diff --git a/mm/page-writeback.c b/mm/page-writeback.c
index 945559f..99c2561 100644
--- a/mm/page-writeback.c
+++ b/mm/page-writeback.c
@@ -319,6 +319,7 @@ void throttle_vm_writeout(void)
 static void background_writeout(unsigned long _min_pages)
 {
 	long min_pages = _min_pages;
+	long last_wrote = -1;
 	struct writeback_control wbc = {
 		.bdi		= NULL,
 		.sync_mode	= WB_SYNC_NONE,
@@ -331,6 +332,7 @@ static void background_writeout(unsigned
 		struct writeback_state wbs;
 		long background_thresh;
 		long dirty_thresh;
+		long wrote;
 
 		get_dirty_limits(&wbs, &background_thresh, &dirty_thresh, NULL);
 		if (wbs.nr_dirty + wbs.nr_unstable < background_thresh
@@ -340,7 +342,11 @@ static void background_writeout(unsigned
 		wbc.nr_to_write = MAX_WRITEBACK_PAGES;
 		wbc.pages_skipped = 0;
 		writeback_inodes(&wbc);
-		min_pages -= MAX_WRITEBACK_PAGES - wbc.nr_to_write;
+		wrote = MAX_WRITEBACK_PAGES - wbc.nr_to_write;
+		if (!last_wrote && !wrote)
+			break;
+		last_wrote = wrote;
+		min_pages -= wrote;
 		if (wbc.nr_to_write > 0 || wbc.pages_skipped > 0) {
 			/* Wrote less than expected */
 			blk_congestion_wait(WRITE, HZ/10);