diff --git a/arch/sparc/kernel/process_64.c b/arch/sparc/kernel/process_64.c
index 32a280ec38c1..d7b4967f8fa6 100644
--- a/arch/sparc/kernel/process_64.c
+++ b/arch/sparc/kernel/process_64.c
@@ -58,9 +58,12 @@ void arch_cpu_idle(void)
 {
 	if (tlb_type != hypervisor) {
 		touch_nmi_watchdog();
+		local_irq_enable();
 	} else {
 		unsigned long pstate;
 
+		local_irq_enable();
+
                 /* The sun4v sleeping code requires that we have PSTATE.IE cleared over
                  * the cpu sleep hypervisor call.
                  */
@@ -82,7 +85,6 @@ void arch_cpu_idle(void)
 			: "=&r" (pstate)
 			: "i" (PSTATE_IE));
 	}
-	local_irq_enable();
 }
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_HOTPLUG_CPU