--- linux-2.4.8-pre5/fs/buffer.c	Tue Aug  7 10:28:50 2001
+++ fs/buffer.c	Tue Aug  7 22:32:36 2001
@@ -2581,10 +2472,15 @@
 
 			spin_lock(&lru_list_lock);
 			bh = lru_list[BUF_DIRTY];
+			if (!bh) {
+				spin_unlock(&lru_list_lock);
+				goto quit;
+			}
 			if (!time_before(jiffies, bh->b_flushtime))
 				continue;
 			spin_unlock(&lru_list_lock);
 		}
+quit:
 		run_task_queue(&tq_disk);
 		return 0;
 	}