Index: 2.6.13-joel2/mm/page_alloc.c
===================================================================
--- 2.6.13-joel2.orig/mm/page_alloc.c	2005-09-21 11:13:14.%N -0500
+++ 2.6.13-joel2/mm/page_alloc.c	2005-09-21 11:14:49.%N -0500
@@ -944,7 +944,8 @@ __alloc_pages(unsigned int __nocast gfp_
 	int can_try_harder;
 	int did_some_progress;
 	int alloctype;
- 
+	int highorder_retry = 3;
+
 	alloctype = (gfp_mask & __GFP_RCLM_BITS);
 	might_sleep_if(wait);
 
@@ -1090,7 +1091,14 @@ rebalance:
 				goto got_pg;
 		}
 
-		out_of_memory(gfp_mask, order);
+		if (order < MAX_ORDER/2) out_of_memory(gfp_mask, order);
+		/*
+		 * Due to low fragmentation efforts, we should try a little
+		 * harder to satisfy high order allocations
+		 */
+		if (order >= MAX_ORDER/2 && --highorder_retry > 0)
+			goto rebalance;
+
 		goto restart;
 	}
 
@@ -1107,6 +1115,8 @@ rebalance:
 			do_retry = 1;
 		if (gfp_mask & __GFP_NOFAIL)
 			do_retry = 1;
+		if (order >= MAX_ORDER/2 && --highorder_retry > 0)
+			do_retry = 1;
 	}
 	if (do_retry) {
 		blk_congestion_wait(WRITE, HZ/50);