void *base = (void *)ULONG_MAX;
        void **areas = NULL;
        struct pcpu_alloc_info *ai;
-       size_t size_sum, areas_size;
+       size_t size_sum, areas_size, max_distance;
        int group, i, rc;
 
        ai = pcpu_build_alloc_info(reserved_size, dyn_size, atom_size,
        }
 
        /* base address is now known, determine group base offsets */
-       for (group = 0; group < ai->nr_groups; group++)
+       max_distance = 0;
+       for (group = 0; group < ai->nr_groups; group++) {
                ai->groups[group].base_offset = areas[group] - base;
+               max_distance = max(max_distance, ai->groups[group].base_offset);
+       }
+       max_distance += ai->unit_size;
+
+       /* warn if maximum distance is further than 75% of vmalloc space */
+       if (max_distance > (VMALLOC_END - VMALLOC_START) * 3 / 4) {
+               pr_warning("PERCPU: max_distance=0x%lx too large for vmalloc "
+                          "space 0x%lx\n",
+                          max_distance, VMALLOC_END - VMALLOC_START);
+#ifdef CONFIG_NEED_PER_CPU_PAGE_FIRST_CHUNK
+               /* and fail if we have fallback */
+               rc = -EINVAL;
+               goto out_free;
+#endif
+       }
 
        pr_info("PERCPU: Embedded %zu pages/cpu @%p s%zu r%zu d%zu u%zu\n",
                PFN_DOWN(size_sum), base, ai->static_size, ai->reserved_size,