Hi Al, The linux-next kernel reliably hung after this line: [ 4.846260] debug: unmapping init [mem 0xffff88000182a000-0xffff8800019fffff] And it's bisected to commit: commit 4a9ffe81385c2af04f296bea05482f34e02ea10d Author: Al Viro Date: Sun Jun 24 09:56:45 2012 +0400 switch fput to task_work_add ... and schedule_work() for interrupt/kernel_thread callers (and yes, now it *is* OK to call from interrupt). I tried add this debug aid: init_post(void): + printk(KERN_WARNING "flush_delayed_fput\n"); flush_delayed_fput(); + printk(KERN_WARNING "flush_delayed_fput done\n"); And then it hangs after "flush_delayed_fput done". So it's not directly freezing inside flush_delayed_fput().. Thanks, Fengguang