--- a/src/hotspot/share/runtime/vmThread.cpp	Fri Feb 15 07:53:03 2019 -0500
+++ b/src/hotspot/share/runtime/vmThread.cpp	Fri Feb 15 14:15:10 2019 +0100
@@ -458,6 +458,8 @@
 void VMThread::loop() {
   assert(_cur_vm_operation == NULL, "no current one should be executing");
 
+  SafepointSynchronize::init(_vm_thread);
+
   while(true) {
     VM_Operation* safepoint_ops = NULL;
     //