diff --git a/sys/kern/subr_vmem.c b/sys/kern/subr_vmem.c
index 57fdb2101dd7..2c8da6634d7a 100644
--- a/sys/kern/subr_vmem.c
+++ b/sys/kern/subr_vmem.c
@@ -668,10 +668,14 @@ vmem_startup(void)
 	vmem_zone = uma_zcreate("vmem",
 	    sizeof(struct vmem), NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL,
 	    UMA_ALIGN_PTR, 0);
+#ifdef UMA_MD_SMALL_ALLOC
 	vmem_bt_zone = uma_zcreate("vmem btag",
 	    sizeof(struct vmem_btag), NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL,
 	    UMA_ALIGN_PTR, UMA_ZONE_VM);
-#ifndef UMA_MD_SMALL_ALLOC
+#else
+	vmem_bt_zone = uma_zcreate("vmem btag",
+	    sizeof(struct vmem_btag), NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL,
+	    UMA_ALIGN_PTR, UMA_ZONE_VM | UMA_ZONE_NOFREE);
 	mtx_init(&vmem_bt_lock, "btag lock", NULL, MTX_DEF);
 	uma_prealloc(vmem_bt_zone, BT_MAXALLOC);
 	/*