diff --git a/drivers/infiniband/sw/rxe/rxe.c b/drivers/infiniband/sw/rxe/rxe.c
index 907203afbd99..77f2c7cd1216 100644
--- a/drivers/infiniband/sw/rxe/rxe.c
+++ b/drivers/infiniband/sw/rxe/rxe.c
@@ -40,6 +40,8 @@ MODULE_AUTHOR("Bob Pearson, Frank Zago, John Groves, Kamal Heib");
 MODULE_DESCRIPTION("Soft RDMA transport");
 MODULE_LICENSE("Dual BSD/GPL");
 
+bool rxe_initialized;
+
 /* free resources for a rxe device all objects created for this device must
  * have been destroyed
  */
@@ -315,6 +317,7 @@ static int __init rxe_module_init(void)
 		return err;
 
 	rdma_link_register(&rxe_link_ops);
+	rxe_initialized = true;
 	pr_info("loaded\n");
 	return 0;
 }
@@ -326,6 +329,7 @@ static void __exit rxe_module_exit(void)
 	rxe_net_exit();
 	rxe_cache_exit();
 
+	rxe_initialized = false;
 	pr_info("unloaded\n");
 }
 
diff --git a/drivers/infiniband/sw/rxe/rxe.h b/drivers/infiniband/sw/rxe/rxe.h
index fb07eed9e402..cae1b0a24c85 100644
--- a/drivers/infiniband/sw/rxe/rxe.h
+++ b/drivers/infiniband/sw/rxe/rxe.h
@@ -67,6 +67,8 @@
 
 #define RXE_ROCE_V2_SPORT		(0xc000)
 
+extern bool rxe_initialized;
+
 static inline u32 rxe_crc32(struct rxe_dev *rxe,
 			    u32 crc, void *next, size_t len)
 {
diff --git a/drivers/infiniband/sw/rxe/rxe_sysfs.c b/drivers/infiniband/sw/rxe/rxe_sysfs.c
index ccda5f5a3bc0..2af31d421bfc 100644
--- a/drivers/infiniband/sw/rxe/rxe_sysfs.c
+++ b/drivers/infiniband/sw/rxe/rxe_sysfs.c
@@ -61,6 +61,11 @@ static int rxe_param_set_add(const char *val, const struct kernel_param *kp)
 	struct net_device *ndev;
 	struct rxe_dev *exists;
 
+	if (!rxe_initialized) {
+		pr_err("Module parameters are not supported, use rdma link add or rxe_cfg\n");
+		return -EAGAIN;
+	}
+
 	len = sanitize_arg(val, intf, sizeof(intf));
 	if (!len) {
 		pr_err("add: invalid interface name\n");