diff --git a/src/core/namespace.c b/src/core/namespace.c
index 70f86641dd8..ce737f3f3e4 100644
--- a/src/core/namespace.c
+++ b/src/core/namespace.c
@@ -1641,6 +1641,8 @@ static int mount_mqueuefs(const MountEntry *m) {
         (void) umount_recursive(entry_path, 0);
 
         r = mount_nofollow_verbose(LOG_DEBUG, "mqueue", entry_path, "mqueue", m->flags, mount_entry_options(m));
+        if (r == -ENODEV) /* POSIX message queues may be disabled in the kernel. */
+                return 0;
         if (r < 0)
                 return r;
 
diff --git a/test/units/TEST-07-PID1.mqueue-ownership.sh b/test/units/TEST-07-PID1.mqueue-ownership.sh
index 3f3f83f5821..bdb3dfd74f8 100755
--- a/test/units/TEST-07-PID1.mqueue-ownership.sh
+++ b/test/units/TEST-07-PID1.mqueue-ownership.sh
@@ -3,6 +3,17 @@
 set -eux
 set -o pipefail
 
+# Verify PrivateIPC= works and creates a separate IPC namespace even if POSIX
+# message queues are not supported.
+host_ipcns=$(readlink /proc/self/ns/ipc)
+private_ipcns=$(systemd-run --quiet --wait --pipe -p PrivateIPC=yes readlink /proc/self/ns/ipc)
+[[ "$private_ipcns" != "$host_ipcns" ]]
+
+if [[ ! -d /proc/sys/fs/mqueue ]]; then
+    echo "POSIX message queues are not supported, skipping ownership checks"
+    exit 0
+fi
+
 # Verify ownership attributes are applied to message queues
 
 # Select arbitrary non-default attributes to apply to the queue.