diff --git a/mm/sparse.c b/mm/sparse.c
index 98d6b39c3472..458109b99e61 100644
--- a/mm/sparse.c
+++ b/mm/sparse.c
@@ -304,22 +304,48 @@ void __init sparse_init(void)
 	unsigned long pnum;
 	struct page *map;
 	unsigned long *usemap;
+	unsigned long **usemap_map;
+	int size;
+
+	/*
+	 * map is using big page (aka 2M in x86 64 bit)
+	 * usemap is less one page (aka 24 bytes)
+	 * so alloc 2M (with 2M align) and 24 bytes in turn will
+	 * make next 2M slip to one more 2M later.
+	 * then in big system, the memory will have a lot of holes...
+	 * here try to allocate 2M pages continously.
+	 *
+	 * powerpc need to call sparse_init_one_section right after each
+	 * sparse_early_mem_map_alloc, so allocate usemap_map at first.
+	 */
+	size = sizeof(unsigned long *) * NR_MEM_SECTIONS;
+	usemap_map = alloc_bootmem(size);
+	if (!usemap_map)
+		panic("can not allocate usemap_map\n");
 
 	for (pnum = 0; pnum < NR_MEM_SECTIONS; pnum++) {
 		if (!present_section_nr(pnum))
 			continue;
+		usemap_map[pnum] = sparse_early_usemap_alloc(pnum);
+	}
+
+	for (pnum = 0; pnum < NR_MEM_SECTIONS; pnum++) {
+		if (!present_section_nr(pnum))
+			continue;
+
+		usemap = usemap_map[pnum];
+		if (!usemap)
+			continue;
 
 		map = sparse_early_mem_map_alloc(pnum);
 		if (!map)
 			continue;
 
-		usemap = sparse_early_usemap_alloc(pnum);
-		if (!usemap)
-			continue;
-
 		sparse_init_one_section(__nr_to_section(pnum), pnum, map,
 								usemap);
 	}
+
+	free_bootmem(__pa(usemap_map), size);
 }
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_MEMORY_HOTPLUG