thanks a lot to jan kara for solving the problem - but will the be an upgraded package via yast-online-update sooner or later? i don't like rebooting the machine all the time... here the fix: ---snip When i_acl_default is set to some error we do not hold the lock (hence we are not allowed to drop it and reacquire later). --- linux-2.6.5/fs/reiserfs/inode.c 2005-11-05 08:57:09.000000000 +0100 +++ linux-2.6.5/fs/reiserfs/inode.c 2005-11-07 07:57:50.000000000 +0100 @@ -1884,7 +1884,7 @@ * iput doesn't deadlock in reiserfs_delete_xattrs. The locking * code really needs to be reworked, but this will take care of it * for now. -jeffm */ - if (REISERFS_I(dir)->i_acl_default) { + if (REISERFS_I(dir)->i_acl_default && !IS_ERR(REISERFS_I(dir)->i_acl_default)) { reiserfs_write_unlock_xattrs(dir->i_sb); iput(inode); reiserfs_write_lock_xattrs(dir->i_sb); ---snap