
 	}
 	#endif
 
+	if (handler->backgrounded) {
+		devnull_fd = open_devnull();
+
+		if (devnull_fd < 0)
+			goto out_warn_father;
+	}
+
 	/* Setup the container, ip, names, utsname, ... */
 	if (lxc_setup(handler)) {
 		ERROR("failed to setup the container");
@@ -796,7 +804,7 @@ static int do_start(void *data)
 
 	/* ask father to setup cgroups and wait for him to finish */
 	if (lxc_sync_barrier_parent(handler, LXC_SYNC_CGROUP))
-		return -1;
+		goto out_error;
 
 	/* Set the label to change to when we exec(2) the container's init */
 	if (lsm_process_label_set(NULL, handler->conf, 1, 1) < 0)
@@ -853,9 +861,14 @@ static int do_start(void *data)
 
 	close(handler->sigfd);
 
-	if (handler->backgrounded && null_stdfds() < 0)
+	if (handler->backgrounded && set_stdfds(devnull_fd))
 		goto out_warn_father;
 
+	if (devnull_fd >= 0) {
+		close(devnull_fd);
+		devnull_fd = -1;
+	}
+
 	if (cgns_supported() && unshare(CLONE_NEWCGROUP) != 0) {
 		SYSERROR("Failed to unshare cgroup namespace");
 		goto out_warn_father;
@@ -871,6 +884,11 @@ out_warn_father:
 	/* we want the parent to know something went wrong, so we return a special
 	 * error code. */
 	lxc_sync_wake_parent(handler, LXC_SYNC_ERROR);
+
+out_error:
+	if (devnull_fd >= 0)
+		close(devnull_fd);
+
 	return -1;
 }