diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/pensando/ionic/ionic_lif.c b/drivers/net/ethernet/pensando/ionic/ionic_lif.c
index 5e2dfa79f0e4..e51d8be7911c 100644
--- a/drivers/net/ethernet/pensando/ionic/ionic_lif.c
+++ b/drivers/net/ethernet/pensando/ionic/ionic_lif.c
@@ -573,13 +573,15 @@ static int ionic_qcq_alloc(struct ionic_lif *lif, unsigned int type,
 	}
 
 	if (flags & IONIC_QCQ_F_NOTIFYQ) {
-		int q_size, cq_size;
+		int q_size;
 
-		/* q & cq need to be contiguous in case of notifyq */
+		/* q & cq need to be contiguous in NotifyQ, so alloc it all in q
+		 * and don't alloc qc.  We leave new->qc_size and new->qc_base
+		 * as 0 to be sure we don't try to free it later.
+		 */
 		q_size = ALIGN(num_descs * desc_size, PAGE_SIZE);
-		cq_size = ALIGN(num_descs * cq_desc_size, PAGE_SIZE);
-
-		new->q_size = PAGE_SIZE + q_size + cq_size;
+		new->q_size = PAGE_SIZE + q_size +
+			      ALIGN(num_descs * cq_desc_size, PAGE_SIZE);
 		new->q_base = dma_alloc_coherent(dev, new->q_size,
 						 &new->q_base_pa, GFP_KERNEL);
 		if (!new->q_base) {