diff --git a/fs/cifs/CHANGES b/fs/cifs/CHANGES
index 1eb9a2ec0a3b279a80d01baba7b87ca6d8d33705..50afab81a59b74e285f828472afab8dec8679d09 100644
--- a/fs/cifs/CHANGES
+++ b/fs/cifs/CHANGES
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 Version 1.46
 ------------
 Support deep tree mounts.  Better support OS/2, Win9x (DOS) time stamps.
+Allow null user to be specified on mount ("username="). Do not return
+EINVAL on readdir when filldir fails due to overwritten blocksize
+(fixes FC problem)
 
 Version 1.45
 ------------
diff --git a/fs/cifs/connect.c b/fs/cifs/connect.c
index 4093d53329306bfc74c0487e06c09d434d7043a6..71f77914ce9334e3134c3400385e62b92efd8e96 100644
--- a/fs/cifs/connect.c
+++ b/fs/cifs/connect.c
@@ -822,10 +822,13 @@ cifs_parse_mount_options(char *options, const char *devname,struct smb_vol *vol)
 		} else if (strnicmp(data, "nouser_xattr",12) == 0) {
 			vol->no_xattr = 1;
 		} else if (strnicmp(data, "user", 4) == 0) {
-			if (!value || !*value) {
+			if (!value) {
 				printk(KERN_WARNING
 				       "CIFS: invalid or missing username\n");
 				return 1;	/* needs_arg; */
+			} else if(!*value) {
+				/* null user, ie anonymous, authentication */
+				vol->nullauth = 1;
 			}
 			if (strnlen(value, 200) < 200) {
 				vol->username = value;
@@ -1642,6 +1645,8 @@ cifs_mount(struct super_block *sb, struct cifs_sb_info *cifs_sb,
 		/* BB fixme parse for domain name here */
 		cFYI(1, ("Username: %s ", volume_info.username));
 
+	} else if (volume_info.nullauth) {
+		cFYI(1,("null user"));
 	} else {
 		cifserror("No username specified");
         /* In userspace mount helper we can get user name from alternate