diff --git a/arch/x86/kernel/e820.c b/arch/x86/kernel/e820.c
index 2a9992758933..eb72537bc0b1 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kernel/e820.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kernel/e820.c
@@ -450,6 +450,10 @@ __init static int append_e820_table(struct boot_e820_entry *entries, u32 nr_entr
 {
 	struct boot_e820_entry *entry = entries;
 
+	/* If there aren't any entries, we'll want to fall back to another source: */
+	if (!nr_entries)
+		return -ENOENT;
+
 	while (nr_entries) {
 		u64 start = entry->addr;
 		u64 size  = entry->size;
@@ -458,7 +462,7 @@ __init static int append_e820_table(struct boot_e820_entry *entries, u32 nr_entr
 
 		/* Ignore the remaining entries on 64-bit overflow: */
 		if (start > end && likely(size))
-			return -1;
+			return -EINVAL;
 
 		e820__range_add(start, size, type);