Description of problem: b44 NIC module will cause a hard lock when there is high constant network utilization. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): 2.6.18-8.1.6.el5 How reproducible: Every time. Steps to Reproduce: 1. Grab a broadcom nic 2. Load up b44 module 3. Transfer something large and wait for the lock up. Actual results: System locks, no kernel panic messages, no log entries, no way to capture useful debug data. Expected results: No lockups Additional info: I'm using a Dell Inspiron 5150 laptop with a stock onboard broadcom NIC. This problem also occured on previous install of Fedora Core 3 on the same laptop. I was hoping the problem was fixed and upgrading to rhel 5 would fix it. I'm completely open to accepting I may just have bad hardware as I'm not that confident in Dell, but I don't have another 5150 to test it on.
For rhel5.1, the b44 driver has been updated. The changes taken in contain the following comments: Backport b44 from 2.6.22-rc4 upstream. Changes: * endianness fixes, types * use DMA_30BIT_MASK constant * use skb_copy_from_linear_data_offset() * safer interrupt disabling with spin_lock_irqsave() * chip reset may take longer than previously thought * multicast fixes * simple error checking during resume Please give the latest rhel5.1 beta kernel a try and report back results: http://people.redhat.com/dzickus/el5/