[Samba] smbfs linux 2.4.24; connection loss causes total machine hang

[Robin Lee Powell]

I'm running smbfs on a Debian box with kernel 2.4.24.  I would give you
more information (such as my samba tools versions) if I could get into
the box, but it's hung right now due to this bug.

I'm mounting a filesystem from my desktop Windows box (which is right
next to it; there's a D-Link in the way, though) and passing large
amounts of data to it (backups).

If the connection to the windows box drops
while this large cp is running, i.e. due to the Windows box rebooting or
being shut down, the cp hangs unkillably.  From that point on, many other
processes end up in the same state (mutt, man and vi/vim, for example,
but not cat) regardless of whether they are going anywhere near the
smbfs mount *or* the partition the data was coming from.  

umount will work on neither the smbfs mount or the partition the data
was comming; it says they are busy.  fuser -k hangs unkillably.  apache,
mysql, and postgres all hang unkillably, as does spamd.  No mail
delivery occurs, but the exim processes are killable.

In short, the system becomes basically unusable.

This seems pretty intensely bad.  

Is this a known bug? If so, is there a workaround?  A patch?

-Robin

-- 
http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~rlpowell/ 	BTW, I'm male, honest.
le datni cu djica le nu zifre .iku'i .oi le so'e datni cu to'e te pilno
je xlali -- RLP 				http://www.lojban.org/