When unbinding a serial driver, uart_remove_one_port() clears uart_state.uart_port: state->uart_port = NULL; If the serial port is still in use (e.g. by getty), uart_close() will be called later: static void uart_close(struct tty_struct *tty, struct file *filp) { struct uart_state *state = tty->driver_data; struct uart_port *uport; ... if (!state) return; uport = state->uart_port; uport is NULL ... pr_debug("uart_close(%d) called\n", uport->line); If debugging is enabled, it will already crash here while dereferencing uport (this one is easily fixed) if (tty_port_close_start(port, tty, filp) == 0) return; ... uart_flush_buffer(tty); uart_flush_buffer() will try to obtain the port's spinlock: static void uart_flush_buffer(struct tty_struct *tty) { struct uart_state *state = tty->driver_data; struct uart_port *port; ... port = state->uart_port; port is NULL ... spin_lock_irqsave(&port->lock, flags); Crash!! It doesn't always crash, though. Sometimes uart_close() returns after the tty_port_close_start() above, without a crash (bypassing e.g. the call to uart_change_pm() :-( Sometimes it crashs in uart_chars_in_buffer(), which also tries to take the spinlock: tty_port_close_start() tty_wait_until_sent_from_close() tty_wait_until_sent() tty_chars_in_buffer() uart_chars_in_buffer() spin_lock_irqsave(&state->uart_port->lock, flags); I'm not that familiar with the internals of the serial core. Perhaps uart_close() should return early if uport is NULL, just like if state is NULL? However, that means the uart_change_pm(state, UART_PM_STATE_OFF) is bypassed again. This is with sh-sci, but I don't think the driver matters. Thanks for your comments and suggestions! Gr{oetje,eeting}s, Geert -- Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that. -- Linus Torvalds -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-serial" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html