diff --git a/drivers/cpufreq/cpufreq_interactive.c b/drivers/cpufreq/cpufreq_interactive.c
index 1cfbcb8ba75c..bd83be39f17b 100644
--- a/drivers/cpufreq/cpufreq_interactive.c
+++ b/drivers/cpufreq/cpufreq_interactive.c
@@ -116,6 +116,28 @@ struct cpufreq_interactive_tunables {
 	bool io_is_busy;
 };
 
+/*
+ * HACK: FIXME: Bring back cpufreq_{get,put}_global_kobject()
+ * definition removed by upstream commit 8eec1020f0c0 "cpufreq:
+ * create cpu/cpufreq at boot time" to fix build failures.
+ */
+static int cpufreq_global_kobject_usage;
+
+int cpufreq_get_global_kobject(void)
+{
+	if (!cpufreq_global_kobject_usage++)
+		return kobject_add(cpufreq_global_kobject,
+				&cpu_subsys.dev_root->kobj, "%s", "cpufreq");
+
+	return 0;
+}
+
+void cpufreq_put_global_kobject(void)
+{
+	if (!--cpufreq_global_kobject_usage)
+		kobject_del(cpufreq_global_kobject);
+}
+
 /* For cases where we have single governor instance for system */
 static struct cpufreq_interactive_tunables *common_tunables;
 
@@ -1184,6 +1206,7 @@ static int cpufreq_governor_interactive(struct cpufreq_policy *policy,
 		policy->governor_data = tunables;
 		if (!have_governor_per_policy()) {
 			common_tunables = tunables;
+			WARN_ON(cpufreq_get_global_kobject());
 		}
 
 		rc = sysfs_create_group(get_governor_parent_kobj(policy),
@@ -1193,6 +1216,7 @@ static int cpufreq_governor_interactive(struct cpufreq_policy *policy,
 			policy->governor_data = NULL;
 			if (!have_governor_per_policy()) {
 				common_tunables = NULL;
+				cpufreq_put_global_kobject();
 			}
 			return rc;
 		}
@@ -1216,6 +1240,8 @@ static int cpufreq_governor_interactive(struct cpufreq_policy *policy,
 			sysfs_remove_group(get_governor_parent_kobj(policy),
 					get_sysfs_attr());
 
+			if (!have_governor_per_policy())
+				cpufreq_put_global_kobject();
 
 			kfree(tunables);
 			common_tunables = NULL;