The kalmia_send_init_packet() returns zero or a negative return code, but gcc has no way of knowing that there cannot be a positive return code, so it determines that copying the ethernet address at the end of kalmia_bind() will access uninitialized data: drivers/net/usb/kalmia.c: In function ‘kalmia_bind’: arch/x86/include/asm/string_32.h:78:22: error: ‘*((void *)&ethernet_addr+4)’ may be used uninitialized in this function [-Werror=maybe-uninitialized] *((short *)to + 2) = *((short *)from + 2); ^ drivers/net/usb/kalmia.c:138:5: note: ‘*((void *)&ethernet_addr+4)’ was declared here This warning is harmless, but for consistency, we should make the check for the return code match what the driver does everywhere else and just progate it, which then gets rid of the warning. Signed-off-by: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de> Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>