From: Alex Tomas If the ext3 inode allocator tries to claim an inode and fails because another CPU got in there first it will then advance onto the next blockgroup and try again. Change it to advance onto the next inode within the same blockgroup instead. fs/ext3/ialloc.c | 10 ++++++++-- 1 files changed, 8 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff -puN fs/ext3/ialloc.c~ext3_new_inode-scan-fix fs/ext3/ialloc.c --- 25/fs/ext3/ialloc.c~ext3_new_inode-scan-fix 2003-11-09 11:19:08.000000000 -0800 +++ 25-akpm/fs/ext3/ialloc.c 2003-11-09 11:19:08.000000000 -0800 @@ -469,8 +469,11 @@ struct inode *ext3_new_inode(handle_t *h if (!bitmap_bh) goto fail; - ino = ext3_find_first_zero_bit((unsigned long *) - bitmap_bh->b_data, EXT3_INODES_PER_GROUP(sb)); + ino = 0; + +repeat_in_this_group: + ino = ext3_find_next_zero_bit((unsigned long *) + bitmap_bh->b_data, EXT3_INODES_PER_GROUP(sb), ino); if (ino < EXT3_INODES_PER_GROUP(sb)) { int credits = 0; @@ -493,6 +496,9 @@ struct inode *ext3_new_inode(handle_t *h } /* we lost it */ journal_release_buffer(handle, bitmap_bh, credits); + + if (++ino < EXT3_INODES_PER_GROUP(sb)) + goto repeat_in_this_group; } /* _