/*
                 * Test again, another process may have checkpointed while we
-                * were waiting for the checkpoint lock
+                * were waiting for the checkpoint lock. If there are no
+                * outstanding transactions there is nothing to checkpoint and
+                * we can't make progress. Abort the journal in this case.
                 */
                spin_lock(&journal->j_state_lock);
+               spin_lock(&journal->j_list_lock);
                nblocks = jbd_space_needed(journal);
                if (__jbd2_log_space_left(journal) < nblocks) {
+                       int chkpt = journal->j_checkpoint_transactions != NULL;
+
+                       spin_unlock(&journal->j_list_lock);
                        spin_unlock(&journal->j_state_lock);
-                       jbd2_log_do_checkpoint(journal);
+                       if (chkpt) {
+                               jbd2_log_do_checkpoint(journal);
+                       } else {
+                               printk(KERN_ERR "%s: no transactions\n",
+                                      __func__);
+                               jbd2_journal_abort(journal, 0);
+                       }
+
                        spin_lock(&journal->j_state_lock);
+               } else {
+                       spin_unlock(&journal->j_list_lock);
                }
                mutex_unlock(&journal->j_checkpoint_mutex);
        }