diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/vm/userfaultfd.c b/tools/testing/selftests/vm/userfaultfd.c
index 0671ae1d1052e0fc53d638d7ed5aa14f51253e8e..10897092823da0b861d8c1d00153b23987461e4b 100644
--- a/tools/testing/selftests/vm/userfaultfd.c
+++ b/tools/testing/selftests/vm/userfaultfd.c
@@ -465,6 +465,14 @@ static int userfaultfd_stress(void)
 		*area_mutex(area_src, nr) = (pthread_mutex_t)
 			PTHREAD_MUTEX_INITIALIZER;
 		count_verify[nr] = *area_count(area_src, nr) = 1;
+		/*
+		 * In the transition between 255 to 256, powerpc will
+		 * read out of order in my_bcmp and see both bytes as
+		 * zero, so leave a placeholder below always non-zero
+		 * after the count, to avoid my_bcmp to trigger false
+		 * positives.
+		 */
+		*(area_count(area_src, nr) + 1) = 1;
 	}
 
 	pipefd = malloc(sizeof(int) * nr_cpus * 2);
@@ -610,8 +618,8 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 		fprintf(stderr, "Usage: <MiB> <bounces>\n"), exit(1);
 	nr_cpus = sysconf(_SC_NPROCESSORS_ONLN);
 	page_size = sysconf(_SC_PAGE_SIZE);
-	if ((unsigned long) area_count(NULL, 0) + sizeof(unsigned long long) >
-	    page_size)
+	if ((unsigned long) area_count(NULL, 0) + sizeof(unsigned long long) * 2
+	    > page_size)
 		fprintf(stderr, "Impossible to run this test\n"), exit(2);
 	nr_pages_per_cpu = atol(argv[1]) * 1024*1024 / page_size /
 		nr_cpus;