Re: lirc_mceusb2: kernel meltdown

[Jarod W. <ja...@wi...>]

On Tuesday 25 August 2009 18:40:45 Radu C wrote:
> I noticed a very peculiar behaviour for lirc_mceusb2 on my systems. If I use
> MCE IR receivers that a driven by lirc_mceusb2, if the dongle is in use (by
> lircd or mode2 for example) and un pull it out of the USB port, the kernel
> dies a painful death. And it seems to take your XFS data with it (ext3 is
> more resilient).
> 
> The process goes like this:
> 0. Switch to a console (don't do this in X, for better effects)
> 1. Plug in a lirc_mceusb2 receiver
> 2. Start mode2 on the lirc device, and leave it running
> 3. (Not necessary) press some keys on your remote to see that it works
> 4. Pull the receiver out of the USB port
> 5. Watch the kernel perform seppuku.
> 
> On one of my laptops, the USB ports get so messed up that after reboot the
> BIOS can't talk to them. It requires a second reboot to come to its senses.
> 
> Repeatability: always
> Operating system: Ubuntu 7.10, Ubuntu 9.04 (both of them)
> Architecture: i386 (these CPUs to be exact: Pentium M, Core 2 Duo, Athlon 64
> X2 - in 32bit mode)
> 
> Any ideas why this happens?

Yes.

> And how to fix it?

Yes.

I've seen this with lirc_streamzap myself, and suspected it was likely
to affect lirc_mceusb too. Looking into it and fixing it is on my TODO
list, just a matter of carving out the time to do it.

-- 
Jarod Wilson
ja...@wi...