unsigned long pnum;
        struct page *map;
        unsigned long *usemap;
+       unsigned long **usemap_map;
+       int size;
+
+       /*
+        * map is using big page (aka 2M in x86 64 bit)
+        * usemap is less one page (aka 24 bytes)
+        * so alloc 2M (with 2M align) and 24 bytes in turn will
+        * make next 2M slip to one more 2M later.
+        * then in big system, the memory will have a lot of holes...
+        * here try to allocate 2M pages continously.
+        *
+        * powerpc need to call sparse_init_one_section right after each
+        * sparse_early_mem_map_alloc, so allocate usemap_map at first.
+        */
+       size = sizeof(unsigned long *) * NR_MEM_SECTIONS;
+       usemap_map = alloc_bootmem(size);
+       if (!usemap_map)
+               panic("can not allocate usemap_map\n");
 
        for (pnum = 0; pnum < NR_MEM_SECTIONS; pnum++) {
                if (!present_section_nr(pnum))
                        continue;
+               usemap_map[pnum] = sparse_early_usemap_alloc(pnum);
+       }
 
-               map = sparse_early_mem_map_alloc(pnum);
-               if (!map)
+       for (pnum = 0; pnum < NR_MEM_SECTIONS; pnum++) {
+               if (!present_section_nr(pnum))
                        continue;
 
-               usemap = sparse_early_usemap_alloc(pnum);
+               usemap = usemap_map[pnum];
                if (!usemap)
                        continue;
 
+               map = sparse_early_mem_map_alloc(pnum);
+               if (!map)
+                       continue;
+
                sparse_init_one_section(__nr_to_section(pnum), pnum, map,
                                                                usemap);
        }
+
+       free_bootmem(__pa(usemap_map), size);
 }
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_MEMORY_HOTPLUG