BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at (null); EIP is at i2c_transfer+0x1e/0xc0

[Ben Gamari]

The i915 module in Natty's 2.6.37-rc3-7 (and perhaps others) kernel oopses with a null pointer dereference on boot on my i915GM-based Dell Latitude D610 as seen below,

[ 16.693732] i915 0000:00:02.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
[ 16.693741] i915 0000:00:02.0: setting latency timer to 64
[ 16.753618] BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at (null)
[ 16.753753] IP: [<c04ca13e>] i2c_transfer+0x1e/0xc0
[ 16.753851] *pde = 3f032067
[ 16.753940] Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP
[ 16.754060] last sysfs file: /sys/module/ssb/initstate
[ 16.754124] Modules linked in: i915(+) b43(+) snd_seq_device mac80211 drm_kms_helper drm sunrpc cfg80211 yenta_socket dell_laptop pcmcia_rsrc snd dcdbas psmouse
pcmcia_core i2c_algo_bit video shpchp soundcore serio_raw snd_page_alloc output lp parport tg3 ssb
[ 16.755116]
[ 16.755171] Pid: 341, comm: modprobe Not tainted 2.6.37-7-generic #19-Ubuntu 0U8082/Latitude D610
[ 16.755267] EIP: 0060:[<c04ca13e>] EFLAGS: 00010296 CPU: 0
[ 16.755331] EIP is at i2c_transfer+0x1e/0xc0
[ 16.755392] EAX: 00000000 EBX: ffffffa1 ECX: 00000002 EDX: f35b5c4c
[ 16.755458] ESI: f367b748 EDI: f35b5ccf EBP: f35b5c2c ESP: f35b5c14
[ 16.755524] DS: 007b ES: 007b FS: 00d8 GS: 00e0 SS: 0068
[ 16.755589] Process modprobe (pid: 341, ti=f35b4000 task=f358a5e0 task.ti=f35b4000)
[ 16.755675] Stack:
[ 16.755729] f3fd3e60 00000002 f35b5c4c f363d400 00000000 f35b5ccf f35b5c64 f8541ada
[ 16.756004] f363d40c 00000000 0000000e f3fd3c00 f363d400 00000000 00000038 00000001
[ 16.756004] f35b5c48 00010038 f8540001 f35b5ccf f35b5cdc f854549d f35b5ccf 00000014
[ 16.756004] Call Trace:
[ 16.756004] [<f8541ada>] ? intel_sdvo_read_byte.clone.8+0x4a/0x90 [i915]
[ 16.756004] [<f8540001>] ? intel_dp_set_m_n+0x201/0x480 [i915]
[ 16.756004] [<f854549d>] ? intel_sdvo_init+0x19d/0x5c0 [i915]
[ 16.756004] [<f853acc7>] ? intel_crt_init+0xe7/0x2f0 [i915]
[ 16.756004] [<f852d2ed>] ? intel_setup_outputs+0x37d/0x730 [i915]
[ 16.756004] [<f8539705>] ? intel_modeset_init+0x195/0x360 [i915]
[ 16.756004] [<f85120a1>] ? i915_load_modeset_init+0x131/0x200 [i915]
[ 16.756004] [<f8511720>] ? i915_vga_set_decode+0x0/0x30 [i915]
[ 16.756004] [<f851064f>] ? intel_detect_pch+0x2f/0x80 [i915]
[ 16.756004] [<f8513e84>] ? i915_driver_load+0x334/0x8e0 [i915]
[ 16.756004] [<f836e5c3>] ? drm_get_pci_dev+0x153/0x300 [drm]
[ 16.756004] [<c05fb20f>] ? _raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0x2f/0x50
[ 16.756004] [<f8551d72>] ? i915_pci_probe+0x12/0x14 [i915]
[ 16.756004] [<c038af37>] ? local_pci_probe+0x47/0xb0
[ 16.756004] [<c038c418>] ? pci_device_probe+0x68/0x90
[ 16.756004] [<c042763d>] ? really_probe+0x4d/0x150
[ 16.756004] [<c042fb9b>] ? pm_runtime_barrier+0x4b/0xb0
[ 16.756004] [<c04278dc>] ? driver_probe_device+0x3c/0x60
[ 16.756004] [<c0427981>] ? __driver_attach+0x81/0x90
[ 16.756004] [<c0427900>] ? __driver_attach+0x0/0x90
[ 16.756004] [<c0426968>] ? bus_for_each_dev+0x48/0x70
[ 16.756004] [<c04274ee>] ? driver_attach+0x1e/0x20
[ 16.756004] [<c0427900>] ? __driver_attach+0x0/0x90
[ 16.756004] [<c04270a1>] ? bus_add_driver+0xc1/0x2c0
[ 16.756004] [<c038bdc0>] ? pci_device_remove+0x0/0xf0
[ 16.756004] [<c0427bc6>] ? driver_register+0x66/0x110
[ 16.756004] [<c038b4d5>] ? __pci_register_driver+0x45/0xb0
[ 16.756004] [<f836e8d6>] ? drm_pci_init+0x96/0xc0 [drm]
[ 16.756004] [<f8366e24>] ? drm_init+0x54/0x70 [drm]
[ 16.756004] [<f857008f>] ? i915_init+0x8f/0x91 [i915]
[ 16.756004] [<c0101255>] ? do_one_initcall+0x35/0x170
[ 16.756004] [<f8570000>] ? i915_init+0x0/0x91 [i915]
[ 16.756004] [<c0101255>] ? do_one_initcall+0x35/0x170
[ 16.756004] [<f8570000>] ? i915_init+0x0/0x91 [i915]
[ 16.756004] [<c018903b>] ? sys_init_module+0x9b/0x1e0
[ 16.756004] [<c0226612>] ? sys_write+0x42/0x70
[ 16.756004] [<c05fb494>] ? syscall_call+0x7/0xb
[ 16.756004] Code: ff ff 5d c3 89 f6 8d bc 27 00 00 00 00 55 89 e5 57 56 53 83 ec 0c 3e 8d 74 26 00 bb a1 ff ff ff 89 c6 8b 40 0c 89 55 f0 89 4d ec <8b> 00 85 c0 74 6f 89 e0 25 00 e0 ff ff f7 40 14 ff ff ff ef 75
[ 16.756004] EIP: [<c04ca13e>] i2c_transfer+0x1e/0xc0 SS:ESP 0068:f35b5c14
[ 16.756004] CR2: 0000000000000000
[ 16.761639] ---[ end trace 53912a785b2ee2cb ]---

