diff --git a/tools/dev/bin/onos-karaf b/tools/dev/bin/onos-karaf
index 5be6cec..cb44ac0 100755
--- a/tools/dev/bin/onos-karaf
+++ b/tools/dev/bin/onos-karaf
@@ -4,13 +4,17 @@
 # karaf using the supplied arguments.
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
+. $ONOS_ROOT/tools/build/envDefaults
+if [ -L $ONOS_TAR ]; then
+  echo "WARN: This script does not support deploying buck artifacts"
+fi
+
 # FIXME: temporarily fix 500 error in GUI, need to be improved with a better way
 if echo $* | egrep "\bclean\b"; then
-    . $ONOS_ROOT/tools/build/envDefaults
     export KARAF_ROOT=${KARAF_ROOT:-~/Applications/apache-karaf-$KARAF_VERSION}
     export STAGE=$(dirname $KARAF_ROOT)
     echo "Removing data directories..."
     [ -d $KARAF_ROOT ] && rm -fr $STAGE/data
 fi
 
-onos-setup-karaf && karaf "$@"
\ No newline at end of file
+onos-setup-karaf && karaf "$@"