diff --git a/arch/sparc/kernel/mdesc.c b/arch/sparc/kernel/mdesc.c
index 99632a87e697bcc37fd4ba3fd9de8bb395cdb9e3..26c80e18d7b1b47bd74e9fce01bdb48eeb88fcbd 100644
--- a/arch/sparc/kernel/mdesc.c
+++ b/arch/sparc/kernel/mdesc.c
@@ -130,26 +130,26 @@ static struct mdesc_mem_ops memblock_mdesc_ops = {
 static struct mdesc_handle *mdesc_kmalloc(unsigned int mdesc_size)
 {
 	unsigned int handle_size;
+	struct mdesc_handle *hp;
+	unsigned long addr;
 	void *base;
 
 	handle_size = (sizeof(struct mdesc_handle) -
 		       sizeof(struct mdesc_hdr) +
 		       mdesc_size);
 
+	/*
+	 * Allocation has to succeed because mdesc update would be missed
+	 * and such events are not retransmitted.
+	 */
 	base = kmalloc(handle_size + 15, GFP_KERNEL | __GFP_NOFAIL);
-	if (base) {
-		struct mdesc_handle *hp;
-		unsigned long addr;
-
-		addr = (unsigned long)base;
-		addr = (addr + 15UL) & ~15UL;
-		hp = (struct mdesc_handle *) addr;
+	addr = (unsigned long)base;
+	addr = (addr + 15UL) & ~15UL;
+	hp = (struct mdesc_handle *) addr;
 
-		mdesc_handle_init(hp, handle_size, base);
-		return hp;
-	}
+	mdesc_handle_init(hp, handle_size, base);
 
-	return NULL;
+	return hp;
 }
 
 static void mdesc_kfree(struct mdesc_handle *hp)