diff --git a/arch/mips/cavium-octeon/Kconfig b/arch/mips/cavium-octeon/Kconfig
index 094c17e38e163ab691b71bef78710f73848c7645..47323ca452dcbde751536c58c9f613dd1d9d51c8 100644
--- a/arch/mips/cavium-octeon/Kconfig
+++ b/arch/mips/cavium-octeon/Kconfig
@@ -83,3 +83,7 @@ config ARCH_SPARSEMEM_ENABLE
 	def_bool y
 	select SPARSEMEM_STATIC
 	depends on CPU_CAVIUM_OCTEON
+
+config CAVIUM_OCTEON_HELPER
+	def_bool y
+	depends on OCTEON_ETHERNET || PCI
diff --git a/arch/mips/cavium-octeon/executive/Makefile b/arch/mips/cavium-octeon/executive/Makefile
index 2fd66db6939e0f981c338015127c69788d960843..7f41c5be2190ddca03fc92a00e8f21bd735414f5 100644
--- a/arch/mips/cavium-octeon/executive/Makefile
+++ b/arch/mips/cavium-octeon/executive/Makefile
@@ -11,4 +11,4 @@
 
 obj-y += cvmx-bootmem.o cvmx-l2c.o cvmx-sysinfo.o octeon-model.o
 
-obj-$(CONFIG_PCI) += cvmx-helper-errata.o cvmx-helper-jtag.o
+obj-$(CONFIG_CAVIUM_OCTEON_HELPER) += cvmx-helper-errata.o cvmx-helper-jtag.o