I'm trying to take a stab at diagnosing these bugs. (But I'm seldom smart enough to actually fix anything). These hiddev_disconnect() bugs are a race condition: devel/drivers/hid/usbhid/hiddev.c 924 void hiddev_disconnect(struct hid_device *hid) 925 { 926 struct hiddev *hiddev = hid->hiddev; 927 struct usbhid_device *usbhid = hid->driver_data; 928 929 usb_deregister_dev(usbhid->intf, &hiddev_class); 930 931 mutex_lock(&hiddev->existancelock); 932 hiddev->exist = 0; ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ We set "exist = 0;" 933 934 if (hiddev->open) { 935 mutex_unlock(&hiddev->existancelock); ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Then we drop the lock. 936 hid_hw_close(hiddev->hid); 937 wake_up_interruptible(&hiddev->wait); ^^^^^^ The other thread frees hiddev and it crashes here. 938 } else { 939 mutex_unlock(&hiddev->existancelock); 940 kfree(hiddev); 941 } 942 } The other thread is doing: drivers/hid/usbhid/hiddev.c 216 static int hiddev_release(struct inode * inode, struct file * file) 217 { 218 struct hiddev_list *list = file->private_data; 219 unsigned long flags; 220 221 spin_lock_irqsave(&list->hiddev->list_lock, flags); 222 list_del(&list->node); 223 spin_unlock_irqrestore(&list->hiddev->list_lock, flags); 224 225 mutex_lock(&list->hiddev->existancelock); ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Takes the lock. 226 if (!--list->hiddev->open) { ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Decrements open. 227 if (list->hiddev->exist) { ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This is false. 228 hid_hw_close(list->hiddev->hid); 229 hid_hw_power(list->hiddev->hid, PM_HINT_NORMAL); 230 } else { 231 mutex_unlock(&list->hiddev->existancelock); 232 kfree(list->hiddev); ^^^^^^^^^^^^ Freed here. 233 vfree(list); 234 return 0; 235 } 236 } 237 238 mutex_unlock(&list->hiddev->existancelock); 239 vfree(list); 240 241 return 0; 242 } I'm not sure what the fix should be though. regards, dan carpenter