diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
index 8a00c3219126..e5c610d711f3 100644
--- a/mm/page_alloc.c
+++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
@@ -6489,7 +6489,8 @@ static u64 zero_pfn_range(unsigned long spfn, unsigned long epfn)
  * This function also addresses a similar issue where struct pages are left
  * uninitialized because the physical address range is not covered by
  * memblock.memory or memblock.reserved. That could happen when memblock
- * layout is manually configured via memmap=.
+ * layout is manually configured via memmap=, or when the highest physical
+ * address (max_pfn) does not end on a section boundary.
  */
 void __init zero_resv_unavail(void)
 {
@@ -6507,7 +6508,16 @@ void __init zero_resv_unavail(void)
 			pgcnt += zero_pfn_range(PFN_DOWN(next), PFN_UP(start));
 		next = end;
 	}
-	pgcnt += zero_pfn_range(PFN_DOWN(next), max_pfn);
+
+	/*
+	 * Early sections always have a fully populated memmap for the whole
+	 * section - see pfn_valid(). If the last section has holes at the
+	 * end and that section is marked "online", the memmap will be
+	 * considered initialized. Make sure that memmap has a well defined
+	 * state.
+	 */
+	pgcnt += zero_pfn_range(PFN_DOWN(next),
+				round_up(max_pfn, PAGES_PER_SECTION));
 
 	/*
 	 * Struct pages that do not have backing memory. This could be because