> > isn't the same as usertime probe in USB.
> 
> The basic cause of the problem is well known - it comes down to memory
> fragmentation, the kernel needs to allocate a contiguous chunk of
> memory for the scsibus at the time its created.  On a system that has
> been running a while, especially with smaller memory, sometimes it
> can't find a large enough chunk to use.

ok. I have 256M in my laptop. how big is this chunk? can I not pre-reserve
'enough' in my kernel to have at least one instance? I mean, if this is really
only some low k's of memory, can't we consume that as potentially wasted, but
useful bufferspace?

-George