diff --git a/drivers/net/r8169.c b/drivers/net/r8169.c
index bf4bd3909763..6f3b1383788f 100644
--- a/drivers/net/r8169.c
+++ b/drivers/net/r8169.c
@@ -425,6 +425,7 @@ struct rtl8169_private {
 MODULE_AUTHOR("Realtek and the Linux r8169 crew <netdev@oss.sgi.com>");
 MODULE_DESCRIPTION("RealTek RTL-8169 Gigabit Ethernet driver");
 module_param_array(media, int, &num_media, 0);
+MODULE_PARM_DESC(media, "force phy operation. Deprecated by ethtool (8).");
 module_param(rx_copybreak, int, 0);
 MODULE_PARM_DESC(rx_copybreak, "Copy breakpoint for copy-only-tiny-frames");
 module_param(use_dac, int, 0);