diff --git a/drivers/staging/zcache/zcache-main.c b/drivers/staging/zcache/zcache-main.c
index 855a5bb56a47d8e591873b05e6be15ec6f4f6ee0..cdf0128fb55c98e9907a6fe4d3686472629edd1a 100644
--- a/drivers/staging/zcache/zcache-main.c
+++ b/drivers/staging/zcache/zcache-main.c
@@ -1668,7 +1668,7 @@ static int zcache_new_pool(uint16_t cli_id, uint32_t flags)
 	if (cli == NULL)
 		goto out;
 	atomic_inc(&cli->refcount);
-	pool = kmalloc(sizeof(struct tmem_pool), GFP_KERNEL);
+	pool = kmalloc(sizeof(struct tmem_pool), GFP_ATOMIC);
 	if (pool == NULL) {
 		pr_info("zcache: pool creation failed: out of memory\n");
 		goto out;