diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/vm/compaction_test.c b/tools/testing/selftests/vm/compaction_test.c
index 9b420140ba2b..55dec92e1e58 100644
--- a/tools/testing/selftests/vm/compaction_test.c
+++ b/tools/testing/selftests/vm/compaction_test.c
@@ -103,6 +103,8 @@ int check_compaction(unsigned long mem_free, unsigned int hugepage_size)
 		goto close_fd;
 	}
 
+	lseek(fd, 0, SEEK_SET);
+
 	/* Start with the initial condition of 0 huge pages*/
 	if (write(fd, "0", sizeof(char)) != sizeof(char)) {
 		perror("Failed to write 0 to /proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages\n");