diff --git a/kernel/sched/core.c b/kernel/sched/core.c
index fd2fce8a001b..02a20ef196a6 100644
--- a/kernel/sched/core.c
+++ b/kernel/sched/core.c
@@ -5859,11 +5859,14 @@ void __init sched_init_smp(void)
 	/*
 	 * There's no userspace yet to cause hotplug operations; hence all the
 	 * CPU masks are stable and all blatant races in the below code cannot
-	 * happen.
+	 * happen. The hotplug lock is nevertheless taken to satisfy lockdep,
+	 * but there won't be any contention on it.
 	 */
+	cpus_read_lock();
 	mutex_lock(&sched_domains_mutex);
 	sched_init_domains(cpu_active_mask);
 	mutex_unlock(&sched_domains_mutex);
+	cpus_read_unlock();
 
 	/* Move init over to a non-isolated CPU */
 	if (set_cpus_allowed_ptr(current, housekeeping_cpumask(HK_FLAG_DOMAIN)) < 0)