diff --git a/kernel/sysctl.c b/kernel/sysctl.c
index 0d949c517412..79d527a99561 100644
--- a/kernel/sysctl.c
+++ b/kernel/sysctl.c
@@ -79,6 +79,7 @@ extern char core_pattern[];
 extern unsigned int core_pipe_limit;
 extern int pid_max;
 extern int min_free_kbytes;
+extern int min_free_order_shift;
 extern int pid_max_min, pid_max_max;
 extern int sysctl_drop_caches;
 extern int percpu_pagelist_fraction;
@@ -1228,6 +1229,14 @@ static struct ctl_table vm_table[] = {
 		.strategy	= &sysctl_intvec,
 		.extra1		= &zero,
 	},
+	{
+		.ctl_name	= CTL_UNNUMBERED,
+		.procname	= "min_free_order_shift",
+		.data		= &min_free_order_shift,
+		.maxlen		= sizeof(min_free_order_shift),
+		.mode		= 0644,
+		.proc_handler	= &proc_dointvec
+	},
 	{
 		.ctl_name	= VM_PERCPU_PAGELIST_FRACTION,
 		.procname	= "percpu_pagelist_fraction",
diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
index 2bc2ac63f41e..70d43bf00dc6 100644
--- a/mm/page_alloc.c
+++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
@@ -122,6 +122,7 @@ static char * const zone_names[MAX_NR_ZONES] = {
 };
 
 int min_free_kbytes = 1024;
+int min_free_order_shift = 1;
 
 static unsigned long __meminitdata nr_kernel_pages;
 static unsigned long __meminitdata nr_all_pages;
@@ -1379,7 +1380,7 @@ int zone_watermark_ok(struct zone *z, int order, unsigned long mark,
 		free_pages -= z->free_area[o].nr_free << o;
 
 		/* Require fewer higher order pages to be free */
-		min >>= 1;
+		min >>= min_free_order_shift;
 
 		if (free_pages <= min)
 			return 0;