diff --git a/src/kaleidoscope/Runtime.cpp b/src/kaleidoscope/Runtime.cpp
index 2a958cb4..0618a4f0 100644
--- a/src/kaleidoscope/Runtime.cpp
+++ b/src/kaleidoscope/Runtime.cpp
@@ -37,6 +37,11 @@ Runtime_::Runtime_(void) {
 
 // ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 void Runtime_::setup(void) {
+  // Before doing anything else, initialize the device, so that whatever the
+  // rest of the hooks we'll call do, they'll be able to rely on an initialized
+  // device.
+  device().setup();
+
   // We are explicitly initializing the Serial port as early as possible to
   // (temporarily, hopefully) work around an issue on OSX. If we initialize
   // Serial too late, no matter what we do, we'll end up reading garbage from
@@ -50,8 +55,6 @@ void Runtime_::setup(void) {
   kaleidoscope::sketch_exploration::pluginsExploreSketch();
   kaleidoscope::Hooks::onSetup();
 
-  device().setup();
-
   // Clear the keyboard state array (all keys idle at start)
   live_keys.clear();