}
 
 /**
- *     tty_open_current_tty - get tty of current task for open
+ *     tty_open_current_tty - get locked tty of current task
  *     @device: device number
  *     @filp: file pointer to tty
- *     @return: tty of the current task iff @device is /dev/tty
+ *     @return: locked tty of the current task iff @device is /dev/tty
+ *
+ *     Performs a re-open of the current task's controlling tty.
  *
  *     We cannot return driver and index like for the other nodes because
  *     devpts will not work then. It expects inodes to be from devpts FS.
- *
- *     We need to move to returning a refcounted object from all the lookup
- *     paths including this one.
  */
 static struct tty_struct *tty_open_current_tty(dev_t device, struct file *filp)
 {
        struct tty_struct *tty;
+       int retval;
 
        if (device != MKDEV(TTYAUX_MAJOR, 0))
                return NULL;
 
        filp->f_flags |= O_NONBLOCK; /* Don't let /dev/tty block */
        /* noctty = 1; */
-       tty_kref_put(tty);
-       /* FIXME: we put a reference and return a TTY! */
-       /* This is only safe because the caller holds tty_mutex */
+       tty_lock(tty);
+       tty_kref_put(tty);      /* safe to drop the kref now */
+
+       retval = tty_reopen(tty);
+       if (retval < 0) {
+               tty_unlock(tty);
+               tty = ERR_PTR(retval);
+       }
        return tty;
 }
 
        index  = -1;
        retval = 0;
 
-       mutex_lock(&tty_mutex);
-       /* This is protected by the tty_mutex */
        tty = tty_open_current_tty(device, filp);
-       if (IS_ERR(tty)) {
-               retval = PTR_ERR(tty);
-               goto err_unlock;
-       } else if (!tty) {
+       if (!tty) {
+               mutex_lock(&tty_mutex);
                driver = tty_lookup_driver(device, filp, &noctty, &index);
                if (IS_ERR(driver)) {
                        retval = PTR_ERR(driver);
                        retval = PTR_ERR(tty);
                        goto err_unlock;
                }
-       }
 
-       if (tty) {
-               tty_lock(tty);
-               retval = tty_reopen(tty);
-               if (retval < 0) {
-                       tty_unlock(tty);
-                       tty = ERR_PTR(retval);
-               }
-       } else  /* Returns with the tty_lock held for now */
-               tty = tty_init_dev(driver, index);
+               if (tty) {
+                       tty_lock(tty);
+                       retval = tty_reopen(tty);
+                       if (retval < 0) {
+                               tty_unlock(tty);
+                               tty = ERR_PTR(retval);
+                       }
+               } else  /* Returns with the tty_lock held for now */
+                       tty = tty_init_dev(driver, index);
 
-       mutex_unlock(&tty_mutex);
-       if (driver)
+               mutex_unlock(&tty_mutex);
                tty_driver_kref_put(driver);
+       }
+
        if (IS_ERR(tty)) {
                retval = PTR_ERR(tty);
                goto err_file;