diff --git a/Documentation/blockdev/cciss.txt b/Documentation/blockdev/cciss.txt
index 71464e09ec18..b79d0a13e7cd 100644
--- a/Documentation/blockdev/cciss.txt
+++ b/Documentation/blockdev/cciss.txt
@@ -98,14 +98,12 @@ You must enable "SCSI tape drive support for Smart Array 5xxx" and
 "SCSI support" in your kernel configuration to be able to use SCSI
 tape drives with your Smart Array 5xxx controller.
 
-Additionally, note that the driver will not engage the SCSI core at init 
-time.  The driver must be directed to dynamically engage the SCSI core via 
-the /proc filesystem entry which the "block" side of the driver creates as 
-/proc/driver/cciss/cciss* at runtime.  This is because at driver init time, 
-the SCSI core may not yet be initialized (because the driver is a block 
-driver) and attempting to register it with the SCSI core in such a case 
-would cause a hang.  This is best done via an initialization script 
-(typically in /etc/init.d, but could vary depending on distribution). 
+Additionally, note that the driver will engage the SCSI core at init
+time if any tape drives or medium changers are detected.  The driver may
+also be directed to dynamically engage the SCSI core via the /proc filesystem
+entry which the "block" side of the driver creates as
+/proc/driver/cciss/cciss* at runtime.  This is best done via a script.
+
 For example:
 
 	for x in /proc/driver/cciss/cciss[0-9]*
diff --git a/drivers/block/cciss.c b/drivers/block/cciss.c
index 5b690194dd99..8004ac30a7a8 100644
--- a/drivers/block/cciss.c
+++ b/drivers/block/cciss.c
@@ -5163,6 +5163,7 @@ static int __devinit cciss_init_one(struct pci_dev *pdev,
 	h->cciss_max_sectors = 8192;
 
 	rebuild_lun_table(h, 1, 0);
+	cciss_engage_scsi(h);
 	h->busy_initializing = 0;
 	return 1;
 
diff --git a/drivers/block/cciss_scsi.c b/drivers/block/cciss_scsi.c
index 951a4e33b92b..e820b68d2f6c 100644
--- a/drivers/block/cciss_scsi.c
+++ b/drivers/block/cciss_scsi.c
@@ -1720,5 +1720,6 @@ static int  cciss_eh_abort_handler(struct scsi_cmnd *scsicmd)
 /* If no tape support, then these become defined out of existence */
 
 #define cciss_scsi_setup(cntl_num)
+#define cciss_engage_scsi(h)
 
 #endif /* CONFIG_CISS_SCSI_TAPE */