diff --git a/fs/jbd/checkpoint.c b/fs/jbd/checkpoint.c
index 1bd8d4acc6f..61f32f3868c 100644
--- a/fs/jbd/checkpoint.c
+++ b/fs/jbd/checkpoint.c
@@ -115,7 +115,7 @@ static int __try_to_free_cp_buf(struct journal_head *jh)
  */
 void __log_wait_for_space(journal_t *journal)
 {
-	int nblocks;
+	int nblocks, space_left;
 	assert_spin_locked(&journal->j_state_lock);
 
 	nblocks = jbd_space_needed(journal);
@@ -128,25 +128,42 @@ void __log_wait_for_space(journal_t *journal)
 		/*
 		 * Test again, another process may have checkpointed while we
 		 * were waiting for the checkpoint lock. If there are no
-		 * outstanding transactions there is nothing to checkpoint and
-		 * we can't make progress. Abort the journal in this case.
+		 * transactions ready to be checkpointed, try to recover
+		 * journal space by calling cleanup_journal_tail(), and if
+		 * that doesn't work, by waiting for the currently committing
+		 * transaction to complete.  If there is absolutely no way
+		 * to make progress, this is either a BUG or corrupted
+		 * filesystem, so abort the journal and leave a stack
+		 * trace for forensic evidence.
 		 */
 		spin_lock(&journal->j_state_lock);
 		spin_lock(&journal->j_list_lock);
 		nblocks = jbd_space_needed(journal);
-		if (__log_space_left(journal) < nblocks) {
+		space_left = __log_space_left(journal);
+		if (space_left < nblocks) {
 			int chkpt = journal->j_checkpoint_transactions != NULL;
+			tid_t tid = 0;
 
+			if (journal->j_committing_transaction)
+				tid = journal->j_committing_transaction->t_tid;
 			spin_unlock(&journal->j_list_lock);
 			spin_unlock(&journal->j_state_lock);
 			if (chkpt) {
 				log_do_checkpoint(journal);
+			} else if (cleanup_journal_tail(journal) == 0) {
+				/* We were able to recover space; yay! */
+				;
+			} else if (tid) {
+				log_wait_commit(journal, tid);
 			} else {
-				printk(KERN_ERR "%s: no transactions\n",
-				       __func__);
+				printk(KERN_ERR "%s: needed %d blocks and "
+				       "only had %d space available\n",
+				       __func__, nblocks, space_left);
+				printk(KERN_ERR "%s: no way to get more "
+				       "journal space\n", __func__);
+				WARN_ON(1);
 				journal_abort(journal, 0);
 			}
-
 			spin_lock(&journal->j_state_lock);
 		} else {
 			spin_unlock(&journal->j_list_lock);