diff --git a/gdb/ChangeLog b/gdb/ChangeLog
index 55385b0070..be39a8651f 100644
--- a/gdb/ChangeLog
+++ b/gdb/ChangeLog
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@ Thu Jul  1 09:51:27 1993  Jim Kingdon  (kingdon@cygnus.com)
 	Define FETCH_INFERIOR_REGISTERS.
 	* config/mips/riscos.mh: Don't include coredep.o; mips-nat.o is enough.
 	Fix misspelling of NAT_FILE.
+	* mips-nat.c (fetch_core_registers): If KERNEL_U_ADDR is not defined,
+	we can still process "modern" core files.
 
 	* ser-unix.c (hardwire_print_tty_state) [HAVE_TERMIOS]: Don't
 	print c_line.
diff --git a/gdb/mips-nat.c b/gdb/mips-nat.c
index b585850e91..bcdec8714c 100644
--- a/gdb/mips-nat.c
+++ b/gdb/mips-nat.c
@@ -193,7 +193,11 @@ fetch_core_registers (core_reg_sect, core_reg_size, which, reg_addr)
      core file without a upage, reg_ptr will be zero and this is all a big
      NOP.  */
   if (reg_ptr > core_reg_size)
+#ifdef KERNEL_U_ADDR
     reg_ptr -= KERNEL_U_ADDR;
+#else
+    error ("Old mips core file can't be processed on this machine.");
+#endif
 
   for (regno = 0; regno < NUM_REGS; regno++)
     {