diff --git a/drivers/base/devtmpfs.c b/drivers/base/devtmpfs.c
index c9017e0584c0..d697634bc0d4 100644
--- a/drivers/base/devtmpfs.c
+++ b/drivers/base/devtmpfs.c
@@ -378,30 +378,8 @@ static int handle(const char *name, umode_t mode, kuid_t uid, kgid_t gid,
 		return handle_remove(name, dev);
 }
 
-static int devtmpfs_setup(void *p)
+static void __noreturn devtmpfs_work_loop(void)
 {
-	int err;
-
-	err = ksys_unshare(CLONE_NEWNS);
-	if (err)
-		goto out;
-	err = do_mount("devtmpfs", "/", "devtmpfs", MS_SILENT, NULL);
-	if (err)
-		goto out;
-	ksys_chdir("/.."); /* will traverse into overmounted root */
-	ksys_chroot(".");
-out:
-	*(int *)p = err;
-	complete(&setup_done);
-	return err;
-}
-
-static int devtmpfsd(void *p)
-{
-	int err = devtmpfs_setup(p);
-
-	if (err)
-		return err;
 	while (1) {
 		spin_lock(&req_lock);
 		while (requests) {
@@ -421,6 +399,38 @@ static int devtmpfsd(void *p)
 		spin_unlock(&req_lock);
 		schedule();
 	}
+}
+
+static int __init devtmpfs_setup(void *p)
+{
+	int err;
+
+	err = ksys_unshare(CLONE_NEWNS);
+	if (err)
+		goto out;
+	err = do_mount("devtmpfs", "/", "devtmpfs", MS_SILENT, NULL);
+	if (err)
+		goto out;
+	ksys_chdir("/.."); /* will traverse into overmounted root */
+	ksys_chroot(".");
+out:
+	*(int *)p = err;
+	complete(&setup_done);
+	return err;
+}
+
+/*
+ * The __ref is because devtmpfs_setup needs to be __init for the routines it
+ * calls.  That call is done while devtmpfs_init, which is marked __init,
+ * synchronously waits for it to complete.
+ */
+static int __ref devtmpfsd(void *p)
+{
+	int err = devtmpfs_setup(p);
+
+	if (err)
+		return err;
+	devtmpfs_work_loop();
 	return 0;
 }