BUG: NETDEV WATCHDOG -> Badness in gianfar driver?

[Clemens Koller <clemens.koller@anagramm.de>]

Hi There!

I am currently using
Linux ecam.anagramm.de 2.6.21-rc5-g9a5ee4cc #4 Mon Apr 2 21:31:53 CEST 2007 ppc e500 GNU/Linux
on an mpc8540 embedded powerpc system.

The system was running fine for many days and weeks without any problems.
However, just a few minutes ago I noticed a single clicking sound of the harddisk
(like a head recalibration), so I checked the system.
I couldn't connect to it via ssh anymore, but via a serial console I got
at least endless messages as shown below...
After a reboot, everything looks fine again but the kernel log grew up
to several MBytes. I pasted the hopefully interesting part below.

Any ideas of what could be wrong there? I think there could be a problem
in the gianfar network driver. Or is there a physical problem with the PHY
(a Marvell MV88E1111)?

Any recommendations of how to debug that thingy?

----- 8< ----- cut here
Jan  1 01:00:38 ecam kernel: PHY: 0:00 - Link is Up - 100/Full
Jan  1 01:00:35 ecam network: Bringing up loopback interface:  succeeded
Jan  1 01:00:47 ecam mount: mount: RPC: Remote system error - No route to host
Jan  1 01:00:47 ecam netfs: Mounting NFS filesystems:  failed
Jan  1 01:00:47 ecam netfs: Mounting other filesystems:  succeeded
Jan  1 01:00:47 ecam xinetd[665]: xinetd Version 2.3.11 started with libwrap options compiled in.
Jan  1 01:00:47 ecam xinetd[665]: Started working: 1 available service
Jan  1 01:00:50 ecam xinetd: xinetd startup succeeded
Jan  1 01:00:50 ecam rc: Starting sshd:  succeeded
Jan  1 01:00:51 ecam rc: Starting samba:  succeeded
Jan  1 03:43:23 ecam kernel: NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out
Jan  1 03:43:23 ecam kernel: ------------[ cut here ]------------
Jan  1 03:43:23 ecam kernel: Badness at c003d3d8 [verbose debug info unavailable]
Jan  1 03:43:23 ecam kernel: Call Trace:
Jan  1 03:43:23 ecam kernel: [C0355C70] [C0008FE0] show_stack+0x3c/0x194 (unreliable)
Jan  1 03:43:23 ecam kernel: [C0355CA0] [C0135594] report_bug+0xa4/0xac
Jan  1 03:43:23 ecam kernel: [C0355CB0] [C0003784] program_check_exception+0x2b8/0x460
Jan  1 03:43:23 ecam kernel: [C0355CD0] [C0002908] ret_from_except_full+0x0/0x4c
Jan  1 03:43:23 ecam kernel: [C0355D90] [C017B3CC] marvell_ack_interrupt+0x14/0x38
Jan  1 03:43:23 ecam kernel: [C0355DB0] [C01764A8] stop_gfar+0x54/0xd0
Jan  1 03:43:23 ecam kernel: [C0355DD0] [C01773D0] gfar_timeout+0x5c/0x68
Jan  1 03:43:23 ecam kernel: [C0355DE0] [C020A060] dev_watchdog+0x110/0x118
Jan  1 03:43:23 ecam kernel: [C0355E00] [C0024228] run_timer_softirq+0x148/0x1a8
Jan  1 03:43:23 ecam kernel: [C0355E40] [C002006C] __do_softirq+0x78/0xe4
Jan  1 03:43:23 ecam kernel: [C0355E70] [C0007054] do_softirq+0x54/0x58
Jan  1 03:43:23 ecam kernel: [C0355E80] [C001FE4C] irq_exit+0x48/0x58
Jan  1 03:43:23 ecam kernel: [C0355E90] [C0004000] timer_interrupt+0x17c/0x224
Jan  1 03:43:23 ecam kernel: [C0355ED0] [C0002954] ret_from_except+0x0/0x18
Jan  1 03:43:23 ecam kernel: [C0355F90] [C0009FB8] cpu_idle+0xc0/0xd0
Jan  1 03:43:23 ecam kernel: [C0355FB0] [C0001A7C] rest_init+0x28/0x38
Jan  1 03:43:23 ecam kernel: [C0355FC0] [C03568E4] start_kernel+0x220/0x29c
Jan  1 03:43:23 ecam kernel: [C0355FF0] [C0000388] skpinv+0x2b8/0x2f4
Jan  1 03:43:23 ecam kernel: ------------[ cut here ]------------
Jan  1 03:43:23 ecam kernel: Badness at c003d3d8 [verbose debug info unavailable]
Jan  1 03:43:23 ecam kernel: Call Trace:
Jan  1 03:43:23 ecam kernel: [C0355C70] [C0008FE0] show_stack+0x3c/0x194 (unreliable)
[...repeating forever...]
----- 8< ----- cut here

The system time is wrong, because the I2C realtime clock cannot be read
on this system due to some kernel misconfiguration which I didn't care about.

Thank you in advance,
-- 
Clemens Koller
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