diff --git a/drivers/acpid/src/aml_physmem.rs b/drivers/acpid/src/aml_physmem.rs
index 1f454032ed..e15ff3d739 100644
--- a/drivers/acpid/src/aml_physmem.rs
+++ b/drivers/acpid/src/aml_physmem.rs
@@ -146,9 +146,26 @@ pub struct AmlPhysMemHandler {
 
 struct AmlMutexState {
     next_id: u32,
-    held: FxHashSet<u32>,
+    /// Mutex id -> (owning thread, recursion depth).
+    ///
+    /// ACPI mutexes are recursive: the owning thread may acquire the same mutex
+    /// again (nested `Acquire`), and each `Acquire` must be matched by a
+    /// `Release`. Tracking ownership is therefore mandatory -- a plain "is it
+    /// held" set makes a nested acquire wait for a release that only the
+    /// waiting thread itself could perform, which self-deadlocks the AML
+    /// interpreter.
+    held: FxHashMap<u32, (std::thread::ThreadId, u32)>,
 }
 
+/// Upper bound on how long an AML mutex acquire may wait.
+///
+/// acpid is single-threaded: the same thread that evaluates AML also serves the
+/// `acpi` scheme socket. A long wait here does not just delay one AML method --
+/// it stops acpid answering scheme requests, which blocks the namespace manager
+/// that is waiting on that open, which in turn blocks *every* path resolution in
+/// the system. Bounding the wait keeps a misbehaving AML method local.
+const MAX_MUTEX_WAIT: std::time::Duration = std::time::Duration::from_secs(5);
+
 /// Read from a physical address.
 /// Generic parameter must be u8, u16, u32 or u64.
 impl AmlPhysMemHandler {
@@ -164,7 +181,7 @@ impl AmlPhysMemHandler {
             pci_fd: Arc::new(pci_fd),
             mutex_state: Arc::new(Mutex::new(AmlMutexState {
                 next_id: 1,
-                held: FxHashSet::default(),
+                held: FxHashMap::default(),
             })),
         }
     }
@@ -432,14 +449,35 @@ impl acpi::Handler for AmlPhysMemHandler {
     }
 
     fn acquire(&self, mutex: Handle, timeout: u16) -> Result<(), AmlError> {
-        let deadline = std::time::Instant::now()
-            + std::time::Duration::from_millis(u64::from(timeout).saturating_mul(1000));
+        // ACPI `_ACQ` timeouts are expressed in MILLISECONDS, and 0xFFFF is the
+        // spec's "wait forever" value (Linux: ACPI_WAIT_FOREVER,
+        // include/acpi/actypes.h:459). The previous code multiplied the value by
+        // 1000, treating it as seconds, which turned a routine wait into hours.
+        const ACPI_WAIT_FOREVER: u16 = 0xFFFF;
+        let wait = if timeout == ACPI_WAIT_FOREVER {
+            MAX_MUTEX_WAIT
+        } else {
+            std::time::Duration::from_millis(u64::from(timeout)).min(MAX_MUTEX_WAIT)
+        };
+        let deadline = std::time::Instant::now() + wait;
+        let me = std::thread::current().id();
+
         loop {
             {
                 let mut state = self.mutex_state.lock().unwrap();
-                if !state.held.contains(&mutex.0) {
-                    state.held.insert(mutex.0);
-                    return Ok(());
+                match state.held.get_mut(&mutex.0) {
+                    None => {
+                        state.held.insert(mutex.0, (me, 1));
+                        return Ok(());
+                    }
+                    // Nested acquire by the owning thread: bump the depth rather
+                    // than waiting for ourselves to release. Mirrors ACPICA
+                    // acpi_ex_acquire_mutex_object (exmutex.c:140).
+                    Some((owner, depth)) if *owner == me => {
+                        *depth += 1;
+                        return Ok(());
+                    }
+                    Some(_) => {}
                 }
             }
             if std::time::Instant::now() >= deadline {
@@ -450,6 +488,12 @@ impl acpi::Handler for AmlPhysMemHandler {
     }
 
     fn release(&self, mutex: Handle) {
-        self.mutex_state.lock().unwrap().held.remove(&mutex.0);
+        let mut state = self.mutex_state.lock().unwrap();
+        if let Some((_, depth)) = state.held.get_mut(&mutex.0) {
+            *depth -= 1;
+            if *depth == 0 {
+                state.held.remove(&mutex.0);
+            }
+        }
     }
 }