diff --git a/module/zfs/zio.c b/module/zfs/zio.c
index 6333c787d246..ace72a0875be 100644
--- a/module/zfs/zio.c
+++ b/module/zfs/zio.c
@@ -2432,19 +2432,25 @@ zio_vdev_io_start(zio_t *zio)
 
 	align = 1ULL << vd->vdev_top->vdev_ashift;
 
-	if (P2PHASE(zio->io_size, align) != 0) {
+	/*
+	 * On Linux, we don't care about read alignment. The backing block
+	 * device driver will take care of that for us.
+	 * The only exception is raidz, which needs a full block for parity.
+	 */
+	if (P2PHASE(zio->io_size, align) != 0 &&
+	    (zio->io_type != ZIO_TYPE_READ ||
+	     vd->vdev_ops == &vdev_raidz_ops)) {
 		uint64_t asize = P2ROUNDUP(zio->io_size, align);
 		char *abuf = zio_buf_alloc(asize);
-		ASSERT(vd == vd->vdev_top);
 		if (zio->io_type == ZIO_TYPE_WRITE) {
 			bcopy(zio->io_data, abuf, zio->io_size);
 			bzero(abuf + zio->io_size, asize - zio->io_size);
 		}
 		zio_push_transform(zio, abuf, asize, asize, zio_subblock);
+		ASSERT(P2PHASE(zio->io_size, align) == 0);
 	}
 
 	ASSERT(P2PHASE(zio->io_offset, align) == 0);
-	ASSERT(P2PHASE(zio->io_size, align) == 0);
 	VERIFY(zio->io_type != ZIO_TYPE_WRITE || spa_writeable(spa));
 
 	/*