diff --git a/projects/amdsmi/src/rocm_smi_kfd.cc b/projects/amdsmi/src/rocm_smi_kfd.cc
index 2292d3ad82..5d9a13d4f3 100755
--- a/projects/amdsmi/src/rocm_smi_kfd.cc
+++ b/projects/amdsmi/src/rocm_smi_kfd.cc
@@ -429,7 +429,9 @@ int DiscoverKFDNodes(std::map<uint64_t, std::shared_ptr<KFDNode>> *nodes) {
   uint32_t node_indx;
 
   auto kfd_node_dir = opendir(kKFDNodesPathRoot);
-  assert(kfd_node_dir != nullptr);
+  if (kfd_node_dir == nullptr) {
+    return errno;
+  }
 
   auto dentry = readdir(kfd_node_dir);
   while (dentry != nullptr) {