The 'max_part' parameter controls the number of maximum partition
a loop block device can have. However if a user specifies very
large value it would exceed the limitation of device minor number
and can cause a kernel panic (or, at least, produce invalid
device nodes in some cases).
On my desktop system, following command kills the kernel. On qemu,
it triggers similar oops but the kernel was alive:
$ sudo modprobe loop max_part0000
------------[ cut here ]------------
kernel BUG at /media/Linux_Data/project/linux/fs/sysfs/group.c:65!
invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP
last sysfs file:
CPU 0
Modules linked in: loop(+)