diff -u 2.4/mm/page_alloc.c build-2.4/mm/page_alloc.c
--- 2.4/mm/page_alloc.c	Sat May 26 10:06:29 2001
+++ build-2.4/mm/page_alloc.c	Sun May 27 20:12:23 2001
@@ -141,8 +141,11 @@
 	 * since it's nothing important, but we do want to make sure
 	 * it never gets negative.
 	 */
-	if (memory_pressure > NR_CPUS)
-		memory_pressure--;
+	{
+		int mp = memory_pressure-1;
+		if (mp > 0)
+			memory_pressure = mp;
+	}
 }
 
 #define MARK_USED(index, order, area) \
@@ -476,7 +479,7 @@
 
 		/* XXX: is pages_min/4 a good amount to reserve for this? */
 		if (z->free_pages < z->pages_min / 4 &&
-				!(current->flags & PF_MEMALLOC))
+			(in_interrupt() || !(current->flags & PF_MEMALLOC)))
 			continue;
 		page = rmqueue(z, order);
 		if (page)