diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
index a47f0b229a1aca202b15195c88ab93d52e65064f..7abfa70cdc1ae8767fd663d905372447a7fe6864 100644
--- a/mm/page_alloc.c
+++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
@@ -2353,8 +2353,15 @@ __alloc_pages_may_oom(gfp_t gfp_mask, unsigned int order,
 		if (ac->high_zoneidx < ZONE_NORMAL)
 			goto out;
 		/* The OOM killer does not compensate for light reclaim */
-		if (!(gfp_mask & __GFP_FS))
+		if (!(gfp_mask & __GFP_FS)) {
+			/*
+			 * XXX: Page reclaim didn't yield anything,
+			 * and the OOM killer can't be invoked, but
+			 * keep looping as per should_alloc_retry().
+			 */
+			*did_some_progress = 1;
 			goto out;
+		}
 		/*
 		 * GFP_THISNODE contains __GFP_NORETRY and we never hit this.
 		 * Sanity check for bare calls of __GFP_THISNODE, not real OOM.