diff --git a/arch/arm64/mm/dma-mapping.c b/arch/arm64/mm/dma-mapping.c
index ebd78f5de4c4..8a924233b9b7 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/mm/dma-mapping.c
+++ b/arch/arm64/mm/dma-mapping.c
@@ -541,6 +541,7 @@ static void *__dummy_alloc(struct device *dev, size_t size,
 			   dma_addr_t *dma_handle, gfp_t flags,
 			   struct dma_attrs *attrs)
 {
+	WARN(1, "dma alloc failure, device may be missing a call to arch_setup_dma_ops");
 	return NULL;
 }