Kernel panic almost daily, why?

Question

Running latest version of CentOS 5 64. Get these almost daily, at totally random times. The box is a file delivery machine, that usually sends around 2.3Gbit

Message from syslogd@localhost at Jun 28 21:53:27 ...
     kernel:Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP

    Message from syslogd@localhost at Jun 28 21:53:27 ...
     kernel:last sysfs file: /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1e.0/0000:0b:01.0/class

    Message from syslogd@localhost at Jun 28 21:53:27 ...
     kernel:Stack:

    Message from syslogd@localhost at Jun 28 21:53:27 ...
     kernel:Call Trace:

    Message from syslogd@localhost at Jun 28 21:53:27 ...
     kernel: <IRQ>

    Message from syslogd@localhost at Jun 28 21:53:27 ...
     kernel: <EOI>

    Message from syslogd@localhost at Jun 28 21:53:27 ...
     kernel:Code: ba 00 00 00 00 49 8b 07 4c 39 f8 48 0f 44 c2 49 39 c4 75 13 8b 93 c0 03 00 00 be 01 00 00 00 48 89 df e8 29 fd ff ff 4d 8b 24 24 <49> 8b 04 24 4d 39 fc 0f 18 08 0f 85 85 fe ff ff eb 14 4d 85 ed

    Message from syslogd@localhost at Jun 28 21:53:27 ...
     kernel:CR2: 0000000000000000

    Message from syslogd@localhost at Jun 28 21:53:27 ...
     kernel:Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception in interrupt

Answer 1

/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1e.0/0000:0b:01.0

That maps to a PCI sub-device -- do this:

lspci -v | grep "0b:01.0"

...to identify that item, then "lspci -vv" to find out more about that specific device. I'm no kernel guru but that looks like an IRQ problem with that device. On my system the parent item (00:1e.0) is an Intel PCI bridge, the subdevices I have on it are things like the SD card reader, my miniPCI wifi card and such.

/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1e.0/0000:03:03.0/
...
$ lspci -v | grep "00:1e.0"
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev d3) (prog-if 01 [Subtractive decode])
....
$ lspci -v | grep "03:03.0"
03:03.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG [Calexico2] Network Connection (rev 05)

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

It's one of: hardware drivers having a bug or having bad hardware. I'd check the memory, CPU, and system board. Chances are it's one of those if this just suddenly started happening.