diff --git a/drivers/virtio/virtio_ring.c b/drivers/virtio/virtio_ring.c
index 6b2cd92..489bfc6 100644
--- a/drivers/virtio/virtio_ring.c
+++ b/drivers/virtio/virtio_ring.c
@@ -167,7 +167,7 @@
  * making all of the arch DMA ops work on the vring device itself
  * is a mess.  For now, we use the parent device for DMA ops.
  */
-static struct device *vring_dma_dev(const struct vring_virtqueue *vq)
+static inline struct device *vring_dma_dev(const struct vring_virtqueue *vq)
 {
 	return vq->vq.vdev->dev.parent;
 }