diff --git a/net/rds/send.c b/net/rds/send.c
index 66dc6b0..ad89a63 100644
--- a/net/rds/send.c
+++ b/net/rds/send.c
@@ -970,11 +970,14 @@
 		goto out;
 	}
 
-	rm->data.op_sg = rds_message_alloc_sgs(rm, ceil(payload_len, PAGE_SIZE));
-	/* XXX fix this to not allocate memory */
-	ret = rds_message_copy_from_user(rm, msg->msg_iov, payload_len);
-	if (ret)
-		goto out;
+	/* Attach data to the rm */
+	if (payload_len) {
+		rm->data.op_sg = rds_message_alloc_sgs(rm, ceil(payload_len, PAGE_SIZE));
+		ret = rds_message_copy_from_user(rm, msg->msg_iov, payload_len);
+		if (ret)
+			goto out;
+	}
+	rm->data.op_active = 1;
 
 	rm->m_daddr = daddr;