diff --git a/drivers/cpufreq/cpufreq.c b/drivers/cpufreq/cpufreq.c
index 52566f1f1050..f53fb41efb7b 100644
--- a/drivers/cpufreq/cpufreq.c
+++ b/drivers/cpufreq/cpufreq.c
@@ -923,7 +923,12 @@ static ssize_t store(struct kobject *kobj, struct attribute *attr,
 	struct freq_attr *fattr = to_attr(attr);
 	ssize_t ret = -EINVAL;
 
-	cpus_read_lock();
+	/*
+	 * cpus_read_trylock() is used here to work around a circular lock
+	 * dependency problem with respect to the cpufreq_register_driver().
+	 */
+	if (!cpus_read_trylock())
+		return -EBUSY;
 
 	if (cpu_online(policy->cpu)) {
 		down_write(&policy->rwsem);