diff --git a/gtkcalls_unix.go b/gtkcalls_unix.go
index b6da4d6..21b46b9 100644
--- a/gtkcalls_unix.go
+++ b/gtkcalls_unix.go
@@ -12,11 +12,10 @@ import (
 
 // #include "gtk_unix.h"
 // /* TODO this doesn't need to be in C; it is because an earlier version did it wrong and depended on a function (g_object_set()) that took ..., which cgo doesn't like... but is it safe to embed \0 in a Go string? */
-// static inline char *gtkProgressBarAllowArbitraryResize(GtkWidget *pbar)
+// static inline GError *gtkProgressBarAllowArbitraryResize()
 // {
 // 	/* min-horizontal-bar-width is a style property; we do it through CSS */
 // 	/* thanks tristan in irc.gimp.net/#gtk+ */
-// 	/* TODO find out how to make it an application default */
 // 	static gchar style[] =
 // 		"* {\n"
 // 		"	-GtkProgressBar-min-horizontal-bar-width: 1;\n"
@@ -26,8 +25,10 @@ import (
 // 
 // 	provider = gtk_css_provider_new();
 // 	if (gtk_css_provider_load_from_data(provider, style, -1, &err) == FALSE)
-// 		return (char *) g_strdup(err->message);
-// 	gtk_style_context_add_provider(gtk_widget_get_style_context(pbar),
+// 		return err;
+// 	/* GDK (at least as far back as GTK+ 3.4, but officially documented as of 3.10) merges all screens into one big one, so we don't need to worry about multimonitor */
+// 	/* thanks to baedert and mclasen in irc.gimp.net/#gtk+ */
+// 	gtk_style_context_add_provider_for_screen(gdk_screen_get_default(),
 // 		(GtkStyleProvider *) provider, GTK_STYLE_PROVIDER_PRIORITY_USER);
 // 	return NULL;
 // }
@@ -40,7 +41,13 @@ func gtk_init() error {
 	// TODO allow GTK+ standard command-line argument processing?
 	result := C.gtk_init_with_args(nil, nil, nil, nil, nil, &err)
 	if result == C.FALSE {
-		return fmt.Errorf("%s", fromgstr(err.message))
+		return fmt.Errorf("error actually initilaizing GTK+: %s", fromgstr(err.message))
+	}
+	// otherwise progress bars can't be resized smaller than some predetermined size
+	err = C.gtkProgressBarAllowArbitraryResize()
+	if err != nil {
+		defer C.g_free(C.gpointer(unsafe.Pointer(err)))
+		return fmt.Errorf("error allowing ProgressBar to be arbitrarily resized: %s", fromgstr(err.message))
 	}
 	return nil
 }
@@ -255,14 +262,7 @@ func gtk_widget_get_preferred_size(widget *C.GtkWidget) (minWidth int, minHeight
 }
 
 func gtk_progress_bar_new() *C.GtkWidget {
-	p := C.gtk_progress_bar_new()
-	// otherwise the progress bar can't be resized smaller than some predetermined size
-	err := C.gtkProgressBarAllowArbitraryResize(p)
-	if err != nil {
-		defer C.g_free(C.gpointer(unsafe.Pointer(err)))
-		panic(fmt.Errorf("error allowing ProgressBar to be arbitrarily resized: %s", C.GoString(err)))
-	}
-	return p
+	return C.gtk_progress_bar_new()
 }
 
 func gtk_progress_bar_set_fraction(w *C.GtkWidget, percent int) {