diff --git a/include/linux/kernel.h b/include/linux/kernel.h
index d4e98d1..2ac0277 100644
--- a/include/linux/kernel.h
+++ b/include/linux/kernel.h
@@ -393,6 +393,15 @@
 extern int panic_on_unrecovered_nmi;
 extern int panic_on_io_nmi;
 extern int sysctl_panic_on_stackoverflow;
+/*
+ * Only to be used by arch init code. If the user over-wrote the default
+ * CONFIG_PANIC_TIMEOUT, honor it.
+ */
+static inline void set_arch_panic_timeout(int timeout, int arch_default_timeout)
+{
+	if (panic_timeout == arch_default_timeout)
+		panic_timeout = timeout;
+}
 extern const char *print_tainted(void);
 enum lockdep_ok {
 	LOCKDEP_STILL_OK,
diff --git a/kernel/panic.c b/kernel/panic.c
index c00b4ce..6d63003 100644
--- a/kernel/panic.c
+++ b/kernel/panic.c
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@
 static int pause_on_oops_flag;
 static DEFINE_SPINLOCK(pause_on_oops_lock);
 
-int panic_timeout;
+int panic_timeout = CONFIG_PANIC_TIMEOUT;
 EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(panic_timeout);
 
 ATOMIC_NOTIFIER_HEAD(panic_notifier_list);
diff --git a/lib/Kconfig.debug b/lib/Kconfig.debug
index db25707..6982094 100644
--- a/lib/Kconfig.debug
+++ b/lib/Kconfig.debug
@@ -761,6 +761,15 @@
 	default 0 if !PANIC_ON_OOPS
 	default 1 if PANIC_ON_OOPS
 
+config PANIC_TIMEOUT
+	int "panic timeout"
+	default 0
+	help
+	  Set the timeout value (in seconds) until a reboot occurs when the
+	  the kernel panics. If n = 0, then we wait forever. A timeout
+	  value n > 0 will wait n seconds before rebooting, while a timeout
+	  value n < 0 will reboot immediately.
+
 config SCHED_DEBUG
 	bool "Collect scheduler debugging info"
 	depends on DEBUG_KERNEL && PROC_FS