diff --git a/servers/vm/main.c b/servers/vm/main.c
index ed6802762..8b63b6fbb 100644
--- a/servers/vm/main.c
+++ b/servers/vm/main.c
@@ -322,6 +322,7 @@ void init_vm(void)
 	}
 
 	/* Turn file mmap on? */
+	enable_filemap=1;	/* yes by default */
 	env_parse("filemap", "d", 0, &enable_filemap, 0, 1);
 
 	/* Sanity check */