diff --git a/package/base-files/files/etc/init.d/sysctl b/package/base-files/files/etc/init.d/sysctl
index 2dfbaf7a6e..a0daec071e 100755
--- a/package/base-files/files/etc/init.d/sysctl
+++ b/package/base-files/files/etc/init.d/sysctl
@@ -2,7 +2,23 @@
 # Copyright (C) 2006 OpenWrt.org
 
 START=11
+
+set_vm_min_free() {
+	mem="$(grep MemTotal /proc/meminfo  | awk '{print $2}')"
+	if [ "$mem" -gt 65536 ]; then # 128M
+		val=16384
+	elif [ "$mem" -gt 32768 ]; then # 64M
+		val=8192
+	elif [ "$mem" -gt 16384 ]; then # 32M
+		val=4096
+	else
+		return
+	fi
+	sysctl -qw vm.min_free_kbytes="$val"
+}
+
 start() {
+	set_vm_min_free
 	for CONF in /etc/sysctl.conf /etc/sysctl.d/*.conf; do
 		[ -f "$CONF" ] && sysctl -p "$CONF" -e >&-
 	done