diff --git a/include/linux/slab.h b/include/linux/slab.h
index 3af03b19c9830275c77ef99f98c6a22e76a79a7f..2d985d59c7b86759663761c3ec333ec196730026 100644
--- a/include/linux/slab.h
+++ b/include/linux/slab.h
@@ -150,6 +150,7 @@ static inline void *kcalloc(size_t n, size_t size, gfp_t flags)
 
 extern void kfree(const void *);
 extern unsigned int ksize(const void *);
+extern int slab_is_available(void);
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_NUMA
 extern void *kmem_cache_alloc_node(kmem_cache_t *, gfp_t flags, int node);
diff --git a/mm/slab.c b/mm/slab.c
index c32af7e7581ef0ff11ef112f94b6a84da50cafc4..b1d643b5238de2f74ab3911d2bab4479c8745385 100644
--- a/mm/slab.c
+++ b/mm/slab.c
@@ -700,6 +700,14 @@ static enum {
 	FULL
 } g_cpucache_up;
 
+/*
+ * used by boot code to determine if it can use slab based allocator
+ */
+int slab_is_available(void)
+{
+	return g_cpucache_up == FULL;
+}
+
 static DEFINE_PER_CPU(struct work_struct, reap_work);
 
 static void free_block(struct kmem_cache *cachep, void **objpp, int len,
diff --git a/mm/sparse.c b/mm/sparse.c
index d7c32de99ee8c49d0e850a06084d5efe508a7625..c5e89eb9ac8ff10e1e15fced114de41058df4a7e 100644
--- a/mm/sparse.c
+++ b/mm/sparse.c
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ static struct mem_section *sparse_index_alloc(int nid)
 	unsigned long array_size = SECTIONS_PER_ROOT *
 				   sizeof(struct mem_section);
 
-	if (system_state == SYSTEM_RUNNING)
+	if (slab_is_available())
 		section = kmalloc_node(array_size, GFP_KERNEL, nid);
 	else
 		section = alloc_bootmem_node(NODE_DATA(nid), array_size);