[Ben Gamari (bgamari)]

Nothing in this trace suggests the problem has anything to do with acpi. It is due to the recent restructuring of i2c handling in the i915 drm driver.

[Ben Gamari (bgamari)]

There is a patch for this which according to ickle should go upstream for 2.6.37:

16:07 < bgamari> ickle: Is your patch to check BIOS sanity for SDVO going to be merged or was that simply for testing?
16:07 < airlied> I thouht I already had that in Linus tree
16:13 < bgamari> airlied: You mean " drm/i915/sdvo: Only use the SDVO pin if it is in the valid range"
16:35 < nickle> bgamari: there's a fixed version in -fixes
16:44 < bgamari> nickle: thanks
16:45 < bgamari> nickle: it's going in to 2.6.37?
16:45 < nickle> that's the plan

[Tim Gardner (timg-tpi)]

If that is really the fix, then we'll pick it up as soon as Linus drops the next -rc. In the meantime, you appear to have an older natty kernel. The most recent is 2.6.37-9.22 which is based on 2.6.37-rc5.

[Chaostya (chaostya)]

still present in mainline ppa 2.6.37-rc6 see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/687235

[Chaostya (chaostya)]

rc8 fixed this bug on my Dell D610

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Ben Gamari, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better. Natty reached EOL on October 2012.
Please see this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

We were wondering if this is still an issue in a supported release? If so, could you please test for this with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO CD images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/ .

If it remains an issue, could you please run the following command in the development release from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal), as it will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report:

apport-collect -p linux <replace-with-bug-number>

Also, could you please test the latest upstream kernel available following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds ? It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Please do not test the kernel in the daily folder, but the one all the way at the bottom. Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please comment on which kernel version specifically you tested and remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the text:
needs-upstream-testing

If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tags:
kernel-fixed-upstream
kernel-fixed-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

where VERSION-NUMBER is the version number of the kernel you tested.

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the following tags:
kernel-bug-exists-upstream
kernel-bug-exists-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

where VERSION-NUMBER is the version number of the kernel you tested.

If you are unable to test the mainline kernel, please comment as to why specifically you were unable to test it and add the following tags:
kernel-unable-to-test-upstream
kernel-unable-to-test-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

where VERSION-NUMBER is the version number of the kernel you tested.

Please let us know your results. Thank you for your understanding.

Helpful Bug Reporting Tips:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs

[Po-Hsu Lin (cypressyew)]

Closing this bug with Won't fix as this kernel / release is no longer supported.
Please feel free to open a new bug report if you're still experiencing this on a newer release (Bionic 18.04.3 / Disco 19.04)
Thanks!