Re: RTNL: assertion failed at net/core/dev.c

[Stephen Hemminger <shemminger@linux-foundation.org>]

On Sun, 2 Sep 2007 18:05:33 +0200 (CEST)
Christian Kujau <lists@nerdbynature.de> wrote:

> Wow, I should really update more often. Skipping the last -rc versions 
> AND adding a new device (zd1211rw) to the box turns out to be quite 
> interesting ([0],[1]).
> 
> However, this time loading of a (proprietary) module is involved. Knowing
> that lkml cannot really help here (and I should contact vmware), I just 
> wanted to let you netdev guys know, because the only occurences I found 
> on the net were from 1999, but given the amount of changes currently 
> going into net/ I thought this might be interesting:
> 
> [15604.137408] RTNL: assertion failed at net/core/dev.c (2595)
> [15604.137772]  [<c0106aaa>] show_trace_log_lvl+0x1a/0x30
> [15604.138121]  [<c0107682>] show_trace+0x12/0x20
> [15604.138449]  [<c01076a5>] dump_stack+0x15/0x20
> [15604.138807]  [<c038c612>] __dev_set_promiscuity+0xc2/0xd0
> [15604.139163]  [<c038c9bb>] dev_set_promiscuity+0x1b/0x40
> [15604.139515]  [<f91cb3fb>] VNetBridgeStartPromisc+0x2b/0x50 [vmnet]

Vendor module calls kernel api incorrectly. dev_set_promiscuity requires
that the calling thread hold rtnl mutex (ie call rtnl_lock). It's their bug,
netdev doesn't want to hear about it.