From: Johannes Buchner the parameter wbc=NULL caused a NULL pointer dereference in reiser4_sync_inodes. introduced in patch reiser4-vfs-add-super_operationssync_inodes Index: linux/fs/reiser4/super_ops.c =================================================================== --- linux.orig/fs/reiser4/super_ops.c +++ linux/fs/reiser4/super_ops.c @@ -395,7 +395,7 @@ static void reiser4_sync_inodes(struct s reiser4_context *ctx; long to_write; - if (wbc->for_kupdate) + if (wbc == NULL || wbc->for_kupdate) /* reiser4 has its own means of periodical write-out */ return;