[PATCH v2] media: video-i2c: fix kthread error pointer left in kthread_vid_cap on failure

From: Uday Khare

Date: Mon Jul 06 2026 - 13:42:11 EST


kthread_run() returns an ERR_PTR on failure, not NULL.
When start_streaming() fails, data->kthread_vid_cap is left holding
this error pointer instead of being cleared.

This causes two subsequent bugs:
1. A future call to start_streaming() sees a non-NULL kthread_vid_cap
and returns 0 (success) immediately, without actually starting the
capture thread.
2. A call to stop_streaming() checks 'kthread_vid_cap == NULL' which
is false for an error pointer, and proceeds to call kthread_stop()
on the error pointer, leading to a kernel crash.

Fix this by resetting kthread_vid_cap to NULL on failure before
jumping to the error path.

Fixes: 5cebaac60974 ("media: video-i2c: add video-i2c driver")
Signed-off-by: Uday Khare <udaykhare77@xxxxxxxxx>
---
v2: Fix Fixes: tag - use correct introducing commit hash (5cebaac60974)
instead of the incorrect hash cited in v1.

drivers/media/i2c/video-i2c.c | 8 ++++++--
1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/media/i2c/video-i2c.c b/drivers/media/i2c/video-i2c.c
index 6b50fb422a61..4811a0489524 100644
--- a/drivers/media/i2c/video-i2c.c
+++ b/drivers/media/i2c/video-i2c.c
@@ -522,8 +522,12 @@ static int start_streaming(struct vb2_queue *vq, unsigned int count)
data->kthread_vid_cap = kthread_run(video_i2c_thread_vid_cap, data,
"%s-vid-cap", data->v4l2_dev.name);
ret = PTR_ERR_OR_ZERO(data->kthread_vid_cap);
- if (!ret)
- return 0;
+ if (ret) {
+ data->kthread_vid_cap = NULL;
+ goto error_rpm_put;
+ }
+
+ return 0;

error_rpm_put:
pm_runtime_put_autosuspend(dev);
--
2.55.0