I) i tapped into the following kernel trace, which locks down the directory it came up in and with the next flush it locks the whole the partition :-(
d_cursor_hash_table: 256 buckets ef_hash_table: 8192 buckets z_hash_table: 8192 buckets z_hash_table: 8192 buckets j_hash_table: 16384 buckets loading reiser4 bitmap......done (4780 jiffies) VFS: Mounted root (reiser4 filesystem) readonly. . . . ------------[ cut here ]------------ kernel BUG at fs/reiser4/block_alloc.c:149! invalid operand: 0000 [#1] Modules linked in: ipt_state ip_conntrack iptable_filter ip_tables usbhid uhci_hcd 8139too mii evdev usbcore CPU: 0 EIP: 0060:[<c01b897f>] Not tainted VLI EFLAGS: 00010297 (2.6.14) EIP is at sub_from_ctx_grabbed+0xaf/0xc0 eax: 00000000 ebx: 00000000 ecx: 00000001 edx: 00000000 esi: f74eee00 edi: 00000001 ebp: 00000000 esp: f6eebca8 ds: 007b es: 007b ss: 0068 Process linux1 (pid: 5245, threadinfo=f6eea000 task=f71280b0) Stack: 00000000 00000000 f6e5eae0 f6eebe3c 00000000 f6e5eae0 c16dcc60 00000001 f6e5eae0 c1b98800 f74eee00 c01bb607 f74eee00 00000001 00000000 c039c554 f6e5eae0 f6e5eae0 f6e5eb25 f6e5eae0 c01974dc f6eea000 f6e5eae0 f6eea000 Call Trace: [<c01bb607>] grabbed2flush_reserved_nolock+0x67/0x1c0 [<c01974dc>] znode_invariant_f+0x3dc/0x410 [<c01c6e77>] do_jnode_make_dirty+0x187/0x460 [<c020d17b>] is_plugin_id_valid+0x1b/0xa0 [<c01c71c2>] jnode_make_dirty_locked+0x72/0x2c0 [<c0250693>] save_static_sd+0xd3/0x210 [<c01c757e>] znode_make_dirty+0x16e/0x650 [<c0216a77>] update_sd_at+0x1f7/0x6e0 [<c0216fe9>] update_sd+0x89/0x140 [<c0213e2d>] write_sd_by_inode_common+0xdd/0x150 [<c01bd424>] txn_begin+0x24/0x90 [<c021e829>] sync_unix_file+0x59/0x1e0 [<c0221851>] write_unix_file+0x471/0x6d0 [<c01283a0>] autoremove_wake_function+0x0/0x60 [<c0150fd5>] vfs_write+0xb5/0x190 [<c015117b>] sys_write+0x4b/0x80 [<c0102c0b>] sysenter_past_esp+0x54/0x75 Code: 8b 02 8b 80 9c 00 00 00 89 44 24 0c 8b 02 c7 44 24 04 94 41 3b c0 c7 04 24 3c b0 39 c0 05 a4 01 00 00 89 44 24 08 e8 21 01 fd ff <0f> 0b 95 00 26 f7 38 c0 eb 84 8d b4 26 00 00 00 00 8b 4c 24 04 Dec 19 19:49:22 tormented-soul kernel: d_cursor_hash_table: 256 buckets Dec 19 19:49:22 tormented-soul kernel: ef_hash_table: 8192 buckets Dec 19 19:49:22 tormented-soul kernel: z_hash_table: 8192 buckets Dec 19 19:49:22 tormented-soul kernel: z_hash_table: 8192 buckets Dec 19 19:49:22 tormented-soul kernel: j_hash_table: 16384 buckets Dec 19 19:49:22 tormented-soul kernel: loading reiser4 bitmap......done (4780 jiffies) Dec 19 19:49:22 tormented-soul kernel: VFS: Mounted root (reiser4 filesystem) readonly. Dec 19 19:49:22 tormented-soul kernel: d_cursor_hash_table: 256 buckets Dec 19 19:49:22 tormented-soul kernel: ef_hash_table: 8192 buckets Dec 19 19:49:22 tormented-soul kernel: z_hash_table: 8192 buckets Dec 19 19:49:22 tormented-soul kernel: z_hash_table: 8192 buckets Dec 19 19:49:22 tormented-soul kernel: j_hash_table: 16384 buckets Dec 19 19:49:22 tormented-soul kernel: loading reiser4 bitmap......done (4780 jiffies) Dec 19 19:49:22 tormented-soul kernel: VFS: Mounted root (reiser4 filesystem) readonly. this happens everytime i try to start 3 user-mode-linux instances with an disk-image of approx 500mb each the system('s) i get this on, are running gentoo linux with gcc4 + glibc-2.3.6-nptl kernel: linux-2.6.14 patched with: *reiser4-for-2.6.14-1.patch :-) *reiser4-fix-fsync.patch *force-starget-scsi_level-in-usb-storage-scsigluec.patch *skas-2.6.14-v8.2.patch *suspend2-2.2-rc13-for-2.6.14 update: the problem even occurs with only reiser4-for-2.6.14-1.patch applied, so the other patches should be safe linux-2.6.15-rc5-mm3, too - same error that version was additionally patched with: *reiser4-fix-fsync.patch could this be a gcc4-bug? are there any known issues? haven't found any on the net, yet - and it did definitely work with gcc4.0 and gcc4.1 and i never had any problems with gcc4. but i'll give gcc3 a shot if i can find a source-tarball lying around... II) there's also a warning i get each time the system is running: "<4>reiser4[ktxnmgrd:hda4:r(651)]: disable_write_barrier (fs/reiser4/wander.c:233)[zam-1055]: WARNING: disabling write barrier" is this behaviour normal? should i be concerned about this WARNING? III) are there any mount/compile options, which could produce better performance with larger files (i.e. 2gb and more)? btw. reiser4 rocks a lot more than xfs/ext3 - good work :-) thx for any help, Heiko