diff --git a/include/evl/thread.h b/include/evl/thread.h
index 1c2e4a269ebe39..1164962cdc7223 100644
--- a/include/evl/thread.h
+++ b/include/evl/thread.h
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@ struct evl_init_thread_attr {
 
 struct evl_thread {
 	hard_spinlock_t lock;
+	struct lock_class_key lock_key;	/* lockdep disambiguation */
 
 	/*
 	 * Shared thread-specific data, covered by ->lock.
diff --git a/kernel/evl/thread.c b/kernel/evl/thread.c
index 1c5bfe12d231cb..76d7e8eaad7d79 100644
--- a/kernel/evl/thread.c
+++ b/kernel/evl/thread.c
@@ -224,7 +224,6 @@ int evl_init_thread(struct evl_thread *thread,
 	INIT_LIST_HEAD(&thread->boosters);
 	INIT_LIST_HEAD(&thread->owned_mutexes);
 	raw_spin_lock_init(&thread->lock);
-	might_hard_lock(&thread->lock);
 	init_completion(&thread->exited);
 	INIT_LIST_HEAD(&thread->ptsync_next);
 	thread->oob_mm = NULL;
@@ -247,6 +246,18 @@ int evl_init_thread(struct evl_thread *thread,
 	if (ret)
 		goto err_out;
 
+#ifdef CONFIG_LOCKDEP
+	if (state & EVL_T_ROOT) {
+		lockdep_set_class_and_name(&thread->lock, &rq->root_lock_key,
+					thread->name);
+	} else {
+		lockdep_register_key(&thread->lock_key);
+		lockdep_set_class_and_name(&thread->lock, &thread->lock_key,
+					thread->name);
+	}
+	might_hard_lock(&thread->lock);
+#endif
+
 	trace_evl_init_thread(thread, iattr, ret);
 
 	return 0;
@@ -282,6 +293,9 @@ static void uninit_thread(struct evl_thread *thread)
 	evl_forget_thread(thread);
 	evl_put_thread_rq(thread, rq, flags);
 
+	if (!(thread->state & EVL_T_ROOT))
+		lockdep_unregister_key(&thread->lock_key);
+
 	kfree(thread->name);
 }