diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 8af6cd441..3ea8033a9 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 2009-07-01  Pavel Roskin  <proski@gnu.org>
 
+	* util/hostdisk.c (open_device): Remove `const' from
+	`sysctl_size', as sysctlbyname() can change it (in this case it
+	doesn't actually happen).
+
 	* include/grub/types.h: Define GRUB_LONG_MAX and GRUB_LONG_MIN
 	using signed long int constants.
 
diff --git a/util/hostdisk.c b/util/hostdisk.c
index 40052653a..d84e7f3bf 100644
--- a/util/hostdisk.c
+++ b/util/hostdisk.c
@@ -344,7 +344,7 @@ open_device (const grub_disk_t disk, grub_disk_addr_t sector, int flags)
 #else /* ! __linux__ */
 #if defined (__FreeBSD__) || defined(__FreeBSD_kernel__)
   int sysctl_flags, sysctl_oldflags;
-  const size_t sysctl_size = sizeof (sysctl_flags);
+  size_t sysctl_size = sizeof (sysctl_flags);
 
   if (sysctlbyname ("kern.geom.debugflags", &sysctl_oldflags, &sysctl_size, NULL, 0))
     {