diff --git a/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt b/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt
index a326487a3ab52108bc72e74e8b1bd52d14ed9ae8..de3300c9056a54e2a8a9ce4b1e280d32c2d87953 100644
--- a/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt
+++ b/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt
@@ -1820,6 +1820,9 @@ and is between 256 and 4096 characters. It is defined in the file
 	thash_entries=	[KNL,NET]
 			Set number of hash buckets for TCP connection
 
+	thermal.off=	[HW,ACPI]
+			1: disable ACPI thermal control
+
 	time		Show timing data prefixed to each printk message line
 			[deprecated, see 'printk.time']
 
diff --git a/drivers/acpi/thermal.c b/drivers/acpi/thermal.c
index 5a62de1b7f2a0e040f1d32a537bc8693a37b0584..61337d969d7fb38c7bdcfe718a3bc25292f7609a 100644
--- a/drivers/acpi/thermal.c
+++ b/drivers/acpi/thermal.c
@@ -78,6 +78,10 @@ static int tzp;
 module_param(tzp, int, 0);
 MODULE_PARM_DESC(tzp, "Thermal zone polling frequency, in 1/10 seconds.\n");
 
+static int off;
+module_param(off, int, 0);
+MODULE_PARM_DESC(off, "Set to disable ACPI thermal support.\n");
+
 static int acpi_thermal_add(struct acpi_device *device);
 static int acpi_thermal_remove(struct acpi_device *device, int type);
 static int acpi_thermal_resume(struct acpi_device *device);
@@ -1285,7 +1289,10 @@ static int __init acpi_thermal_init(void)
 {
 	int result = 0;
 
-
+	if (off) {
+		printk(KERN_NOTICE "ACPI: thermal control disabled\n");
+		return -ENODEV;
+	}
 	acpi_thermal_dir = proc_mkdir(ACPI_THERMAL_CLASS, acpi_root_dir);
 	if (!acpi_thermal_dir)
 		return -ENODEV;