diff --git a/mm/mempolicy.c b/mm/mempolicy.c
index 36cb46cddf61..79cea01f9f78 100644
--- a/mm/mempolicy.c
+++ b/mm/mempolicy.c
@@ -2654,7 +2654,7 @@ void mpol_free_shared_policy(struct shared_policy *p)
 }
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_NUMA_BALANCING
-static bool __initdata numabalancing_override;
+static int __initdata numabalancing_override;
 
 static void __init check_numabalancing_enable(void)
 {
@@ -2663,9 +2663,15 @@ static void __init check_numabalancing_enable(void)
 	if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_NUMA_BALANCING_DEFAULT_ENABLED))
 		numabalancing_default = true;
 
+	/* Parsed by setup_numabalancing. override == 1 enables, -1 disables */
+	if (numabalancing_override)
+		set_numabalancing_state(numabalancing_override == 1);
+
 	if (nr_node_ids > 1 && !numabalancing_override) {
-		printk(KERN_INFO "Enabling automatic NUMA balancing. "
-			"Configure with numa_balancing= or the kernel.numa_balancing sysctl");
+		printk(KERN_INFO "%s automatic NUMA balancing. "
+			"Configure with numa_balancing= or the "
+			"kernel.numa_balancing sysctl",
+			numabalancing_default ? "Enabling" : "Disabling");
 		set_numabalancing_state(numabalancing_default);
 	}
 }
@@ -2675,13 +2681,12 @@ static int __init setup_numabalancing(char *str)
 	int ret = 0;
 	if (!str)
 		goto out;
-	numabalancing_override = true;
 
 	if (!strcmp(str, "enable")) {
-		set_numabalancing_state(true);
+		numabalancing_override = 1;
 		ret = 1;
 	} else if (!strcmp(str, "disable")) {
-		set_numabalancing_state(false);
+		numabalancing_override = -1;
 		ret = 1;
 	}
 out: