diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_debugfs_crc.c b/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_debugfs_crc.c
index 68b171af237b..8b0eeeed4d78 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_debugfs_crc.c
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_debugfs_crc.c
@@ -125,6 +125,12 @@ static const struct file_operations drm_crtc_crc_control_fops = {
 	.write = crc_control_write
 };
 
+static int crtc_crc_data_count(struct drm_crtc_crc *crc)
+{
+	assert_spin_locked(&crc->lock);
+	return CIRC_CNT(crc->head, crc->tail, DRM_CRC_ENTRIES_NR);
+}
+
 static int crtc_crc_open(struct inode *inode, struct file *filep)
 {
 	struct drm_crtc *crtc = inode->i_private;
@@ -160,8 +166,19 @@ static int crtc_crc_open(struct inode *inode, struct file *filep)
 	crc->entries = entries;
 	crc->values_cnt = values_cnt;
 	crc->opened = true;
+
+	/*
+	 * Only return once we got a first frame, so userspace doesn't have to
+	 * guess when this particular piece of HW will be ready to start
+	 * generating CRCs.
+	 */
+	ret = wait_event_interruptible_lock_irq(crc->wq,
+						crtc_crc_data_count(crc),
+						crc->lock);
 	spin_unlock_irq(&crc->lock);
 
+	WARN_ON(ret);
+
 	return 0;
 
 err_disable:
@@ -189,12 +206,6 @@ static int crtc_crc_release(struct inode *inode, struct file *filep)
 	return 0;
 }
 
-static int crtc_crc_data_count(struct drm_crtc_crc *crc)
-{
-	assert_spin_locked(&crc->lock);
-	return CIRC_CNT(crc->head, crc->tail, DRM_CRC_ENTRIES_NR);
-}
-
 /*
  * 1 frame field of 10 chars plus a number of CRC fields of 10 chars each, space
  * separated, with a newline at the end and null-terminated.