diff --git a/sys/arch/mips/include/mips_param.h b/sys/arch/mips/include/mips_param.h
index f53a8ef3a954..93a1681beda4 100644
--- a/sys/arch/mips/include/mips_param.h
+++ b/sys/arch/mips/include/mips_param.h
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-/*	$NetBSD: mips_param.h,v 1.28 2011/02/20 07:45:47 matt Exp $	*/
+/*	$NetBSD: mips_param.h,v 1.29 2011/03/05 14:26:01 matt Exp $	*/
 
 #ifdef _KERNEL
 #include <machine/cpu.h>
@@ -31,6 +31,15 @@
 #error neither __MIPSEL__ nor __MIPSEB__ are defined.
 #endif
 
+/*
+ * Userland code should be using uname/sysctl to get MACHINE so simply
+ * export a generic MACHINE of "mips"
+ */
+#ifndef _KERNEL
+#undef MACHINE
+#define MACHINE "mips"
+#endif
+
 /*
  * On mips, UPAGES is fixed by sys/arch/mips/mips/locore code
  * to be the number of per-process-wired kernel-stack pages/PTES.