diff --git a/deepspeed/module_inject/containers/llama.py b/deepspeed/module_inject/containers/llama.py
index f57652aecdda..9dc2552c43cb 100644
--- a/deepspeed/module_inject/containers/llama.py
+++ b/deepspeed/module_inject/containers/llama.py
@@ -19,6 +19,56 @@
     maybe_get_lora,
 )
 
+# The injected kernel builds its rotary embedding from a scalar base and nothing else
+# (`InferenceContext.get_rotary(rotary_dim, rope_theta)`), so a config asking for a scaled
+# variant cannot be honoured here. These are the spellings that mean "no scaling".
+_UNSCALED_ROPE_TYPES = (None, 'default')
+
+
+def _rope_type(config, rope_parameters):
+    """The rotary variant a config asks for, however the installed transformers spells it."""
+    if rope_parameters:
+        rope_type = rope_parameters.get('rope_type', rope_parameters.get('type'))
+        if rope_type is not None:
+            return rope_type
+    scaling = getattr(config, 'rope_scaling', None)
+    if isinstance(scaling, dict):
+        return scaling.get('rope_type', scaling.get('type'))
+    return None
+
+
+def _get_rope_theta(self_attn):
+    """Read rope_theta from whichever place the installed transformers keeps it.
+
+    transformers < 5.0 exposes it as ``config.rope_theta``; 5.0 moved the rotary
+    settings into the ``rope_parameters`` dict and dropped the attribute, so the
+    older reads raise AttributeError against a stock LlamaConfig. Very old
+    versions kept it on the attention module itself.
+
+    A scaled variant is refused rather than silently reduced to its base. The kernel
+    implements a scalar theta only, so running one of these with just ``rope_theta``
+    produces wrong positions with no error, which is worse than the AttributeError this
+    function exists to remove.
+    """
+    config = getattr(self_attn, 'config', None)
+    if config is None:
+        return self_attn.rope_theta
+
+    rope_parameters = getattr(config, 'rope_parameters', None)
+    rope_type = _rope_type(config, rope_parameters if isinstance(rope_parameters, dict) else None)
+    if rope_type not in _UNSCALED_ROPE_TYPES:
+        raise ValueError(f"DeepSpeed kernel injection cannot serve rope_type={rope_type!r}. The injected "
+                         "attention kernel builds its rotary embedding from rope_theta alone, so the "
+                         "scaling parameters this configuration carries would be dropped and the model "
+                         "would run with unscaled positions. Run this model without kernel injection "
+                         "(replace_with_kernel_inject=False).")
+
+    if hasattr(config, 'rope_theta'):
+        return config.rope_theta
+    if isinstance(rope_parameters, dict) and 'rope_theta' in rope_parameters:
+        return rope_parameters['rope_theta']
+    return self_attn.rope_theta
+
 
 class DS_LLAMAContainer(MetaTensorContainer, HybridGatedMLPContainer, HybridSplitQKVContainer,
                         BaseTransformerContainer):
@@ -34,10 +84,7 @@ def create_module(self, config=None):
         _config.rotate_half = True
         _config.rotate_every_two = False
         _config.rotary_dim = self.hidden_size // self.num_attention_heads
-        if hasattr(self.policy.client_module.self_attn, 'config'):
-            _config.rope_theta = self.policy.client_module.self_attn.config.rope_theta
-        else:
-            _config.rope_theta = self.policy.client_module.self_attn.rope_theta
+        _config.rope_theta = _get_rope_theta(self.policy.client_module.self_attn)
         self.module = DeepSpeedGPTInference(_config, mp_group=self.mp_group)
 
