diff --git a/scripts/Makefile.modpost b/scripts/Makefile.modpost
index b3e08fb1fd56..c383ba33d837 100644
--- a/scripts/Makefile.modpost
+++ b/scripts/Makefile.modpost
@@ -98,9 +98,11 @@ output-symdump := $(KBUILD_EXTMOD)/Module.symvers
 
 endif
 
+existing-input-symdump := $(wildcard $(input-symdump))
+
 # modpost options for modules (both in-kernel and external)
 MODPOST += \
-	$(addprefix -i ,$(wildcard $(input-symdump))) \
+	$(addprefix -i ,$(existing-input-symdump)) \
 	$(if $(KBUILD_NSDEPS),-d $(MODULES_NSDEPS)) \
 	$(if $(CONFIG_MODULE_ALLOW_MISSING_NAMESPACE_IMPORTS)$(KBUILD_NSDEPS),-N)
 
@@ -114,6 +116,7 @@ VPATH :=
 $(input-symdump):
 	@echo >&2 'WARNING: Symbol version dump "$@" is missing.'
 	@echo >&2 '         Modules may not have dependencies or modversions.'
+	@echo >&2 '         You may get many unresolved symbol warnings.'
 
 ifdef CONFIG_LTO_CLANG
 # With CONFIG_LTO_CLANG, .o files might be LLVM bitcode, so we need to run
@@ -134,7 +137,7 @@ endif
 modules := $(sort $(shell cat $(MODORDER)))
 
 # KBUILD_MODPOST_WARN can be set to avoid error out in case of undefined symbols
-ifneq ($(KBUILD_MODPOST_WARN),)
+ifneq ($(KBUILD_MODPOST_WARN)$(filter-out $(existing-input-symdump), $(input-symdump)),)
 MODPOST += -w
 endif
 
diff --git a/scripts/mod/modpost.c b/scripts/mod/modpost.c
index 10c3fba26f03..7c6bec78fa34 100644
--- a/scripts/mod/modpost.c
+++ b/scripts/mod/modpost.c
@@ -23,8 +23,6 @@
 
 /* Are we using CONFIG_MODVERSIONS? */
 static int modversions = 0;
-/* Warn about undefined symbols? (do so if we have vmlinux) */
-static int have_vmlinux = 0;
 /* Is CONFIG_MODULE_SRCVERSION_ALL set? */
 static int all_versions = 0;
 /* If we are modposting external module set to 1 */
@@ -41,6 +39,13 @@ static int allow_missing_ns_imports;
 
 static bool error_occurred;
 
+/*
+ * Cut off the warnings when there are too many. This typically occurs when
+ * vmlinux is missing. ('make modules' without building vmlinux.)
+ */
+#define MAX_UNRESOLVED_REPORTS	10
+static unsigned int nr_unresolved;
+
 enum export {
 	export_plain,
 	export_gpl,
@@ -177,9 +182,6 @@ static struct module *new_module(const char *modname)
 	mod->next = modules;
 	modules = mod;
 
-	if (mod->is_vmlinux)
-		have_vmlinux = 1;
-
 	return mod;
 }
 
@@ -2141,7 +2143,7 @@ static void check_exports(struct module *mod)
 		const char *basename;
 		exp = find_symbol(s->name);
 		if (!exp || exp->module == mod) {
-			if (have_vmlinux && !s->weak)
+			if (!s->weak && nr_unresolved++ < MAX_UNRESOLVED_REPORTS)
 				modpost_log(warn_unresolved ? LOG_WARN : LOG_ERROR,
 					    "\"%s\" [%s.ko] undefined!\n",
 					    s->name, mod->name);
@@ -2545,13 +2547,6 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 	if (files_source)
 		read_symbols_from_files(files_source);
 
-	/*
-	 * When there's no vmlinux, don't print warnings about
-	 * unresolved symbols (since there'll be too many ;)
-	 */
-	if (!have_vmlinux)
-		warn("Symbol info of vmlinux is missing. Unresolved symbol check will be entirely skipped.\n");
-
 	for (mod = modules; mod; mod = mod->next) {
 		char fname[PATH_MAX];
 
@@ -2595,6 +2590,10 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 		}
 	}
 
+	if (nr_unresolved > MAX_UNRESOLVED_REPORTS)
+		warn("suppressed %u unresolved symbol warnings because there were too many)\n",
+		     nr_unresolved - MAX_UNRESOLVED_REPORTS);
+
 	free(buf.p);
 
 	return error_occurred ? 1 : 0;