diff --git a/kernel/sched/ext/ext.c b/kernel/sched/ext/ext.c
index 2dc6977d7984..40cef77394ac 100644
--- a/kernel/sched/ext/ext.c
+++ b/kernel/sched/ext/ext.c
@@ -7746,6 +7746,12 @@ static void scx_sub_enable_workfn(struct kthread_work *work)
 	percpu_up_write(&scx_fork_rwsem);
 err_disable:
 	mutex_unlock(&scx_enable_mutex);
+	/*
+	 * Some enable failures only return an errno (e.g. -ENOMEM from an
+	 * allocation) without calling scx_error(). Record it so
+	 * scx_flush_disable_work() runs the disable and ops.exit() fires.
+	 */
+	scx_error(sch, "scx_sub_enable() failed (%d)", ret);
 	scx_flush_disable_work(sch);
 	cmd->ret = 0;
 }