diff --git a/UPDATING b/UPDATING
index 575a037f9317..0aed1e41879d 100644
--- a/UPDATING
+++ b/UPDATING
@@ -22,6 +22,13 @@ NOTE TO PEOPLE WHO THINK THAT FreeBSD 10.x IS SLOW:
 	machines to maximize performance.  (To disable malloc debugging, run
 	ln -s aj /etc/malloc.conf.)
 
+20120109:
+	panic(9) now stops other CPUs in the SMP systems, disables interrupts
+	on the current CPU and prevents other threads from running.
+	This behavior can be reverted using the kern.stop_scheduler_on_panic
+	tunable/sysctl.
+	The new behavior can be incompatible with kern.sync_on_panic.
+
 20111215:
 	The carp(4) facility has been changed significantly. Configuration
 	of the CARP protocol via ifconfig(8) has changed, as well as format
diff --git a/sys/kern/kern_shutdown.c b/sys/kern/kern_shutdown.c
index 2999826c5285..55c77c4ec18f 100644
--- a/sys/kern/kern_shutdown.c
+++ b/sys/kern/kern_shutdown.c
@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@ SYSCTL_INT(_kern, OID_AUTO, sync_on_panic, CTLFLAG_RW | CTLFLAG_TUN,
 	&sync_on_panic, 0, "Do a sync before rebooting from a panic");
 TUNABLE_INT("kern.sync_on_panic", &sync_on_panic);
 
-static int stop_scheduler_on_panic = 0;
+static int stop_scheduler_on_panic = 1;
 SYSCTL_INT(_kern, OID_AUTO, stop_scheduler_on_panic, CTLFLAG_RW | CTLFLAG_TUN,
     &stop_scheduler_on_panic, 0, "stop scheduler upon entering panic");
 TUNABLE_INT("kern.stop_scheduler_on_panic", &stop_scheduler_on_panic);