diff -urN 2.3.36pre5/fs/ext2/fsync.c 2.3.36pre5-ext2/fs/ext2/fsync.c
--- 2.3.36pre5/fs/ext2/fsync.c	Wed Dec  8 00:05:27 1999
+++ 2.3.36pre5-ext2/fs/ext2/fsync.c	Tue Jan  4 17:39:51 2000
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
  */
 
 #include <linux/fs.h>
+#include <linux/locks.h>
 
 
 
@@ -40,10 +41,21 @@
 	if (!bh)
 		return 0;
 	if (wait && buffer_req(bh) && !buffer_uptodate(bh)) {
-		brelse(bh);
-		return -1;
+		/* There can be a parallell read(2) that started read-I/O
+		   on the buffer so we can't assume that there's been
+		   an I/O error without first waiting I/O completation. */
+		wait_on_buffer(bh);
+		if (!buffer_uptodate(bh))
+		{
+			brelse (bh);
+			return -1;
+		}
 	}
 	if (wait || !buffer_uptodate(bh) || !buffer_dirty(bh)) {
+		if (wait)
+			/* when we return from fsync all the blocks
+			   must be _just_ stored on disk */
+			wait_on_buffer(bh);
 		brelse(bh);
 		return 0;
 	}
diff -urN 2.3.36pre5/fs/ext2/inode.c 2.3.36pre5-ext2/fs/ext2/inode.c
--- 2.3.36pre5/fs/ext2/inode.c	Tue Dec 14 15:48:51 1999
+++ 2.3.36pre5-ext2/fs/ext2/inode.c	Tue Jan  4 17:31:28 2000
@@ -254,6 +254,8 @@
 	}
 	if (metadata) {
 		result = getblk (inode->i_dev, tmp, blocksize);
+		if (!buffer_uptodate(result))
+			wait_on_buffer(result);
 		memset(result->b_data, 0, blocksize);
 		mark_buffer_uptodate(result, 1);
 		mark_buffer_dirty(result, 1);
@@ -363,6 +365,8 @@
 		goto out;
 	if (metadata) {
 		result = getblk (bh->b_dev, tmp, blocksize);
+		if (!buffer_uptodate(result))
+			wait_on_buffer(result);
 		memset(result->b_data, 0, inode->i_sb->s_blocksize);
 		mark_buffer_uptodate(result, 1);
 		mark_buffer_dirty(result, 1);
@@ -542,6 +546,8 @@
 		struct buffer_head *bh;
 		bh = getblk(dummy.b_dev, dummy.b_blocknr, inode->i_sb->s_blocksize);
 		if (buffer_new(&dummy)) {
+			if (!buffer_uptodate(bh))
+				wait_on_buffer(bh);
 			memset(bh->b_data, 0, inode->i_sb->s_blocksize);
 			mark_buffer_uptodate(bh, 1);
 			mark_buffer_dirty(bh, 1);