diff --git a/drivers/md/bitmap.c b/drivers/md/bitmap.c
index 2bc56e2a35262141859f8da21d09a54dec852e52..135a0907e9de413d140e9fb9b793a91b638a1606 100644
--- a/drivers/md/bitmap.c
+++ b/drivers/md/bitmap.c
@@ -177,11 +177,16 @@ static struct md_rdev *next_active_rdev(struct md_rdev *rdev, struct mddev *mdde
 	 * nr_pending is 0 and In_sync is clear, the entries we return will
 	 * still be in the same position on the list when we re-enter
 	 * list_for_each_entry_continue_rcu.
+	 *
+	 * Note that if entered with 'rdev == NULL' to start at the
+	 * beginning, we temporarily assign 'rdev' to an address which
+	 * isn't really an rdev, but which can be used by
+	 * list_for_each_entry_continue_rcu() to find the first entry.
 	 */
 	rcu_read_lock();
 	if (rdev == NULL)
 		/* start at the beginning */
-		rdev = list_entry_rcu(&mddev->disks, struct md_rdev, same_set);
+		rdev = list_entry(&mddev->disks, struct md_rdev, same_set);
 	else {
 		/* release the previous rdev and start from there. */
 		rdev_dec_pending(rdev, mddev);