diff --git a/drivers/dma/altera-msgdma.c b/drivers/dma/altera-msgdma.c
index a203fdd84950..50534a6045a0 100644
--- a/drivers/dma/altera-msgdma.c
+++ b/drivers/dma/altera-msgdma.c
@@ -396,13 +396,11 @@ msgdma_prep_slave_sg(struct dma_chan *dchan, struct scatterlist *sgl,
 	void *desc = NULL;
 	size_t len, avail;
 	dma_addr_t dma_dst, dma_src;
-	u32 desc_cnt = 0, i;
-	struct scatterlist *sg;
+	u32 desc_cnt;
 	u32 stride;
 	unsigned long irqflags;
 
-	for_each_sg(sgl, sg, sg_len, i)
-		desc_cnt += DIV_ROUND_UP(sg_dma_len(sg), MSGDMA_MAX_TRANS_LEN);
+	desc_cnt = sg_nents_for_dma(sgl, sg_len, MSGDMA_MAX_TRANS_LEN);
 
 	spin_lock_irqsave(&mdev->lock, irqflags);
 	if (desc_cnt > mdev->desc_free_cnt) {