diff -r b003d950922a -r d8283445992a hotspot/src/share/vm/runtime/vmThread.cpp
--- a/hotspot/src/share/vm/runtime/vmThread.cpp	Wed Jun 10 14:57:21 2009 -0700
+++ b/hotspot/src/share/vm/runtime/vmThread.cpp	Thu Jun 11 12:40:00 2009 -0700
@@ -531,6 +531,7 @@
   Thread* t = Thread::current();
 
   if (!t->is_VM_thread()) {
+    SkipGCALot sgcalot(t);    // avoid re-entrant attempts to gc-a-lot
     // JavaThread or WatcherThread
     t->check_for_valid_safepoint_state(true);