diff --git a/mm/page-writeback.c b/mm/page-writeback.c
index 6f4271224493..0713bfbf0954 100644
--- a/mm/page-writeback.c
+++ b/mm/page-writeback.c
@@ -200,6 +200,18 @@ static unsigned long highmem_dirtyable_memory(unsigned long total)
 		x += zone_page_state(z, NR_FREE_PAGES) +
 		     zone_reclaimable_pages(z) - z->dirty_balance_reserve;
 	}
+	/*
+	 * Unreclaimable memory (kernel memory or anonymous memory
+	 * without swap) can bring down the dirtyable pages below
+	 * the zone's dirty balance reserve and the above calculation
+	 * will underflow.  However we still want to add in nodes
+	 * which are below threshold (negative values) to get a more
+	 * accurate calculation but make sure that the total never
+	 * underflows.
+	 */
+	if ((long)x < 0)
+		x = 0;
+
 	/*
 	 * Make sure that the number of highmem pages is never larger
 	 * than the number of the total dirtyable memory. This can only
@@ -222,8 +234,8 @@ static unsigned long global_dirtyable_memory(void)
 {
 	unsigned long x;
 
-	x = global_page_state(NR_FREE_PAGES) + global_reclaimable_pages() -
-	    dirty_balance_reserve;
+	x = global_page_state(NR_FREE_PAGES) + global_reclaimable_pages();
+	x -= min(x, dirty_balance_reserve);
 
 	if (!vm_highmem_is_dirtyable)
 		x -= highmem_dirtyable_memory(x);
@@ -290,9 +302,12 @@ static unsigned long zone_dirtyable_memory(struct zone *zone)
 	 * highmem zone can hold its share of dirty pages, so we don't
 	 * care about vm_highmem_is_dirtyable here.
 	 */
-	return zone_page_state(zone, NR_FREE_PAGES) +
-	       zone_reclaimable_pages(zone) -
-	       zone->dirty_balance_reserve;
+	unsigned long nr_pages = zone_page_state(zone, NR_FREE_PAGES) +
+		zone_reclaimable_pages(zone);
+
+	/* don't allow this to underflow */
+	nr_pages -= min(nr_pages, zone->dirty_balance_reserve);
+	return nr_pages;
 }
 
 /**