diff --git a/arch/x86/mm/init_32.c b/arch/x86/mm/init_32.c
index 0d3369b900e9..4d1156545194 100644
--- a/arch/x86/mm/init_32.c
+++ b/arch/x86/mm/init_32.c
@@ -780,6 +780,13 @@ void free_init_pages(char *what, unsigned long begin, unsigned long end)
 {
 	unsigned long addr;
 
+	/*
+	 * We just marked the kernel text read only above, now that
+	 * we are going to free part of that, we need to make that
+	 * writeable first.
+	 */
+	set_memory_rw(begin, (end - begin) >> PAGE_SHIFT);
+
 	for (addr = begin; addr < end; addr += PAGE_SIZE) {
 		ClearPageReserved(virt_to_page(addr));
 		init_page_count(virt_to_page(addr));
diff --git a/arch/x86/mm/init_64.c b/arch/x86/mm/init_64.c
index 9b69fa54a831..f97ace7a55e5 100644
--- a/arch/x86/mm/init_64.c
+++ b/arch/x86/mm/init_64.c
@@ -570,6 +570,7 @@ void free_init_pages(char *what, unsigned long begin, unsigned long end)
 	 * 2Mb kernel mapping just for this debug feature.
 	 */
 	if (begin >= __START_KERNEL_map) {
+		set_memory_rw(begin, (end - begin)/PAGE_SIZE);
 		set_memory_np(begin, (end - begin)/PAGE_SIZE);
 		set_memory_nx(begin, (end - begin)/PAGE_SIZE);
 	}