Intermittent system crash apparently due to ethernet card or driver

[Tommy Trussell]

On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 10:40 AM, Colin Law <clanlaw at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 4 February 2016 at 16:34, Seakat <seakat at orange.fr> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I am running Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (in French).
> > The problem I'm reporting has occurred intermittently over the past 5
> months
> > or so, with kernels 3.13.0-69 generic to 77 generic. It has occurred with
> > two different modems,
> > First with a TP-LINK Router/modem WN822N TL-WR842N (bought and used in
> > China)
> > Second with a France Telecom-Orange Livebox-198c, hired from Orange in
> > France and used in France).
> >
> > I have a Acer ASPIRE 5735Z laptop (bought end 2009).
> > Memory: 3.9 GO
> > Processors: Pentium (R) Dual Core CPU T4200 @ 2 GHz x 2
> > Video card: Mobile INTEL (R) GM45 Express chip set x86/MMX/SSE2
> > OS: 32 bits
> > Disk 287.9 Go
> >
> > Crashes occur when I have cable connection to a modem, The screen
> switches
> > to terminal mode and the machine stops;
> > What is written on the screen varies slightly, but generally starts with:
> > "[1350796098] BUG - Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer reference at
> > 0000050d
> > Sky2_hw_error_+0x126/0x15c [sky2]"
> >
> > Lower down the screen I get a line with "kernel panic", and a couple of
> > lines later it stops.
> >
> > I guess it's something to do with my Marvell YUKON network card or the
> > driver, but what to do?
>
> First see if there is a BIOS update available for the PC.
>


I agree with Colin, however a Google search for "Sky2_hw_error panic" shows
a few bug reports regarding a network card in various circumstances. A
kernel panic suggests that the driver has failed very badly -- in a way the
driver's programmers never intended -- OR the driver was not installed
correctly, or an essential kernel file got corrupted.

I would also suggest you might want to also check the hardware basics --
are your network cables good, and inserted completely and correctly? Do you
have some different cables to try? Are there other error indications
showing anywhere (some network ports have diagnostic lights that should
show particular colors, for instance)? It's really easy to damage a network
cable or port in a non-obvious way, for example. A crimp in the cable, a
broken wire, a bent pin in the jack ... some of these things can cripple a
signal somewhat but not completely.

If you have another network card available, maybe even a different brand
one using a different linux driver, it might be worth trying, but be sure
to rule out the other potential problems too.
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