Looks like 2.6.15-rc1-mm1 has total crap in ptrace_get_task_struct (and it looks like my fault because I sent out a wrong patch). The patch below should fix it: Index: linux-2.6/kernel/ptrace.c =================================================================== --- linux-2.6.orig/kernel/ptrace.c 2005-11-18 10:25:35.000000000 +0100 +++ linux-2.6/kernel/ptrace.c 2005-11-18 10:25:54.000000000 +0100 @@ -459,7 +459,7 @@ read_unlock(&tasklist_lock); if (!child) return ERR_PTR(-ESRCH); - return 0; + return child; } #ifndef __ARCH_SYS_PTRACE