diff --git a/flyvr/common/__init__.py b/flyvr/common/__init__.py
index b5bc3018..5de6ba72 100644
--- a/flyvr/common/__init__.py
+++ b/flyvr/common/__init__.py
@@ -43,6 +43,9 @@ def __init__(self, options, logger, where='', _start_rx_thread=True):
 
         self._log = logging.getLogger('flyvr.common.SharedState%s' % (("(in='" + where + "')") if where else ''), )
 
+        if sys.platform == 'linux':
+            raise NotImplementedError('anonymous tagname based shared memory not supported on linux')
+
         # noinspection PyTypeChecker
         buf = mmap.mmap(-1,
                         ctypes.sizeof(SHMEMFlyVRState),
diff --git a/tests/common/test_state.py b/tests/common/test_state.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5b8f0aa5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/common/test_state.py
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+from flyvr.common import SharedState
+
+
+def test_init():
+    ss = SharedState(None, None)
\ No newline at end of file