diff --git a/arch/x86/mm/pgtable.c b/arch/x86/mm/pgtable.c
index e2bd5c81279e..d0a424988f82 100644
--- a/arch/x86/mm/pgtable.c
+++ b/arch/x86/mm/pgtable.c
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 #include <asm/fixmap.h>
 #include <asm/mtrr.h>
 
-#define PGALLOC_GFP GFP_KERNEL | __GFP_NOTRACK | __GFP_REPEAT | __GFP_ZERO
+#define PGALLOC_GFP (GFP_KERNEL | __GFP_NOTRACK | __GFP_REPEAT | __GFP_ZERO)
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_HIGHPTE
 #define PGALLOC_USER_GFP __GFP_HIGHMEM
@@ -354,7 +354,9 @@ static inline void _pgd_free(pgd_t *pgd)
 
 static inline pgd_t *_pgd_alloc(void)
 {
-	return (pgd_t *)__get_free_pages(PGALLOC_GFP, PGD_ALLOCATION_ORDER);
+	/* No __GFP_REPEAT: to avoid page allocation stalls in order-1 case */
+	return (pgd_t *)__get_free_pages(PGALLOC_GFP & ~__GFP_REPEAT,
+					 PGD_ALLOCATION_ORDER);
 }
 
 static inline void _pgd_free(pgd_t *pgd)