USB flash card reader

[Brian May <bam@snoopy.apana.org.au>]

Hello,

I have a usb-storage.o USB device, that to /proc/bus/usb/devices looks
like this:

T:  Bus=01 Lev=02 Prnt=03 Port=01 Cnt=02 Dev#=  7 Spd=12  MxCh= 0
D:  Ver= 1.00 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=0781 ProdID=0001 Rev= 2.00
S:  Manufacturer=SanDisk Corporation
S:  Product=SanDisk USB ImageMate
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=80 MxPwr=100mA
I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 3 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=usb-storage
E:  Ad=01(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS=  64 Ivl=  0ms
E:  Ad=82(I) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS=  64 Ivl=  0ms
E:  Ad=83(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=   2 Ivl=255ms

When "mount /dev/camera" has been entered, the first time it complains
that it can't find the device (something funny with hotplug here). So
I unplug the USB device and plug it back in again.  This is normal.

Now, the same mount command in entered, the process hangs in kernel
mode (so kill -9 will not work). Furthermore, the computer hangs when
shutting down, making a clean shutdown impossible. (Or perhaps I am
just being too impatient and not waiting longer enough for something
to timeout?)

Only problem is that when I go to reproduce this problem with/without
strace, it works!

As far as I know the only potentially serious mistakes the user could
make are unplugging the USB device or removing the flash card when it
is mounted, but as far as I am aware, neither of those cases apply
here.

Any ideas?

Only problem is that I have been telling others how reliable and
robust Linux is, but what does it do, but crash! Argghh!
-- 
Brian May <bam@snoopy.apana.org.au>