diff --git a/arch/x86/boot/compressed/head_64.S b/arch/x86/boot/compressed/head_64.S
index 68f31c48d6c2..c8ee6eff13ef 100644
--- a/arch/x86/boot/compressed/head_64.S
+++ b/arch/x86/boot/compressed/head_64.S
@@ -645,7 +645,7 @@ SYM_DATA_END_LABEL(boot_stack, SYM_L_LOCAL, boot_stack_end)
 /*
  * Space for page tables (not in .bss so not zeroed)
  */
-	.section ".pgtable","a",@nobits
+	.section ".pgtable","aw",@nobits
 	.balign 4096
 SYM_DATA_LOCAL(pgtable,		.fill BOOT_PGT_SIZE, 1, 0)