diff --git a/drivers/char/tpm/tpm.c b/drivers/char/tpm/tpm.c
index 1f46f1cd9225c3c0d2a894bc80d3d1e74fe012e7..36e0fa161c2bf0b46206a6e0af00698935ad158b 100644
--- a/drivers/char/tpm/tpm.c
+++ b/drivers/char/tpm/tpm.c
@@ -364,12 +364,14 @@ unsigned long tpm_calc_ordinal_duration(struct tpm_chip *chip,
 		    tpm_protected_ordinal_duration[ordinal &
 						   TPM_PROTECTED_ORDINAL_MASK];
 
-	if (duration_idx != TPM_UNDEFINED)
+	if (duration_idx != TPM_UNDEFINED) {
 		duration = chip->vendor.duration[duration_idx];
-	if (duration <= 0)
+		/* if duration is 0, it's because chip->vendor.duration wasn't */
+		/* filled yet, so we set the lowest timeout just to give enough */
+		/* time for tpm_get_timeouts() to succeed */
+		return (duration <= 0 ? HZ : duration);
+	} else
 		return 2 * 60 * HZ;
-	else
-		return duration;
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(tpm_calc_ordinal_duration);