diff --git a/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c b/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c
index 1c0f3e02f731..a773d2a1a2bf 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c
+++ b/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c
@@ -1132,8 +1132,11 @@ int __meminit vmemmap_populate(unsigned long start, unsigned long end, int node,
 			void *p = NULL;
 
 			p = vmemmap_alloc_block_buf(PMD_SIZE, node, altmap);
-			if (!p)
-				return -ENOMEM;
+			if (!p) {
+				if (vmemmap_populate_basepages(addr, next, node, altmap))
+					return -ENOMEM;
+				continue;
+			}
 
 			pmd_set_huge(pmdp, __pa(p), __pgprot(PROT_SECT_NORMAL));
 		} else