diff --git a/src/fe-text/textbuffer-view.c b/src/fe-text/textbuffer-view.c
index a8d8a3f8..1af4220a 100644
--- a/src/fe-text/textbuffer-view.c
+++ b/src/fe-text/textbuffer-view.c
@@ -586,9 +586,6 @@ void textbuffer_view_resize(TEXT_BUFFER_VIEW_REC *view, int width, int height)
         g_return_if_fail(view != NULL);
         g_return_if_fail(width > 0);
 
-	if (view->buffer->lines == NULL)
-                return;
-
 	if (view->width != width) {
                 /* line cache needs to be recreated */
 		textbuffer_cache_unref(view->cache);
@@ -598,6 +595,11 @@ void textbuffer_view_resize(TEXT_BUFFER_VIEW_REC *view, int width, int height)
 	view->width = width;
 	view->height = height;
 
+	if (view->buffer->lines == NULL) {
+                view->empty_linecount = height;
+		return;
+	}
+
 	textbuffer_view_init_bottom(view);
 
 	/* check that we didn't scroll lower than bottom startline.. */