diff --git a/drivers/of/Kconfig b/drivers/of/Kconfig
index da9826accb1b..d738fbad9c36 100644
--- a/drivers/of/Kconfig
+++ b/drivers/of/Kconfig
@@ -14,9 +14,8 @@ if OF
 
 config OF_UNITTEST
 	bool "Device Tree runtime unit tests"
-	depends on !SPARC
+	depends on OF_EARLY_FLATTREE
 	select IRQ_DOMAIN
-	select OF_EARLY_FLATTREE
 	select OF_RESOLVE
 	help
 	  This option builds in test cases for the device tree infrastructure
@@ -54,7 +53,7 @@ config OF_FLATTREE
 	select CRC32
 
 config OF_EARLY_FLATTREE
-	bool
+	def_bool OF && !(SPARC || ALPHA || HEXAGON || M68K || PARISC || S390)
 	select DMA_DECLARE_COHERENT if HAS_DMA && HAS_IOMEM
 	select OF_FLATTREE
 
diff --git a/drivers/of/Makefile b/drivers/of/Makefile
index eff624854575..df305348d1cb 100644
--- a/drivers/of/Makefile
+++ b/drivers/of/Makefile
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 obj-y = base.o cpu.o device.o module.o platform.o property.o
 obj-$(CONFIG_OF_KOBJ) += kobj.o
 obj-$(CONFIG_OF_DYNAMIC) += dynamic.o
-obj-$(CONFIG_OF_FLATTREE) += fdt.o
+obj-$(CONFIG_OF_FLATTREE) += fdt.o empty_root.dtb.o
 obj-$(CONFIG_OF_EARLY_FLATTREE) += fdt_address.o
 obj-$(CONFIG_OF_PROMTREE) += pdt.o
 obj-$(CONFIG_OF_ADDRESS)  += address.o
diff --git a/drivers/of/empty_root.dts b/drivers/of/empty_root.dts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..cf9e97a60f48
--- /dev/null
+++ b/drivers/of/empty_root.dts
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-only
+/dts-v1/;
+
+/ {
+
+};
diff --git a/drivers/of/fdt.c b/drivers/of/fdt.c
index dfeba8b8ce94..e5a385285149 100644
--- a/drivers/of/fdt.c
+++ b/drivers/of/fdt.c
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 
 #define pr_fmt(fmt)	"OF: fdt: " fmt
 
+#include <linux/acpi.h>
 #include <linux/crash_dump.h>
 #include <linux/crc32.h>
 #include <linux/kernel.h>
@@ -32,6 +33,13 @@
 
 #include "of_private.h"
 
+/*
+ * __dtb_empty_root_begin[] and __dtb_empty_root_end[] magically created by
+ * cmd_dt_S_dtb in scripts/Makefile.lib
+ */
+extern uint8_t __dtb_empty_root_begin[];
+extern uint8_t __dtb_empty_root_end[];
+
 /*
  * of_fdt_limit_memory - limit the number of regions in the /memory node
  * @limit: maximum entries
@@ -1343,7 +1351,29 @@ static void *__init copy_device_tree(void *fdt)
  */
 void __init unflatten_device_tree(void)
 {
-	__unflatten_device_tree(initial_boot_params, NULL, &of_root,
+	void *fdt = initial_boot_params;
+
+	/* Don't use the bootloader provided DTB if ACPI is enabled */
+	if (!acpi_disabled)
+		fdt = NULL;
+
+	/*
+	 * Populate an empty root node when ACPI is enabled or bootloader
+	 * doesn't provide one.
+	 */
+	if (!fdt) {
+		fdt = (void *) __dtb_empty_root_begin;
+		/* fdt_totalsize() will be used for copy size */
+		if (fdt_totalsize(fdt) >
+		    __dtb_empty_root_end - __dtb_empty_root_begin) {
+			pr_err("invalid size in dtb_empty_root\n");
+			return;
+		}
+		of_fdt_crc32 = crc32_be(~0, fdt, fdt_totalsize(fdt));
+		fdt = copy_device_tree(fdt);
+	}
+
+	__unflatten_device_tree(fdt, NULL, &of_root,
 				early_init_dt_alloc_memory_arch, false);
 
 	/* Get pointer to "/chosen" and "/aliases" nodes for use everywhere */
diff --git a/drivers/of/platform.c b/drivers/of/platform.c
index b7708a06dc78..39c0ceee3e95 100644
--- a/drivers/of/platform.c
+++ b/drivers/of/platform.c
@@ -510,9 +510,6 @@ static int __init of_platform_default_populate_init(void)
 
 	device_links_supplier_sync_state_pause();
 
-	if (!of_have_populated_dt())
-		return -ENODEV;
-
 	if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_PPC)) {
 		struct device_node *boot_display = NULL;
 		struct platform_device *dev;
diff --git a/include/linux/of.h b/include/linux/of.h
index 6a9ddf20e79a..52f6ad6a1c8c 100644
--- a/include/linux/of.h
+++ b/include/linux/of.h
@@ -180,11 +180,6 @@ static inline bool is_of_node(const struct fwnode_handle *fwnode)
 			&__of_fwnode_handle_node->fwnode : NULL;	\
 	})
 
-static inline bool of_have_populated_dt(void)
-{
-	return of_root != NULL;
-}
-
 static inline bool of_node_is_root(const struct device_node *node)
 {
 	return node && (node->parent == NULL);
@@ -549,11 +544,6 @@ static inline struct device_node *of_find_node_with_property(
 
 #define of_fwnode_handle(node) NULL
 
-static inline bool of_have_populated_dt(void)
-{
-	return false;
-}
-
 static inline struct device_node *of_get_compatible_child(const struct device_node *parent,
 					const char *compatible)
 {
@@ -1634,6 +1624,21 @@ static inline bool of_device_is_system_power_controller(const struct device_node
 	return of_property_read_bool(np, "system-power-controller");
 }
 
+/**
+ * of_have_populated_dt() - Has DT been populated by bootloader
+ *
+ * Return: True if a DTB has been populated by the bootloader and it isn't the
+ * empty builtin one. False otherwise.
+ */
+static inline bool of_have_populated_dt(void)
+{
+#ifdef CONFIG_OF
+	return of_property_present(of_root, "compatible");
+#else
+	return false;
+#endif
+}
+
 /*
  * Overlay support
  */
