This patch (as1286) changes usb_serial_get_by_index().  Now the
routine will check whether the serial device has been disconnected; if
it has then the return value will be NULL.  If the device hasn't been
disconnected then the routine will return with serial->disc_mutex
held, so that the caller can use the structure without fear of racing
against driver unloads.

This permits the scope of table_mutex in destroy_serial() to be
reduced.  Instead of protecting the entire function, it suffices to
protect the part that actually uses serial_table[], i.e., the call to
return_serial().  There's no longer any danger of the refcount being
incremented after it reaches 0 (which was the reason for having the
large scope previously), because it can't reach 0 until the serial
device has been disconnected.

Also, the patch makes serial_install() check that serial is non-NULL
before attempting to use it.
Signed-off-by: Alan Stern <stern@rowland.harvard.edu>
Cc: stable <stable@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>