diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/i40e/i40e_ethtool.c b/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/i40e/i40e_ethtool.c
index 6fd730ac23a107b76c74ce21cb704e19eba91b10..51a994d858708d455a2f3062c822588e51427957 100644
--- a/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/i40e/i40e_ethtool.c
+++ b/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/i40e/i40e_ethtool.c
@@ -1274,6 +1274,13 @@ static int i40e_set_ringparam(struct net_device *netdev,
 		}
 
 		for (i = 0; i < vsi->num_queue_pairs; i++) {
+			/* this is to allow wr32 to have something to write to
+			 * during early allocation of Rx buffers
+			 */
+			u32 __iomem faketail = 0;
+			struct i40e_ring *ring;
+			u16 unused;
+
 			/* clone ring and setup updated count */
 			rx_rings[i] = *vsi->rx_rings[i];
 			rx_rings[i].count = new_rx_count;
@@ -1282,12 +1289,22 @@ static int i40e_set_ringparam(struct net_device *netdev,
 			 */
 			rx_rings[i].desc = NULL;
 			rx_rings[i].rx_bi = NULL;
+			rx_rings[i].tail = (u8 __iomem *)&faketail;
 			err = i40e_setup_rx_descriptors(&rx_rings[i]);
+			if (err)
+				goto rx_unwind;
+
+			/* now allocate the Rx buffers to make sure the OS
+			 * has enough memory, any failure here means abort
+			 */
+			ring = &rx_rings[i];
+			unused = I40E_DESC_UNUSED(ring);
+			err = i40e_alloc_rx_buffers(ring, unused);
+rx_unwind:
 			if (err) {
-				while (i) {
-					i--;
+				do {
 					i40e_free_rx_resources(&rx_rings[i]);
-				}
+				} while (i--);
 				kfree(rx_rings);
 				rx_rings = NULL;
 
@@ -1313,6 +1330,17 @@ static int i40e_set_ringparam(struct net_device *netdev,
 	if (rx_rings) {
 		for (i = 0; i < vsi->num_queue_pairs; i++) {
 			i40e_free_rx_resources(vsi->rx_rings[i]);
+			/* get the real tail offset */
+			rx_rings[i].tail = vsi->rx_rings[i]->tail;
+			/* this is to fake out the allocation routine
+			 * into thinking it has to realloc everything
+			 * but the recycling logic will let us re-use
+			 * the buffers allocated above
+			 */
+			rx_rings[i].next_to_use = 0;
+			rx_rings[i].next_to_clean = 0;
+			rx_rings[i].next_to_alloc = 0;
+			/* do a struct copy */
 			*vsi->rx_rings[i] = rx_rings[i];
 		}
 		kfree(rx_rings);