diff --git a/fs/jbd2/journal.c b/fs/jbd2/journal.c
index b96bd8076b70..0bc333b4a594 100644
--- a/fs/jbd2/journal.c
+++ b/fs/jbd2/journal.c
@@ -371,16 +371,7 @@ int jbd2_journal_write_metadata_buffer(transaction_t *transaction,
 	 */
 	J_ASSERT_BH(bh_in, buffer_jbddirty(bh_in));
 
-retry_alloc:
-	new_bh = alloc_buffer_head(GFP_NOFS);
-	if (!new_bh) {
-		/*
-		 * Failure is not an option, but __GFP_NOFAIL is going
-		 * away; so we retry ourselves here.
-		 */
-		congestion_wait(BLK_RW_ASYNC, HZ/50);
-		goto retry_alloc;
-	}
+	new_bh = alloc_buffer_head(GFP_NOFS|__GFP_NOFAIL);
 
 	/* keep subsequent assertions sane */
 	atomic_set(&new_bh->b_count, 1);
diff --git a/fs/jbd2/transaction.c b/fs/jbd2/transaction.c
index ff2f2e6ad311..799242cecffb 100644
--- a/fs/jbd2/transaction.c
+++ b/fs/jbd2/transaction.c
@@ -278,22 +278,16 @@ static int start_this_handle(journal_t *journal, handle_t *handle,
 
 alloc_transaction:
 	if (!journal->j_running_transaction) {
+		/*
+		 * If __GFP_FS is not present, then we may be being called from
+		 * inside the fs writeback layer, so we MUST NOT fail.
+		 */
+		if ((gfp_mask & __GFP_FS) == 0)
+			gfp_mask |= __GFP_NOFAIL;
 		new_transaction = kmem_cache_zalloc(transaction_cache,
 						    gfp_mask);
-		if (!new_transaction) {
-			/*
-			 * If __GFP_FS is not present, then we may be
-			 * being called from inside the fs writeback
-			 * layer, so we MUST NOT fail.  Since
-			 * __GFP_NOFAIL is going away, we will arrange
-			 * to retry the allocation ourselves.
-			 */
-			if ((gfp_mask & __GFP_FS) == 0) {
-				congestion_wait(BLK_RW_ASYNC, HZ/50);
-				goto alloc_transaction;
-			}
+		if (!new_transaction)
 			return -ENOMEM;
-		}
 	}
 
 	jbd_debug(3, "New handle %p going live.\n", handle);