diff -urN ext2-5/fs/ext2/ialloc.c ext2-6/fs/ext2/ialloc.c
--- ext2-5/fs/ext2/ialloc.c	Fri Dec  1 11:00:49 2000
+++ ext2-6/fs/ext2/ialloc.c	Fri Dec  1 11:05:40 2000
@@ -39,37 +39,26 @@
  * Read the inode allocation bitmap for a given block_group, reading
  * into the specified slot in the superblock's bitmap cache.
  *
- * Return >=0 on success or a -ve error code.
+ * Return buffer_head of bitmap on success or NULL.
  */
-static int read_inode_bitmap (struct super_block * sb,
-			       unsigned long block_group,
-			       unsigned int bitmap_nr)
+static struct buffer_head *read_inode_bitmap (struct super_block * sb,
+					       unsigned long block_group)
 {
 	struct ext2_group_desc * gdp;
 	struct buffer_head * bh = NULL;
-	int retval = 0;
 
 	gdp = ext2_get_group_desc (sb, block_group, NULL);
-	if (!gdp) {
-		retval = -EIO;
+	if (!gdp)
 		goto error_out;
-	}
+
 	bh = bread (sb->s_dev, le32_to_cpu(gdp->bg_inode_bitmap), sb->s_blocksize);
-	if (!bh) {
+	if (!bh)
 		ext2_error (sb, "read_inode_bitmap",
 			    "Cannot read inode bitmap - "
 			    "block_group = %lu, inode_bitmap = %lu",
 			    block_group, (unsigned long) gdp->bg_inode_bitmap);
-		retval = -EIO;
-	}
-	/*
-	 * On IO error, just leave a zero in the superblock's block pointer for
-	 * this group.  The IO will be retried next time.
-	 */
 error_out:
-	sb->u.ext2_sb.s_inode_bitmap_number[bitmap_nr] = block_group;
-	sb->u.ext2_sb.s_inode_bitmap[bitmap_nr] = bh;
-	return retval;
+	return bh;
 }
 
 /*
@@ -88,7 +77,7 @@
 static int load_inode_bitmap (struct super_block * sb,
 			      unsigned int block_group)
 {
-	int i, retval = 0, slot = 0;
+	int i, slot = 0;
 	struct ext2_sb_info *sbi = &sb->u.ext2_sb;
 	struct buffer_head *bh = sbi->s_inode_bitmap[0];
 
@@ -151,9 +140,15 @@
 	}
 
 read_it:
-	retval = read_inode_bitmap (sb, block_group, slot);
-	if (retval < 0)
-		return retval;
+	bh = read_inode_bitmap (sb, block_group);
+	/*
+	 * On IO error, just leave a zero in the superblock's block pointer for
+	 * this group.  The IO will be retried next time.
+	 */
+	sbi->s_inode_bitmap_number[slot] = block_group;
+	sbi->s_inode_bitmap[slot] = bh;
+	if (!bh)
+		return -EIO;
 found:
 	return slot;
 }