diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/gem/i915_gem_context.c b/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/gem/i915_gem_context.c
index d0bdb6d447ed4..efc4ba34c06e8 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/gem/i915_gem_context.c
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/gem/i915_gem_context.c
@@ -713,6 +713,7 @@ __create_context(struct drm_i915_private *i915)
 	ctx->i915 = i915;
 	ctx->sched.priority = I915_USER_PRIORITY(I915_PRIORITY_NORMAL);
 	mutex_init(&ctx->mutex);
+	INIT_LIST_HEAD(&ctx->link);
 
 	spin_lock_init(&ctx->stale.lock);
 	INIT_LIST_HEAD(&ctx->stale.engines);
@@ -740,10 +741,6 @@ __create_context(struct drm_i915_private *i915)
 	for (i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE(ctx->hang_timestamp); i++)
 		ctx->hang_timestamp[i] = jiffies - CONTEXT_FAST_HANG_JIFFIES;
 
-	spin_lock(&i915->gem.contexts.lock);
-	list_add_tail(&ctx->link, &i915->gem.contexts.list);
-	spin_unlock(&i915->gem.contexts.lock);
-
 	return ctx;
 
 err_free:
@@ -931,6 +928,7 @@ static int gem_context_register(struct i915_gem_context *ctx,
 				struct drm_i915_file_private *fpriv,
 				u32 *id)
 {
+	struct drm_i915_private *i915 = ctx->i915;
 	struct i915_address_space *vm;
 	int ret;
 
@@ -949,8 +947,16 @@ static int gem_context_register(struct i915_gem_context *ctx,
 	/* And finally expose ourselves to userspace via the idr */
 	ret = xa_alloc(&fpriv->context_xa, id, ctx, xa_limit_32b, GFP_KERNEL);
 	if (ret)
-		put_pid(fetch_and_zero(&ctx->pid));
+		goto err_pid;
+
+	spin_lock(&i915->gem.contexts.lock);
+	list_add_tail(&ctx->link, &i915->gem.contexts.list);
+	spin_unlock(&i915->gem.contexts.lock);
+
+	return 0;
 
+err_pid:
+	put_pid(fetch_and_zero(&ctx->pid));
 	return ret;
 }