diff --git a/hw/virtio/virtio-mem.c b/hw/virtio/virtio-mem.c
index ef64bf1b4a..4075f3d4ce 100644
--- a/hw/virtio/virtio-mem.c
+++ b/hw/virtio/virtio-mem.c
@@ -88,6 +88,7 @@ static uint32_t virtio_mem_default_thp_size(void)
 static uint32_t thp_size;
 
 #define HPAGE_PMD_SIZE_PATH "/sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/hpage_pmd_size"
+#define HPAGE_PATH "/sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/"
 static uint32_t virtio_mem_thp_size(void)
 {
     gchar *content = NULL;
@@ -98,6 +99,12 @@ static uint32_t virtio_mem_thp_size(void)
         return thp_size;
     }
 
+    /* No THP -> no restrictions. */
+    if (!g_file_test(HPAGE_PATH, G_FILE_TEST_EXISTS)) {
+        thp_size = VIRTIO_MEM_MIN_BLOCK_SIZE;
+        return thp_size;
+    }
+
     /*
      * Try to probe the actual THP size, fallback to (sane but eventually
      * incorrect) default sizes.