diff --git a/drivers/dax/super.c b/drivers/dax/super.c
index 260a247c60d2da5c56c93144cdaac1340fd2750a..a2463320b86b51732d6c79cc9e71bbcd15c9b99f 100644
--- a/drivers/dax/super.c
+++ b/drivers/dax/super.c
@@ -433,6 +433,11 @@ static int dax_host_hash(const char *host)
  * that any fault handlers or operations that might have seen
  * dax_alive(), have completed.  Any operations that start after
  * synchronize_srcu() has run will abort upon seeing !dax_alive().
+ *
+ * Note, because alloc_dax() returns an ERR_PTR() on error, callers
+ * typically store its result into a local variable in order to check
+ * the result. Therefore, care must be taken to populate the struct
+ * device dax_dev field make sure the dax_dev is not leaked.
  */
 void kill_dax(struct dax_device *dax_dev)
 {
diff --git a/drivers/nvdimm/pmem.c b/drivers/nvdimm/pmem.c
index d5dd79b59b16c0254d85ba66cda179c3ab173594..9947cc2bd2fc5a6448ea49d6437af44bc531829b 100644
--- a/drivers/nvdimm/pmem.c
+++ b/drivers/nvdimm/pmem.c
@@ -498,7 +498,13 @@ static int pmem_attach_disk(struct device *dev,
 	gendev = disk_to_dev(disk);
 	gendev->groups = pmem_attribute_groups;
 
-	device_add_disk(dev, disk, NULL);
+	rc = device_add_disk_safe(dev, disk, NULL);
+	if (rc) {
+		kill_dax(dax_dev);
+		put_dax(dax_dev);
+		put_disk(disk);
+		return rc;
+	}
 	if (devm_add_action_or_reset(dev, pmem_release_disk, pmem))
 		return -ENOMEM;
 
diff --git a/include/linux/dax.h b/include/linux/dax.h
index b52f084aa643434a2c9554259814b5ba59c5eda6..f6f26a66ead07ba406567d4ffc32fa0e20851a37 100644
--- a/include/linux/dax.h
+++ b/include/linux/dax.h
@@ -80,11 +80,7 @@ static inline struct dax_device *dax_get_by_host(const char *host)
 static inline struct dax_device *alloc_dax(void *private, const char *host,
 		const struct dax_operations *ops, unsigned long flags)
 {
-	/*
-	 * Callers should check IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_DAX) to know if this
-	 * NULL is an error or expected.
-	 */
-	return NULL;
+	return ERR_PTR(-EOPNOTSUPP);
 }
 static inline void put_dax(struct dax_device *dax_dev)
 {