diff --git a/fs/cifs/cifssmb.c b/fs/cifs/cifssmb.c
index 6aa7457af763ef..c858a29325ff31 100644
--- a/fs/cifs/cifssmb.c
+++ b/fs/cifs/cifssmb.c
@@ -89,6 +89,32 @@ static struct {
 /* Forward declarations */
 static void cifs_readv_complete(struct work_struct *work);
 
+#ifdef CONFIG_HIGHMEM
+/*
+ * On arches that have high memory, kmap address space is limited. By
+ * serializing the kmap operations on those arches, we ensure that we don't
+ * end up with a bunch of threads in writeback with partially mapped page
+ * arrays, stuck waiting for kmap to come back. That situation prevents
+ * progress and can deadlock.
+ */
+static DEFINE_MUTEX(cifs_kmap_mutex);
+
+static inline void
+cifs_kmap_lock(void)
+{
+	mutex_lock(&cifs_kmap_mutex);
+}
+
+static inline void
+cifs_kmap_unlock(void)
+{
+	mutex_unlock(&cifs_kmap_mutex);
+}
+#else /* !CONFIG_HIGHMEM */
+#define cifs_kmap_lock() do { ; } while(0)
+#define cifs_kmap_unlock() do { ; } while(0)
+#endif /* CONFIG_HIGHMEM */
+
 /* Mark as invalid, all open files on tree connections since they
    were closed when session to server was lost */
 static void mark_open_files_invalid(struct cifs_tcon *pTcon)
@@ -1540,6 +1566,7 @@ cifs_readv_receive(struct TCP_Server_Info *server, struct mid_q_entry *mid)
 	eof_index = eof ? (eof - 1) >> PAGE_CACHE_SHIFT : 0;
 	cFYI(1, "eof=%llu eof_index=%lu", eof, eof_index);
 
+	cifs_kmap_lock();
 	list_for_each_entry_safe(page, tpage, &rdata->pages, lru) {
 		if (remaining >= PAGE_CACHE_SIZE) {
 			/* enough data to fill the page */
@@ -1589,6 +1616,7 @@ cifs_readv_receive(struct TCP_Server_Info *server, struct mid_q_entry *mid)
 			page_cache_release(page);
 		}
 	}
+	cifs_kmap_unlock();
 
 	/* issue the read if we have any iovecs left to fill */
 	if (rdata->nr_iov > 1) {
@@ -2171,6 +2199,7 @@ cifs_async_writev(struct cifs_writedata *wdata)
 	iov[0].iov_base = smb;
 
 	/* marshal up the pages into iov array */
+	cifs_kmap_lock();
 	wdata->bytes = 0;
 	for (i = 0; i < wdata->nr_pages; i++) {
 		iov[i + 1].iov_len = min(inode->i_size -
@@ -2179,6 +2208,7 @@ cifs_async_writev(struct cifs_writedata *wdata)
 		iov[i + 1].iov_base = kmap(wdata->pages[i]);
 		wdata->bytes += iov[i + 1].iov_len;
 	}
+	cifs_kmap_unlock();
 
 	cFYI(1, "async write at %llu %u bytes", wdata->offset, wdata->bytes);