diff --git a/changes/bug14802 b/changes/bug14802
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..fc7cfd1873
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changes/bug14802
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+  o Minor bugfix:
+    - Make an educated guess about how much memory the system has when our
+      detection functionality fails on some operating system.  Fixes bug 14802;
+      bugfix on 0.2.5.4-alpha.
diff --git a/src/common/compat.c b/src/common/compat.c
index 5575316b2b..fde65d9d15 100644
--- a/src/common/compat.c
+++ b/src/common/compat.c
@@ -3161,7 +3161,7 @@ get_total_system_memory_impl(void)
   size_t len = sizeof(memsize);
   int mib[2] = {CTL_HW, HW_USERMEM};
   if (sysctl(mib,2,&memsize,&len,NULL,0))
-    return -1;
+    return 0;
 
   return memsize;