diff --git a/src/main.cpp b/src/main.cpp
index 0883424..16b1613 100644
--- a/src/main.cpp
+++ b/src/main.cpp
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@
  *	Arjan van de Ven <arjan@linux.intel.com>
  */
 #include <iostream>
+#include <fstream>
 #include <stdlib.h>
 #include <stdio.h>
 #include <time.h>
@@ -36,6 +37,7 @@
 #include <getopt.h>
 #include <unistd.h>
 #include <locale.h>
+#include <sys/resource.h>
 
 #include "cpu/cpu.h"
 #include "process/process.h"
@@ -60,6 +62,8 @@
 
 #define DEBUGFS_MAGIC          0x64626720
 
+#define NR_OPEN_DEF 1024 * 1024
+
 int debug_learning = 0;
 unsigned time_out = 20;
 int leave_powertop = 0;
@@ -278,16 +282,35 @@ static void checkroot() {
 
 }
 
+static int get_nr_open(void) {
+	int nr_open = NR_OPEN_DEF;
+	ifstream file;
+
+	file.open("/proc/sys/fs/nr_open", ios::in);
+	if (file) {
+		file >> nr_open;
+		if (!file)
+			nr_open = NR_OPEN_DEF;
+		file.close();
+	}
+	return nr_open;
+}
+
 static void powertop_init(void)
 {
 	static char initialized = 0;
 	int ret;
 	struct statfs st_fs;
+	struct rlimit rlmt;
 
 	if (initialized)
 		return;
 
 	checkroot();
+
+	rlmt.rlim_cur = rlmt.rlim_max = get_nr_open();
+	setrlimit (RLIMIT_NOFILE, &rlmt);
+
 	ret = system("/sbin/modprobe cpufreq_stats > /dev/null 2>&1");
 	ret = system("/sbin/modprobe msr > /dev/null 2>&1");
 	statfs("/sys/kernel/debug", &st_fs);