Bug 16450

Summary:	MTD drivers cannot be unloaded
Product:	Drivers	Reporter:	Ben Hutchings (bhutchings)
Component:	Flash/Memory Technology Devices	Assignee:	David Woodhouse (dwmw2)
Status:	CLOSED INVALID
Severity:	normal	CC:	akpm, earlmercado, maciej.rutecki, maximlevitsky, rjw
Priority:	P1
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Kernel Version:	2.6.35-rc5	Subsystem:
Regression:	Yes	Bisected commit-id:
Bug Depends on:
Bug Blocks:	16055

Description Ben Hutchings 2010-07-24 00:17:16 UTC

commit 048d87199566663e4edc4880df3703c04bcf41d9 "mtd: blktrans: Hotplug
fixes" causes the MTD and the MTD driver module's ref-counts to be
bumped for each block device that is created, whether or not it's
actually in use.

This means that before removing an MTD or driver module one must first
remove all the associated block devices.  But the block devices will
be removed only when the MTDs themselves are removed, which is no
longer possible.

I have submitted a fix for this: http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.drivers.mtd/30834

Comment 1 Andrew Morton 2010-07-24 01:53:05 UTC

Maxim, 048d87199566663e4edc4880df3703c04bcf41d9 was yours..

Comment 2 Maxim Levitsky 2010-07-24 13:15:13 UTC

Yes, I am aware of this problem.

It has to be done that way, because otherwise I had an impossible to solve deadlock.

The blktrans_open() doesn't use locks on purpose, this is a part of the fix of the deadlock.

I explain that better tommorow, when I finish last exam.

Comment 3 Ben Hutchings 2010-08-01 16:40:05 UTC

The parent devices of the MTDs can still be removed, and once that has been done it is possible to remove a MTD driver module. So although there is a regression here it is not as serious as I thought.