You can probably make this easier to trigger by putting a delay in the state machine if the flag is set: [fs/fscache/cookie.c] +#include <linux/delay.h> ... static void fscache_cookie_state_machine(struct fscache_cookie *cookie) { enum fscache_cookie_state state; bool wake = false; _enter("c=%x", cookie->debug_id); again: + if (test_bit(FSCACHE_COOKIE_DO_LRU_DISCARD, &cookie->flags)) + msleep(100); again_locked: state = cookie->state; switch (state) { David