intermittent, random kernel freeze

Do you have all the latest upgrades available? What are you doing at the time of the freeze? Does syslog reveal anything upon reboot?

I am keeping up to date with the updates (daily). I haven't seen any pattern to what I or the computer were doing when the freezes occurred, but if I do notice one, I will add information on it. Syslog doesn't show anything happening at the time of the freezes.
I also ran memchk86 for a complete round, with no problems.

I have noticed that adding acpi=force to the kernel parameters improves, but does not remove the problem.

 If there is some debugging I can turn on, let me know.

Though it would not be the easiest task, if you had another machine (and both have serial ports) you could set up a serial console which would capture any oops/fault message from the kernel. Alternatively, you could try letting it sit at the console (no xserver) for a while and see if it gives you a message there.

By swapping hardware around, I determined that my network adapter is strongly associated with the system lockup. The adapter is an Accton Technology Corp SMC2-1211TX. Swapping this board out for a 3c59x based card caused the lockups to go away for several days. Swapping it back in caused a lockup within one day. The driver module for this board is apparently 8139too (via lsmod diff for the two situations). Let me know if I can provide any more information.

It's been two weeks running with the 3c59x, and no problems.

Can this bug be resolved in some way? I think either it should be considered a bug in the 8139too driver or considered a hardware problem and marked invalid.

I notice (via google) that the 8139too driver has had recent deadlock bug fixes (2.6.19, 2.6.20). Is this pertinent?

Seems like it's a fairly safe bet it's an 8139too issue.

I am assigning this bug to the 'ubuntu-kernel-team' per their bug policy. For future reference you can learn more about their bug policy at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies .

Beginning with the Hardy Heron 8.04 development cycle, all open Ubuntu kernel bugs need to be reported against the "linux" kernel package. We are automatically migrating this bug to the new "linux" package. However, development has already began for the upcoming Intrepid Ibex 8.10 release. It would be helpful if you could test the upcoming release and verify if this is still an issue - http://www.ubuntu.com/testing . If the issue still exists, please update this report by changing the Status of the "linux" task from "Incomplete" to "New". We appreciate your patience and understanding as we make this transition. Thanks!

The Ubuntu Kernel Team is planning to move to the 2.6.27 kernel for the upcoming Intrepid Ibex 8.10 release. As a result, the kernel team would appreciate it if you could please test this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. There are one of two ways you should be able to test:

1) If you are comfortable installing packages on your own, the linux-image-2.6.27-* package is currently available for you to install and test.

--or--

2) The upcoming Alpha5 for Intrepid Ibex 8.10 will contain this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. Alpha5 is set to be released Thursday Sept 4. Please watch http://www.ubuntu.com/testing for Alpha5 to be announced. You should then be able to test via a LiveCD.

Please let us know immediately if this newer 2.6.27 kernel resolves the bug reported here or if the issue remains. More importantly, please open a new bug report for each new bug/regression introduced by the 2.6.27 kernel and tag the bug report with 'linux-2.6.27'. Also, please specifically note if the issue does or does not appear in the 2.6.26 kernel. Thanks again, we really appreicate your help and feedback.

Per a decision made by the Ubuntu Kernel Team, bugs will longer be assigned to the ubuntu-kernel-team in Launchpad as part of the bug triage process. The ubuntu-kernel-team is being unassigned from this bug report. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies for more information. Thanks.

This bug report is being closed because we received no response to the previous inquiry for information. Please reopen if this is still an issue in the current Ubuntu release, Jaunty Jackalope 9.04 - http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download. To reopen the bug, click on the current status under the Status column and change the status back to "New". Thanks.