diff --git a/Documentation/driver-api/virtio/writing_virtio_drivers.rst b/Documentation/driver-api/virtio/writing_virtio_drivers.rst
index e14c58796d25..e5de6f5d061a 100644
--- a/Documentation/driver-api/virtio/writing_virtio_drivers.rst
+++ b/Documentation/driver-api/virtio/writing_virtio_drivers.rst
@@ -97,7 +97,6 @@ like this::
 
 	static struct virtio_driver virtio_dummy_driver = {
 		.driver.name =  KBUILD_MODNAME,
-		.driver.owner = THIS_MODULE,
 		.id_table =     id_table,
 		.probe =        virtio_dummy_probe,
 		.remove =       virtio_dummy_remove,
diff --git a/drivers/virtio/virtio.c b/drivers/virtio/virtio.c
index f173587893cb..9510c551dce8 100644
--- a/drivers/virtio/virtio.c
+++ b/drivers/virtio/virtio.c
@@ -362,14 +362,16 @@ static const struct bus_type virtio_bus = {
 	.remove = virtio_dev_remove,
 };
 
-int register_virtio_driver(struct virtio_driver *driver)
+int __register_virtio_driver(struct virtio_driver *driver, struct module *owner)
 {
 	/* Catch this early. */
 	BUG_ON(driver->feature_table_size && !driver->feature_table);
 	driver->driver.bus = &virtio_bus;
+	driver->driver.owner = owner;
+
 	return driver_register(&driver->driver);
 }
-EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(register_virtio_driver);
+EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(__register_virtio_driver);
 
 void unregister_virtio_driver(struct virtio_driver *driver)
 {
diff --git a/include/linux/virtio.h b/include/linux/virtio.h
index b0201747a263..26c4325aa373 100644
--- a/include/linux/virtio.h
+++ b/include/linux/virtio.h
@@ -170,7 +170,7 @@ size_t virtio_max_dma_size(const struct virtio_device *vdev);
 
 /**
  * struct virtio_driver - operations for a virtio I/O driver
- * @driver: underlying device driver (populate name and owner).
+ * @driver: underlying device driver (populate name).
  * @id_table: the ids serviced by this driver.
  * @feature_table: an array of feature numbers supported by this driver.
  * @feature_table_size: number of entries in the feature table array.
@@ -208,7 +208,10 @@ static inline struct virtio_driver *drv_to_virtio(struct device_driver *drv)
 	return container_of(drv, struct virtio_driver, driver);
 }
 
-int register_virtio_driver(struct virtio_driver *drv);
+/* use a macro to avoid include chaining to get THIS_MODULE */
+#define register_virtio_driver(drv) \
+	__register_virtio_driver(drv, THIS_MODULE)
+int __register_virtio_driver(struct virtio_driver *drv, struct module *owner);
 void unregister_virtio_driver(struct virtio_driver *drv);
 
 /* module_virtio_driver() - Helper macro for drivers that don't do