local_irq_save not masking interrupts

[Alex Zeffertt <ajz@cambridgebroadband.com>]

Hi list,

I'm having a strange problem with interrupts.  My platform is the
MPC832xEMDS and the BSP I'm using (from Freescale) uses Linux-2.6.11.

In the code below I enter a critical section with local_irq_save(),
call request_irq() (from mpc832xemds_phy_interrupt_enable) 4 times,
then exit the critical section using local_irq_restore.

     /* Enable interrupts from PHYs */
     local_irq_save(flags);
     for (i = 0; i < driver_data->num_phys; i++) {
         struct atm_dev *dev = driver_data->dev_data[i]->dev;
         printk("%s/%d\n",__FUNCTION__,__LINE__);
         RETURN_ON_ERROR(mpc832xemds_phy_interrupt_enable(dev));
     }
     local_irq_restore(flags);

The problem is that I get an interrupt *before* exiting the critical
section.  This causes a problem for me, because the interrupts are
shared and the correct handler has not yet been registered, so the
interrupt never gets deasserted.

My question is: why is local_irq_save()/local_irq_restore() not
working?

TIA,

Alex