diff --git a/mm/mempool.c b/mm/mempool.c
index e3a802a0cea0..d9049811f352 100644
--- a/mm/mempool.c
+++ b/mm/mempool.c
@@ -221,14 +221,23 @@ repeat_alloc:
 		return element;
 	}
 
-	/* We must not sleep in the GFP_ATOMIC case */
+	/*
+	 * We use gfp mask w/o __GFP_WAIT or IO for the first round.  If
+	 * alloc failed with that and @pool was empty, retry immediately.
+	 */
+	if (gfp_temp != gfp_mask) {
+		spin_unlock_irqrestore(&pool->lock, flags);
+		gfp_temp = gfp_mask;
+		goto repeat_alloc;
+	}
+
+	/* We must not sleep if !__GFP_WAIT */
 	if (!(gfp_mask & __GFP_WAIT)) {
 		spin_unlock_irqrestore(&pool->lock, flags);
 		return NULL;
 	}
 
 	/* Let's wait for someone else to return an element to @pool */
-	gfp_temp = gfp_mask;
 	init_wait(&wait);
 	prepare_to_wait(&pool->wait, &wait, TASK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE);