diff --git a/include/linux/memblock.h b/include/linux/memblock.h
index e5e8f9db3a84..82b030244aa7 100644
--- a/include/linux/memblock.h
+++ b/include/linux/memblock.h
@@ -47,6 +47,9 @@ extern long memblock_remove(phys_addr_t base, phys_addr_t size);
 extern long __init memblock_free(phys_addr_t base, phys_addr_t size);
 extern long __init memblock_reserve(phys_addr_t base, phys_addr_t size);
 
+/* The numa aware allocator is only available if
+ * CONFIG_ARCH_POPULATES_NODE_MAP is set
+ */
 extern phys_addr_t __init memblock_alloc_nid(phys_addr_t size, phys_addr_t align, int nid);
 extern phys_addr_t __init memblock_alloc(phys_addr_t size, phys_addr_t align);
 
diff --git a/mm/memblock.c b/mm/memblock.c
index 468ff43a72b4..af7e4d9cf400 100644
--- a/mm/memblock.c
+++ b/mm/memblock.c
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 #include <linux/init.h>
 #include <linux/bitops.h>
 #include <linux/poison.h>
+#include <linux/pfn.h>
 #include <linux/memblock.h>
 
 struct memblock memblock;
@@ -451,11 +452,36 @@ phys_addr_t __init memblock_alloc(phys_addr_t size, phys_addr_t align)
 /*
  * Additional node-local allocators. Search for node memory is bottom up
  * and walks memblock regions within that node bottom-up as well, but allocation
- * within an memblock region is top-down.
+ * within an memblock region is top-down. XXX I plan to fix that at some stage
+ *
+ * WARNING: Only available after early_node_map[] has been populated,
+ * on some architectures, that is after all the calls to add_active_range()
+ * have been done to populate it.
  */
 
 phys_addr_t __weak __init memblock_nid_range(phys_addr_t start, phys_addr_t end, int *nid)
 {
+#ifdef CONFIG_ARCH_POPULATES_NODE_MAP
+	/*
+	 * This code originates from sparc which really wants use to walk by addresses
+	 * and returns the nid. This is not very convenient for early_pfn_map[] users
+	 * as the map isn't sorted yet, and it really wants to be walked by nid.
+	 *
+	 * For now, I implement the inefficient method below which walks the early
+	 * map multiple times. Eventually we may want to use an ARCH config option
+	 * to implement a completely different method for both case.
+	 */
+	unsigned long start_pfn, end_pfn;
+	int i;
+
+	for (i = 0; i < MAX_NUMNODES; i++) {
+		get_pfn_range_for_nid(i, &start_pfn, &end_pfn);
+		if (start < PFN_PHYS(start_pfn) || start >= PFN_PHYS(end_pfn))
+			continue;
+		*nid = i;
+		return min(end, PFN_PHYS(end_pfn));
+	}
+#endif
 	*nid = 0;
 
 	return end;