diff --git a/arch/arc/include/asm/cache.h b/arch/arc/include/asm/cache.h
index ff7d3232764a..f393b663413e 100644
--- a/arch/arc/include/asm/cache.h
+++ b/arch/arc/include/asm/cache.h
@@ -113,7 +113,9 @@ extern unsigned long perip_base, perip_end;
 
 /* IO coherency related Auxiliary registers */
 #define ARC_REG_IO_COH_ENABLE	0x500
+#define ARC_IO_COH_ENABLE_BIT	BIT(0)
 #define ARC_REG_IO_COH_PARTIAL	0x501
+#define ARC_IO_COH_PARTIAL_BIT	BIT(0)
 #define ARC_REG_IO_COH_AP0_BASE	0x508
 #define ARC_REG_IO_COH_AP0_SIZE	0x509
 
diff --git a/arch/arc/mm/cache.c b/arch/arc/mm/cache.c
index f2701c13a66b..cf9619d4efb4 100644
--- a/arch/arc/mm/cache.c
+++ b/arch/arc/mm/cache.c
@@ -1144,6 +1144,20 @@ noinline void __init arc_ioc_setup(void)
 {
 	unsigned int ioc_base, mem_sz;
 
+	/*
+	 * If IOC was already enabled (due to bootloader) it technically needs to
+	 * be reconfigured with aperture base,size corresponding to Linux memory map
+	 * which will certainly be different than uboot's. But disabling and
+	 * reenabling IOC when DMA might be potentially active is tricky business.
+	 * To avoid random memory issues later, just panic here and ask user to
+	 * upgrade bootloader to one which doesn't enable IOC
+	 */
+	if (read_aux_reg(ARC_REG_IO_COH_ENABLE) & ARC_IO_COH_ENABLE_BIT)
+		panic("IOC already enabled, please upgrade bootloader!\n");
+
+	if (!ioc_enable)
+		return;
+
 	/*
 	 * As for today we don't support both IOC and ZONE_HIGHMEM enabled
 	 * simultaneously. This happens because as of today IOC aperture covers
@@ -1187,8 +1201,8 @@ noinline void __init arc_ioc_setup(void)
 		panic("IOC Aperture start must be aligned to the size of the aperture");
 
 	write_aux_reg(ARC_REG_IO_COH_AP0_BASE, ioc_base >> 12);
-	write_aux_reg(ARC_REG_IO_COH_PARTIAL, 1);
-	write_aux_reg(ARC_REG_IO_COH_ENABLE, 1);
+	write_aux_reg(ARC_REG_IO_COH_PARTIAL, ARC_IO_COH_PARTIAL_BIT);
+	write_aux_reg(ARC_REG_IO_COH_ENABLE, ARC_IO_COH_ENABLE_BIT);
 
 	/* Re-enable L1 dcache */
 	__dc_enable();
@@ -1265,7 +1279,7 @@ void __init arc_cache_init_master(void)
 	if (is_isa_arcv2() && l2_line_sz && !slc_enable)
 		arc_slc_disable();
 
-	if (is_isa_arcv2() && ioc_enable)
+	if (is_isa_arcv2() && ioc_exists)
 		arc_ioc_setup();
 
 	if (is_isa_arcv2() && l2_line_sz && slc_enable) {