diff --git a/libgo/runtime/malloc.goc b/libgo/runtime/malloc.goc
index f8d4327d69066457ee1a0c94d2762acad1cc4279..66f5bda66c0b3c9ef2fbbd10f8fb512e1a450afe 100644
--- a/libgo/runtime/malloc.goc
+++ b/libgo/runtime/malloc.goc
@@ -358,6 +358,8 @@ runtime_mallocinit(void)
 		// away from the running binary image and then round up
 		// to a MB boundary.
 		want = (byte*)(((uintptr)end + (1<<18) + (1<<20) - 1)&~((1<<20)-1));
+		if(0xffffffff - (uintptr)want <= bitmap_size + arena_size)
+		  want = 0;
 		p = runtime_SysReserve(want, bitmap_size + arena_size);
 		if(p == nil)
 			runtime_throw("runtime: cannot reserve arena virtual address space");