diff --git a/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c b/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c
index 6a4f118fb25f..f095b99bb214 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c
+++ b/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c
@@ -1209,8 +1209,11 @@ int __meminit vmemmap_populate(unsigned long start, unsigned long end, int node,
 	pmd_t *pmdp;
 
 	WARN_ON((start < VMEMMAP_START) || (end > VMEMMAP_END));
+	/* [start, end] should be within one section */
+	WARN_ON_ONCE(end - start > PAGES_PER_SECTION * sizeof(struct page));
 
-	if (!ARM64_KERNEL_USES_PMD_MAPS)
+	if (!ARM64_KERNEL_USES_PMD_MAPS ||
+	    (end - start < PAGES_PER_SECTION * sizeof(struct page)))
 		return vmemmap_populate_basepages(start, end, node, altmap);
 
 	do {