--- linux/drivers/block/loop_old.c	2007-02-04 18:44:54.000000000 +0000
+++ linux/drivers/block/loop.c	2007-03-22 08:31:55.000000000 +0000
@@ -44,6 +44,16 @@
  * backing filesystem.
  * Anton Altaparmakov, 16 Feb 2005
  *
+ * The maximum amount of loop devices has been 255 for many years, while there
+ * is a lot of space for more. The maximum depends on max memory available 
+ * from kmalloc, which is usually 128KB, but can be even more.
+ * I removed the test if (max_loop > 255), so now we support much more loop 
+ * devices then before; it probably depends on:
+ *    NR_CPUS, MAX_NUMNODES, CONFIG_MMU and CONFIG_LARGE_ALLOCS.
+ * Information: The maximum max_loop is 455 if kmalloc handles only 128KB.
+ * If kmalloc can't allocate enough RAM, loop is simply unloaded.
+ * Author: Tomas Matejicek, www.slax.org, 21 Mar 2007
+ *
  * Still To Fix:
  * - Advisory locking is ignored here.
  * - Should use an own CAP_* category instead of CAP_SYS_ADMIN
@@ -1358,7 +1368,7 @@
  * And now the modules code and kernel interface.
  */
 module_param(max_loop, int, 0);
-MODULE_PARM_DESC(max_loop, "Maximum number of loop devices (1-256)");
+MODULE_PARM_DESC(max_loop, "Maximum number of loop devices (1-455 on i386)");
 MODULE_LICENSE("GPL");
 MODULE_ALIAS_BLOCKDEV_MAJOR(LOOP_MAJOR);
 
@@ -1402,9 +1412,9 @@
 {
 	int	i;
 
-	if (max_loop < 1 || max_loop > 256) {
-		printk(KERN_WARNING "loop: invalid max_loop (must be between"
-				    " 1 and 256), using default (8)\n");
+	if (max_loop < 1) {
+		printk(KERN_WARNING "loop: invalid max_loop (must be at least 1"
+				    ", using default (8)\n");
 		max_loop = 8;
 	}
 
@@ -1465,7 +1475,7 @@
 	kfree(loop_dev);
 out_mem1:
 	unregister_blkdev(LOOP_MAJOR, "loop");
-	printk(KERN_ERR "loop: ran out of memory\n");
+	printk(KERN_ERR "loop: ran out of memory for max_loop=%d\n", max_loop);
 	return -ENOMEM;
 }