Fix problems about 32-bit ticks wraparound and unsigned long
conversion:

• The linux compat API layer casts the ticks to unsigned long which

might cause problems when the ticks value is negative.

• Guard against already expired ticks values, by checking if the

passed expiry tick is already elapsed.

• While at it avoid referring the address of an inlined function.

MFC after: 3 days
Sponsored by: Mellanox Technologies