diff --git a/drivers/staging/lustre/lustre/obdclass/capa.c b/drivers/staging/lustre/lustre/obdclass/capa.c
index 86deee5e70d1..be1c613383a6 100644
--- a/drivers/staging/lustre/lustre/obdclass/capa.c
+++ b/drivers/staging/lustre/lustre/obdclass/capa.c
@@ -272,10 +272,10 @@ int capa_hmac(__u8 *hmac, struct lustre_capa *capa, __u8 *key)
 	alg = &capa_hmac_algs[capa_alg(capa)];
 
 	tfm = crypto_alloc_hash(alg->ha_name, 0, 0);
-	if (!tfm) {
+	if (IS_ERR(tfm)) {
 		CERROR("crypto_alloc_tfm failed, check whether your kernel"
 		       "has crypto support!\n");
-		return -ENOMEM;
+		return PTR_ERR(tfm);
 	}
 	keylen = alg->ha_keylen;