diff --git a/include/linux/mempolicy.h b/include/linux/mempolicy.h
index b972f985a3c5cb5e7a5821045bf5b4719098528a..ed00b278cb9324935aa0bfb3f8a0b7484eb6e992 100644
--- a/include/linux/mempolicy.h
+++ b/include/linux/mempolicy.h
@@ -151,6 +151,14 @@ extern struct mempolicy default_policy;
 extern struct zonelist *huge_zonelist(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
 		unsigned long addr);
 
+extern int policy_zone;
+
+static inline void check_highest_zone(int k)
+{
+	if (k > policy_zone)
+		policy_zone = k;
+}
+
 #else
 
 struct mempolicy {};
@@ -221,6 +229,9 @@ static inline struct zonelist *huge_zonelist(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
 	return NODE_DATA(0)->node_zonelists + gfp_zone(GFP_HIGHUSER);
 }
 
+static inline void check_highest_zone(int k)
+{
+}
 #endif /* CONFIG_NUMA */
 #endif /* __KERNEL__ */
 
diff --git a/mm/mempolicy.c b/mm/mempolicy.c
index 96714e2646adae71507b67374d4724b2d6a1de05..0f1d2b8a952b900f899ea19233c84b862909323d 100644
--- a/mm/mempolicy.c
+++ b/mm/mempolicy.c
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ static kmem_cache_t *sn_cache;
 
 /* Highest zone. An specific allocation for a zone below that is not
    policied. */
-static int policy_zone;
+int policy_zone = ZONE_DMA;
 
 struct mempolicy default_policy = {
 	.refcnt = ATOMIC_INIT(1), /* never free it */
@@ -131,17 +131,8 @@ static struct zonelist *bind_zonelist(nodemask_t *nodes)
 	if (!zl)
 		return NULL;
 	num = 0;
-	for_each_node_mask(nd, *nodes) {
-		int k;
-		for (k = MAX_NR_ZONES-1; k >= 0; k--) {
-			struct zone *z = &NODE_DATA(nd)->node_zones[k];
-			if (!z->present_pages)
-				continue;
-			zl->zones[num++] = z;
-			if (k > policy_zone)
-				policy_zone = k;
-		}
-	}
+	for_each_node_mask(nd, *nodes)
+		zl->zones[num++] = &NODE_DATA(nd)->node_zones[policy_zone];
 	zl->zones[num] = NULL;
 	return zl;
 }
diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
index 7adc9526d329fb99957b091333b9f0f54ccdc2a3..512e3f4d4963ecf4e255ab74f7fdc1aa1b5ff494 100644
--- a/mm/page_alloc.c
+++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@
 #include <linux/memory_hotplug.h>
 #include <linux/nodemask.h>
 #include <linux/vmalloc.h>
+#include <linux/mempolicy.h>
 
 #include <asm/tlbflush.h>
 #include "internal.h"
@@ -1470,6 +1471,7 @@ static int __init build_zonelists_node(pg_data_t *pgdat,
 			BUG_ON(zone - pgdat->node_zones > ZONE_NORMAL);
 #endif
 			zonelist->zones[j++] = zone;
+			check_highest_zone(k);
 		}
 	}
 	return j;