diff --git a/drivers/usb/host/Kconfig b/drivers/usb/host/Kconfig
index 584424804d0b..ab085f12d570 100644
--- a/drivers/usb/host/Kconfig
+++ b/drivers/usb/host/Kconfig
@@ -418,11 +418,13 @@ config USB_UHCI_SUPPORT_NON_PCI_HC
 
 config USB_UHCI_BIG_ENDIAN_MMIO
 	bool
-	depends on USB_UHCI_SUPPORT_NON_PCI_HC
+	depends on USB_UHCI_SUPPORT_NON_PCI_HC && SPARC_LEON
+	default y
 
 config USB_UHCI_BIG_ENDIAN_DESC
 	bool
-	depends on USB_UHCI_SUPPORT_NON_PCI_HC
+	depends on USB_UHCI_SUPPORT_NON_PCI_HC && SPARC_LEON
+	default y
 
 config USB_FHCI_HCD
 	tristate "Freescale QE USB Host Controller support"
diff --git a/drivers/usb/host/uhci-grlib.c b/drivers/usb/host/uhci-grlib.c
index b1addd60a1ef..d01c1e227681 100644
--- a/drivers/usb/host/uhci-grlib.c
+++ b/drivers/usb/host/uhci-grlib.c
@@ -25,6 +25,20 @@ static int uhci_grlib_init(struct usb_hcd *hcd)
 {
 	struct uhci_hcd *uhci = hcd_to_uhci(hcd);
 
+	/*
+	 * Probe to determine the endianness of the controller.
+	 * We know that bit 7 of the PORTSC1 register is always set
+	 * and bit 15 is always clear.  If uhci_readw() yields a value
+	 * with bit 7 (0x80) turned on then the current little-endian
+	 * setting is correct.  Otherwise we assume the value was
+	 * byte-swapped; hence the register interface and presumably
+	 * also the descriptors are big-endian.
+	 */
+	if (!(uhci_readw(uhci, USBPORTSC1) & 0x80)) {
+		uhci->big_endian_mmio = 1;
+		uhci->big_endian_desc = 1;
+	}
+
 	uhci->rh_numports = uhci_count_ports(hcd);
 
 	/* Set up pointers to to generic functions */