diff --git a/target-arm/helper.c b/target-arm/helper.c
index 3be917c22eba125a61766f9ca36fba2dbc4189f1..417161e21646b940f1bcbfc7fe1b63f28270c4a4 100644
--- a/target-arm/helper.c
+++ b/target-arm/helper.c
@@ -2081,6 +2081,13 @@ static void sctlr_write(CPUARMState *env, const ARMCPRegInfo *ri,
 {
     ARMCPU *cpu = arm_env_get_cpu(env);
 
+    if (env->cp15.c1_sys == value) {
+        /* Skip the TLB flush if nothing actually changed; Linux likes
+         * to do a lot of pointless SCTLR writes.
+         */
+        return;
+    }
+
     env->cp15.c1_sys = value;
     /* ??? Lots of these bits are not implemented.  */
     /* This may enable/disable the MMU, so do a TLB flush.  */