diff --git a/libcutils/uevent.c b/libcutils/uevent.c
index de5d227be..f548dca2f 100644
--- a/libcutils/uevent.c
+++ b/libcutils/uevent.c
@@ -116,7 +116,12 @@ int uevent_open_socket(int buf_sz, bool passcred)
     if(s < 0)
         return -1;
 
-    setsockopt(s, SOL_SOCKET, SO_RCVBUFFORCE, &buf_sz, sizeof(buf_sz));
+    /* buf_sz should be less than net.core.rmem_max for this to succeed */
+    if (setsockopt(s, SOL_SOCKET, SO_RCVBUF, &buf_sz, sizeof(buf_sz)) < 0) {
+        close(s);
+        return -1;
+    }
+
     setsockopt(s, SOL_SOCKET, SO_PASSCRED, &on, sizeof(on));
 
     if(bind(s, (struct sockaddr *) &addr, sizeof(addr)) < 0) {
diff --git a/rootdir/init.rc b/rootdir/init.rc
index 8903255d4..249b9e285 100644
--- a/rootdir/init.rc
+++ b/rootdir/init.rc
@@ -125,6 +125,12 @@ on init
     write /proc/sys/kernel/sched_rt_runtime_us 950000
     write /proc/sys/kernel/sched_rt_period_us 1000000
 
+    # Assign reasonable ceiling values for socket rcv/snd buffers.
+    # These should almost always be overridden by the target per the
+    # the corresponding technology maximums.
+    write /proc/sys/net/core/rmem_max  262144
+    write /proc/sys/net/core/wmem_max  262144
+
     # reflect fwmark from incoming packets onto generated replies
     write /proc/sys/net/ipv4/fwmark_reflect 1
     write /proc/sys/net/ipv6/fwmark_reflect 1