diff --git a/fs/ext3/super.c b/fs/ext3/super.c
index 541d5e4f7f6e..6900ff05e3ab 100644
--- a/fs/ext3/super.c
+++ b/fs/ext3/super.c
@@ -682,6 +682,26 @@ static struct dentry *ext3_fh_to_parent(struct super_block *sb, struct fid *fid,
 				    ext3_nfs_get_inode);
 }
 
+/*
+ * Try to release metadata pages (indirect blocks, directories) which are
+ * mapped via the block device.  Since these pages could have journal heads
+ * which would prevent try_to_free_buffers() from freeing them, we must use
+ * jbd layer's try_to_free_buffers() function to release them.
+ */
+static int bdev_try_to_free_page(struct super_block *sb, struct page *page,
+				 gfp_t wait)
+{
+	journal_t *journal = EXT3_SB(sb)->s_journal;
+
+	WARN_ON(PageChecked(page));
+	if (!page_has_buffers(page))
+		return 0;
+	if (journal)
+		return journal_try_to_free_buffers(journal, page, 
+						   wait & ~__GFP_WAIT);
+	return try_to_free_buffers(page);
+}
+
 #ifdef CONFIG_QUOTA
 #define QTYPE2NAME(t) ((t)==USRQUOTA?"user":"group")
 #define QTYPE2MOPT(on, t) ((t)==USRQUOTA?((on)##USRJQUOTA):((on)##GRPJQUOTA))
@@ -746,6 +766,7 @@ static const struct super_operations ext3_sops = {
 	.quota_read	= ext3_quota_read,
 	.quota_write	= ext3_quota_write,
 #endif
+	.bdev_try_to_free_page = bdev_try_to_free_page,
 };
 
 static const struct export_operations ext3_export_ops = {