diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 198750f6a..351700803 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,11 @@
+2011-05-27  Colin Watson  <cjwatson@ubuntu.com>
+
+	* grub-core/kern/emu/hostdisk.c (linux_find_partition): Give up
+	after ten consecutive open failures.  Scanning all the way up to
+	10000 is excessive and can cause serious performance problems in
+	some configurations.
+	Fixes Ubuntu bug #787461.
+
 2011-05-21  Vladimir Serbinenko  <phcoder@gmail.com>
 
 	* grub-core/disk/arc/arcdisk.c (reopen): Close old handle before
diff --git a/grub-core/kern/emu/hostdisk.c b/grub-core/kern/emu/hostdisk.c
index d633059c3..e404c4fea 100644
--- a/grub-core/kern/emu/hostdisk.c
+++ b/grub-core/kern/emu/hostdisk.c
@@ -564,6 +564,7 @@ linux_find_partition (char *dev, grub_disk_addr_t sector)
   int i;
   char real_dev[PATH_MAX];
   struct linux_partition_cache *cache;
+  int missing = 0;
 
   strcpy(real_dev, dev);
 
@@ -602,7 +603,13 @@ linux_find_partition (char *dev, grub_disk_addr_t sector)
 
       fd = open (real_dev, O_RDONLY);
       if (fd == -1)
-	continue;
+	{
+	  if (missing++ < 10)
+	    continue;
+	  else
+	    return 0;
+	}
+      missing = 0;
       close (fd);
 
       start = find_partition_start (real_dev);