diff --git a/meta/recipes-devtools/e2fsprogs/e2fsprogs/big-inodes-for-small-fs.patch b/meta/recipes-devtools/e2fsprogs/e2fsprogs/big-inodes-for-small-fs.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..caeb560d32
--- /dev/null
+++ b/meta/recipes-devtools/e2fsprogs/e2fsprogs/big-inodes-for-small-fs.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+Ensure "small" file systems also have the default inode size (256 bytes) so that
+can store 64-bit timestamps and work past 2038.
+
+The "small" type is any size >3MB and <512MB, which covers a lot of relatively
+small filesystems built by OE, especially when they're sized to fit the contents
+and expand to the storage on boot.
+
+Upstream-Status: Inappropriate
+Signed-off-by: Ross Burton <ross.burton@arm.com>
+
+diff --git a/misc/mke2fs.conf.in b/misc/mke2fs.conf.in
+index 01e35cf8..29f41dc0 100644
+--- a/misc/mke2fs.conf.in
++++ b/misc/mke2fs.conf.in
+@@ -16,7 +16,6 @@
+ 	}
+ 	small = {
+ 		blocksize = 1024
+-		inode_size = 128
+ 		inode_ratio = 4096
+ 	}
+ 	floppy = {
diff --git a/meta/recipes-devtools/e2fsprogs/e2fsprogs_1.45.4.bb b/meta/recipes-devtools/e2fsprogs/e2fsprogs_1.45.4.bb
index 439928e433..2eae9cd892 100644
--- a/meta/recipes-devtools/e2fsprogs/e2fsprogs_1.45.4.bb
+++ b/meta/recipes-devtools/e2fsprogs/e2fsprogs_1.45.4.bb
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ SRC_URI += "file://remove.ldconfig.call.patch \
 
 SRC_URI_append_class-native = " file://e2fsprogs-fix-missing-check-for-permission-denied.patch \
                                 file://quiet-debugfs.patch \
+                                file://big-inodes-for-small-fs.patch \
 "
 
 SRCREV = "984ff8d6a0a1d5dc300505f67b38ed5047d51dac"