diff --git a/arch/arm/plat-omap/dma.c b/arch/arm/plat-omap/dma.c
index b5608b1f9fbdf5da32bf354643c1c842a755df83..1c98659bbf89e03168e65c22ac2e5836fa3c982f 100644
--- a/arch/arm/plat-omap/dma.c
+++ b/arch/arm/plat-omap/dma.c
@@ -698,6 +698,8 @@ int omap_request_dma(int dev_id, const char *dev_name,
 	unsigned long flags;
 	struct omap_dma_lch *chan;
 
+	WARN(strcmp(dev_name, "DMA engine"), "Using deprecated platform DMA API - please update to DMA engine");
+
 	spin_lock_irqsave(&dma_chan_lock, flags);
 	for (ch = 0; ch < dma_chan_count; ch++) {
 		if (free_ch == -1 && dma_chan[ch].dev_id == -1) {