diff -Nur linux-2.4.19.old/fs/ext3/inode.c linux-2.4.19.new/fs/ext3/inode.c
--- linux-2.4.19.old/fs/ext3/inode.c	2002-10-16 00:10:45.000000000 +0200
+++ linux-2.4.19.new/fs/ext3/inode.c	2002-10-16 00:32:15.000000000 +0200
@@ -2415,8 +2415,6 @@
 	}
 	
 	rc = inode_setattr(inode, attr);
-	if (!error)
-		error = rc;
 
 	/* If inode_setattr's call to ext3_truncate failed to get a
 	 * transaction handle at all, we need to clean up the in-core
@@ -2425,7 +2423,7 @@
 		ext3_orphan_del(NULL, inode);
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_EXT3_FS_POSIX_ACL
-	if (!error && (ia_valid & ATTR_MODE)) {
+	if (!rc && (ia_valid & ATTR_MODE)) {
 		handle_t *handle;
 
 		handle = ext3_journal_start(inode, EXT3_XATTR_TRANS_BLOCKS);
@@ -2435,17 +2433,17 @@
 		}
 		if (!(ia_valid & ATTR_SIZE))
 			down(&inode->i_sem);
-		error = ext3_acl_chmod(handle, inode);
+		rc = ext3_acl_chmod(handle, inode);
 		if (!(ia_valid & ATTR_SIZE))
 			up(&inode->i_sem);
-		rc = ext3_journal_stop(handle, inode);
-		if (!error)
-			error = rc;
+		ext3_journal_stop(handle, inode);
 	}
 #endif
 
 err_out:
 	ext3_std_error(inode->i_sb, error);
+	if (!error)
+		error = rc;
 	return error;
 }