diff --git a/arch/powerpc/kernel/syscalls.c b/arch/powerpc/kernel/syscalls.c
index 7a23721365a6..f72ced11212d 100644
--- a/arch/powerpc/kernel/syscalls.c
+++ b/arch/powerpc/kernel/syscalls.c
@@ -162,7 +162,7 @@ static inline unsigned long do_mmap2(unsigned long addr, size_t len,
 			unsigned long fd, unsigned long off, int shift)
 {
 	struct file * file = NULL;
-	int ret = -EINVAL;
+	unsigned long ret = -EINVAL;
 
 	if (shift) {
 		if (off & ((1 << shift) - 1))