diff --git a/fs/jbd2/journal.c b/fs/jbd2/journal.c
index bd23f2e..dcea89f 100644
--- a/fs/jbd2/journal.c
+++ b/fs/jbd2/journal.c
@@ -1357,6 +1357,24 @@ static void jbd2_mark_journal_empty(journal_t *journal)
 	jbd_debug(1, "JBD2: Marking journal as empty (seq %d)\n",
 		  journal->j_tail_sequence);
 
+	if (bdev_read_only(journal->j_dev)) {
+		__be32 s_start = sb->s_start;
+
+		read_unlock(&journal->j_state_lock);
+		if (s_start != 0) {
+			/*
+			 * should never happen, but aborting the
+			 * journal is nicer than a BUG_ON
+			 */
+			printk(KERN_ERR
+	"JBD2: trying to empty non-empty journal for r/o device %s\n",
+			       journal->j_devname);
+			WARN_ON(1);
+			jbd2_journal_abort(journal, -EROFS);
+		}
+		return;
+	}
+
 	sb->s_sequence = cpu_to_be32(journal->j_tail_sequence);
 	sb->s_start    = cpu_to_be32(0);
 	read_unlock(&journal->j_state_lock);