         return self.module
diff --git a/tests/unit/module_inject/test_llama_rope_theta.py b/tests/unit/module_inject/test_llama_rope_theta.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..6e040e37662c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/unit/module_inject/test_llama_rope_theta.py
@@ -0,0 +1,143 @@
+# Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation.
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+# DeepSpeed Team
+"""Llama kernel injection must find rope_theta wherever the installed transformers keeps it.
+
+The value has moved twice. Older releases exposed ``config.rope_theta``; transformers 5.0
+folded the rotary settings into ``config.rope_parameters`` and dropped the attribute, so an
+injection policy that only knows the old spelling raises AttributeError against a stock
+LlamaConfig. Older still, it lived on the attention module.
+"""
+
+from types import SimpleNamespace
+
+import pytest
+
+from deepspeed.module_inject.containers.llama import _get_rope_theta
+
+
+def test_reads_the_legacy_config_attribute():
+    self_attn = SimpleNamespace(config=SimpleNamespace(rope_theta=500000.0))
+
+    assert _get_rope_theta(self_attn) == 500000.0
+
+
+def test_reads_rope_parameters_when_the_attribute_is_gone():
+    # transformers >= 5.0: the attribute is absent and the value sits in the dict.
+    config = SimpleNamespace(rope_parameters={"rope_theta": 10000.0, "rope_type": "default"})
+    self_attn = SimpleNamespace(config=config)
+
+    assert _get_rope_theta(self_attn) == 10000.0
+
+
+def test_prefers_the_attribute_when_both_are_present():
+    config = SimpleNamespace(rope_theta=500000.0, rope_parameters={"rope_theta": 10000.0})
+    self_attn = SimpleNamespace(config=config)
+
+    assert _get_rope_theta(self_attn) == 500000.0
+
+
+def test_falls_back_to_the_module_attribute():
+    # No config at all, the layout the policy handled before configs were attached.
+    self_attn = SimpleNamespace(rope_theta=1000000.0)
+
+    assert _get_rope_theta(self_attn) == 1000000.0
+
+
+def test_falls_back_when_rope_parameters_carries_no_theta():
+    config = SimpleNamespace(rope_parameters={"rope_type": "default"})
+    self_attn = SimpleNamespace(config=config, rope_theta=250000.0)
+
+    assert _get_rope_theta(self_attn) == 250000.0
+
+
+def test_resolves_against_a_real_llama_config():
+    """The six cases above build the config by hand, so none of them pins the claim this
+    change rests on: which spelling a stock `LlamaConfig` actually carries.
+
+    This one stays meaningful on either side of the 5.0 boundary — it takes the legacy
+    attribute on 4.x and `rope_parameters` on 5.x — and it uses a non-default theta, so a
+    helper that returned the class default would fail it.
+    """
+    LlamaConfig = pytest.importorskip("transformers.models.llama.configuration_llama").LlamaConfig
+
+    self_attn = SimpleNamespace(config=LlamaConfig(rope_theta=500000.0))
+
+    assert _get_rope_theta(self_attn) == 500000.0
+
+
+def test_the_two_spellings_do_not_disagree_on_a_real_config():
+    """Guards the branch rather than the value.
+
+    If transformers reinstates `rope_theta` as a deprecated property, the test above still
+    passes while the injection path silently changes which branch it takes. That is only a
+    problem if the two spellings can disagree, so this asserts they cannot.
+    """
+    LlamaConfig = pytest.importorskip("transformers.models.llama.configuration_llama").LlamaConfig
+    config = LlamaConfig(rope_theta=500000.0)
+
+    parameters = getattr(config, "rope_parameters", None) or {}
+    carried = [
+        value for value in (getattr(config, "rope_theta", None), parameters.get("rope_theta")) if value is not None
+    ]
+
+    assert carried, "neither spelling carries rope_theta on the installed transformers"
+    assert all(value == 500000.0 for value in carried), f"the spellings disagree: {carried}"
+
+
+def test_raises_when_nothing_carries_it():
+    with pytest.raises(AttributeError):
+        _get_rope_theta(SimpleNamespace(config=SimpleNamespace()))
+
+
+# --- scaled rotary variants ----------------------------------------------------
+#
+# The injected kernel builds its rotary embedding from a scalar base
+# (`InferenceContext.get_rotary(rotary_dim, rope_theta)`) and carries no scaling
+# parameters at all, so a config asking for one cannot be served here.
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("rope_type", ["llama3", "linear", "dynamic", "yarn", "longrope"])
+def test_a_scaled_rope_variant_is_refused(rope_type):
+    """Reading only rope_theta out of a scaled config is silently wrong.
+
+    DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-8B (#8340) is the live case: `rope_type="llama3"` with
+    `factor`, `low_freq_factor`, `high_freq_factor` and `original_max_position_embeddings`.
+    Dropping those and keeping the base runs the model with unscaled positions and no error,
+    which is worse than the AttributeError this helper exists to remove.
+    """
+    config = SimpleNamespace(
+        rope_parameters={
+            "rope_type": rope_type,
+            "rope_theta": 500000.0,
+            "factor": 8.0,
+            "low_freq_factor": 1.0,
+            "high_freq_factor": 4.0,
+            "original_max_position_embeddings": 8192,
+        })
+
+    with pytest.raises(ValueError, match="cannot serve rope_type"):
+        _get_rope_theta(SimpleNamespace(config=config))
+
+
+def test_a_scaled_variant_in_the_legacy_rope_scaling_spelling_is_refused():
+    """transformers < 5.0 carries the same request under `rope_scaling`."""
+    config = SimpleNamespace(rope_theta=500000.0, rope_scaling={"rope_type": "llama3", "factor": 8.0})
+
+    with pytest.raises(ValueError, match="cannot serve rope_type"):
+        _get_rope_theta(SimpleNamespace(config=config))
+
+
+def test_the_default_rope_type_is_not_refused():
+    """`rope_type: "default"` is what standardize_rope_params writes for plain RoPE."""
+    config = SimpleNamespace(rope_parameters={"rope_theta": 500000.0, "rope_type": "default"})
+
+    assert _get_rope_theta(SimpleNamespace(config=config)) == 500000.0
+
+
+def test_a_real_llama_config_is_not_refused():
+    """The stock config the crash fix targets carries no scaling and must still resolve."""
+    LlamaConfig = pytest.importorskip("transformers.models.llama.configuration_llama").LlamaConfig
+
+    assert _get_rope_theta(SimpleNamespace(config=LlamaConfig(rope_theta=500000.0))) == 500000.0