If ext3_add_nondir() fails it will do an iput() of the inode. But we continue to run ext3_mark_inode_dirty() against the potentially-freed inode. This oopses when slab poisoning is enabled. Fix it so that we only run ext3_mark_inode_dirty() if the inode was successfully instantiated. This bug was added in 2.4.20-pre9. fs/ext3/namei.c | 11 +++++------ 1 files changed, 5 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-) --- linux-2.4.20-ext3merge/fs/ext3/namei.c.=K0031=.orig 2002-12-16 17:09:48.000000000 +0000 +++ linux-2.4.20-ext3merge/fs/ext3/namei.c 2002-12-16 17:09:48.000000000 +0000 @@ -1520,8 +1520,11 @@ { int err = ext3_add_entry(handle, dentry, inode); if (!err) { - d_instantiate(dentry, inode); - return 0; + err = ext3_mark_inode_dirty(handle, inode); + if (err == 0) { + d_instantiate(dentry, inode); + return 0; + } } ext3_dec_count(handle, inode); iput(inode); @@ -1558,7 +1561,6 @@ inode->i_fop = &ext3_file_operations; inode->i_mapping->a_ops = &ext3_aops; err = ext3_add_nondir(handle, dentry, inode); - ext3_mark_inode_dirty(handle, inode); } ext3_journal_stop(handle, dir); return err; @@ -1585,7 +1587,6 @@ if (!IS_ERR(inode)) { init_special_inode(inode, mode, rdev); err = ext3_add_nondir(handle, dentry, inode); - ext3_mark_inode_dirty(handle, inode); } ext3_journal_stop(handle, dir); return err; @@ -2018,7 +2019,6 @@ } EXT3_I(inode)->i_disksize = inode->i_size; err = ext3_add_nondir(handle, dentry, inode); - ext3_mark_inode_dirty(handle, inode); out_stop: ext3_journal_stop(handle, dir); return err; @@ -2052,7 +2052,6 @@ atomic_inc(&inode->i_count); err = ext3_add_nondir(handle, dentry, inode); - ext3_mark_inode_dirty(handle, inode); ext3_journal_stop(handle, dir); return err; }