diff --git a/tools/perf/builtin-ftrace.c b/tools/perf/builtin-ftrace.c
index 6b6eec65f93f..4cc33452d79b 100644
--- a/tools/perf/builtin-ftrace.c
+++ b/tools/perf/builtin-ftrace.c
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 #include <poll.h>
 #include <ctype.h>
 #include <linux/capability.h>
+#include <linux/err.h>
 #include <linux/string.h>
 #include <sys/stat.h>
 
@@ -1209,8 +1210,12 @@ static int prepare_func_profile(struct perf_ftrace *ftrace)
 	ftrace->graph_verbose = 0;
 
 	ftrace->profile_hash = hashmap__new(profile_hash, profile_equal, NULL);
-	if (ftrace->profile_hash == NULL)
-		return -ENOMEM;
+	if (IS_ERR(ftrace->profile_hash)) {
+		int err = PTR_ERR(ftrace->profile_hash);
+
+		ftrace->profile_hash = NULL;
+		return err;
+	}
 
 	return 0;
 }