diff --git a/rootdir/init.rc b/rootdir/init.rc
index 8ea72e83334a4a01a6c9ba6b65df6c723d950947..e814d0c58048d5025ae005424b5c1c5f0c1d37e2 100644
--- a/rootdir/init.rc
+++ b/rootdir/init.rc
@@ -140,23 +140,27 @@ on init
     # sets up initial cpusets for ActivityManager
     mkdir /dev/cpuset
     mount cpuset none /dev/cpuset
+
+    # this ensures that the cpusets are present and usable, but the device's
+    # init.rc must actually set the correct cpus
     mkdir /dev/cpuset/foreground
+    write /dev/cpuset/foreground/cpus 0
+    write /dev/cpuset/foreground/mems 0
     mkdir /dev/cpuset/foreground/boost
+    write /dev/cpuset/foreground/boost/cpus 0
+    write /dev/cpuset/foreground/boost/mems 0
     mkdir /dev/cpuset/background
+    write /dev/cpuset/background/cpus 0
+    write /dev/cpuset/background/mems 0
+
     # system-background is for system tasks that should only run on
     # little cores, not on bigs
-    # to be used only by init, so don't change the permissions
+    # to be used only by init, so don't change system-bg permissions
     mkdir /dev/cpuset/system-background
-    # this ensures that the cpusets are present and usable, but the device's
-    # init.rc must actually set the correct cpus
-    write /dev/cpuset/foreground/cpus 0
-    write /dev/cpuset/foreground/boost/cpus 0
-    write /dev/cpuset/background/cpus 0
     write /dev/cpuset/system-background/cpus 0
-    write /dev/cpuset/foreground/mems 0
-    write /dev/cpuset/foreground/boost/mems 0
-    write /dev/cpuset/background/mems 0
     write /dev/cpuset/system-background/mems 0
+
+    # change permissions for all cpusets we'll touch at runtime
     chown system system /dev/cpuset
     chown system system /dev/cpuset/foreground
     chown system system /dev/cpuset/foreground/boost