diff --git a/common/cmd_bootm.c b/common/cmd_bootm.c
index 34a74ce..ac9c32e 100644
--- a/common/cmd_bootm.c
+++ b/common/cmd_bootm.c
@@ -333,8 +333,14 @@
 #ifdef CONFIG_BZIP2
 	case IH_COMP_BZIP2:
 		printf ("   Uncompressing %s ... ", name);
+		/*
+		 * If we've got less than 4 MB of malloc() space,
+		 * use slower decompression algorithm which requires
+		 * at most 2300 KB of memory.
+		 */
 		i = BZ2_bzBuffToBuffDecompress ((char*)ntohl(hdr->ih_load),
-						&unc_len, (char *)data, len, 0, 0);
+						&unc_len, (char *)data, len,
+						CFG_MALLOC_LEN < (4096 * 1024), 0);
 		if (i != BZ_OK) {
 			printf ("BUNZIP2 ERROR %d - must RESET board to recover\n", i);
 			SHOW_BOOT_PROGRESS (-6);