diff --git a/drivers/irqchip/irq-mips-gic.c b/drivers/irqchip/irq-mips-gic.c
index 360b323a9862..f02cbf5cd8d6 100644
--- a/drivers/irqchip/irq-mips-gic.c
+++ b/drivers/irqchip/irq-mips-gic.c
@@ -309,7 +309,7 @@ static int gic_set_affinity(struct irq_data *d, const struct cpumask *cpumask,
 
 	cpumask_and(&tmp, cpumask, cpu_online_mask);
 	if (cpus_empty(tmp))
-		return -1;
+		return -EINVAL;
 
 	/* Assumption : cpumask refers to a single CPU */
 	spin_lock_irqsave(&gic_lock, flags);