diff --git a/block/blk-core.c b/block/blk-core.c
index e0a094fddee5..089e890ab208 100644
--- a/block/blk-core.c
+++ b/block/blk-core.c
@@ -885,11 +885,14 @@ generic_make_request_checks(struct bio *bio)
 	}
 
 	/*
-	 * For a REQ_NOWAIT based request, return -EOPNOTSUPP
-	 * if queue is not a request based queue.
+	 * Non-mq queues do not honor REQ_NOWAIT, so complete a bio
+	 * with BLK_STS_AGAIN status in order to catch -EAGAIN and
+	 * to give a chance to the caller to repeat request gracefully.
 	 */
-	if ((bio->bi_opf & REQ_NOWAIT) && !queue_is_mq(q))
-		goto not_supported;
+	if ((bio->bi_opf & REQ_NOWAIT) && !queue_is_mq(q)) {
+		status = BLK_STS_AGAIN;
+		goto end_io;
+	}
 
 	if (should_fail_bio(bio))
 		goto end_io;