Bug 10665

Summary:	kernel crash on Realtek RTL8101E ethernet controller
Product:	Drivers	Reporter:	Hadmut Danisch (hadmut)
Component:	Network	Assignee:	Francois Romieu (romieu)
Status:	CLOSED CODE_FIX
Severity:	normal
Priority:	P1
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Kernel Version:	2.6.24-16 (ubuntu 8.04)	Subsystem:
Regression:	---	Bisected commit-id:
Attachments:	dmesg output lspci output

Description Hadmut Danisch 2008-05-10 15:56:19 UTC

Latest working kernel version:
Earliest failing kernel version:
Distribution: Ubuntu 8.04
Hardware Environment: Thoshiba Satellite Notebook
Software Environment: Ubuntu alternate i386 installation 
Problem Description:

Hi, 

I just tried to install Ubuntu 8.04 with the i386 alternate CD on a brand new Toshiba Satellite Notebook. Installation reproducibly fails due to a kernel crash at the moment when the r8169 driver is inserted. I'll attach dmesg and lspci output. 

regards




Steps to reproduce:

Comment 1 Hadmut Danisch 2008-05-10 15:58:18 UTC

Created attachment 16095 [details]
dmesg output

Dmesg output after the Ubuntu installation script inserted the r8169 driver.

Comment 2 Hadmut Danisch 2008-05-10 15:58:41 UTC

Created attachment 16096 [details]
lspci output

Comment 3 Francois Romieu 2008-05-11 02:26:24 UTC

The bug was added by commit e3cf0cc09141ddef9d75a984c0d286040f1f2743 and
fixed by 21e197f231343201368338603cb0909a13961bac. As it is a recent
chipset, cee60c377de6d9d10f0a2876794149bd79a15020 could make a difference
too.

As a consequence you can either use a kernel strictly older than
2.6.24-rc1 or more recent then 2.6.25. 2.6.26-rc1 should not crash at
the same place for instance.

I have just submitted both changes to 2.6.24-stable and 2.6.25-stable.

-- 
Ueimor

-- 
Ueimor

Comment 4 Hadmut Danisch 2008-05-11 07:15:43 UTC

Well, I tried to use 2.6.22 (Ubuntu 7.10). 

While it smoothly starts up without any error message and presents an eth0 device that can be configured, it still does not work in the way that it does not send or receives any packages. tcpdump shows only it's own traffic. 

Meanwhile I found a workaround, i.e. I've removed the r8169 driver from the 2.6.22 kernel package and installed Realtek's Linux driver for 8101 from
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=14&PFid=7&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

It works, but unfortunately does not compile with 2.6.24. So I am currently bound to use the 2.6.22 kernel (or to try a 2.6.26). 

regards

Comment 5 Francois Romieu 2008-05-30 10:44:17 UTC

The bug is fixed in 2.6.25.4 and v2.6.26-rc1.

Can you try any of those and report if 
1. it does not crash
2. it works better

If it does not work, please send a complete dmesg and a lspci -vx.

Thanks in advance

-- 
Ueimor

Comment 6 Francois Romieu 2008-06-09 14:08:13 UTC

The crashing part has been reported to work. See https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/229113 for instance.

-- 
Ueimor