I installed SLF 5.4 on a Dell Precision M4500 and it has generally
performed well except that it crashes with a kernel panic an average
about once a day.  I enabled the memory dump on kernel panic and although
default kernel image doesn't have debugging symbols, I can dump the
strings in the vmcore file and always find the following:

  ...
<3>ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: fatal error
<1>Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 0000000000000088 RIP:
<1> [<ffffffff88000e07>] :ehci_hcd:end_unlink_async+0x2f/0x108
<4>PGD 1280d1067 PUD 12dc82067 PMD 0
<0>Oops: 0002 [1] SMP
<1>last sysfs file: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:00.0/irq
<4>CPU 7
  ...
<4>Call Trace:
<4> <IRQ>  [<ffffffff88000fec>] :ehci_hcd:unlink_async+0x19/0x58
<4> [<ffffffff8800135c>] :ehci_hcd:qh_completions+0x331/0x344
<4> [<ffffffff8800181d>] :ehci_hcd:ehci_work+0xad/0x6d1
<4> [<ffffffff80079374>] end_level_ioapic_vector+0x9/0x16
<4> [<ffffffff800baff5>] __do_IRQ+0xeb/0x103
<4> [<ffffffff8800031b>] :ehci_hcd:handshake+0x38/0x49
<4> [<ffffffff8800463c>] :ehci_hcd:ehci_irq+0x145/0x15d
<4> [<ffffffff801f7623>] usb_hcd_irq+0x27/0x55
<4> [<ffffffff80010c3a>] handle_IRQ_event+0x51/0xa6
<4> [<ffffffff800bafae>] __do_IRQ+0xa4/0x103
<4> [<ffffffff80012443>] __do_softirq+0x89/0x133
<4> [<ffffffff8006ca0d>] do_IRQ+0xe7/0xf5
<4> [<ffffffff8005d615>] ret_from_intr+0x0/0xa
<4> <EOI>  [<ffffffff80030358>] unix_poll+0x0/0x99
<4> [<ffffffff800118e9>] do_select+0x261/0x462
<4> [<ffffffff800118d9>] do_select+0x251/0x462
<4> [<ffffffff8001ebd8>] __pollwait+0x0/0xe2
  ...

Are there any kernel updates or command line options that I am missing
that might fix this?  It also hangs occasionally when starting up when it
checks for hardware updates, but I can deal with that issue separately.

Here is some system info if it helps:

$ yum list kernel
kernel.x86_64                     2.6.18-194.26.1.el5     installed 
$ uname -a
Linux mjones-laptop2 2.6.18-194.26.1.el5 #1 SMP Tue Nov 9 12:46:16 EST 2010 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
$ /sbin/lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000  
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0020  
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000  
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 046d:c01a Logitech, Inc. M-BQ85 Optical Wheel Mouse
Bus 002 Device 005: ID 0a5c:5800 Broadcom Corp. BCM5880 Secure Applications Processor
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 413c:8187 Dell Computer Corp. 
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0020  

$ demsg
Linux version 2.6.18-194.26.1.el5 ([log in to unmask]) (gcc version 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-48)) #1 SMP
 Tue Nov 9 12:46:16 EST 2010
Command line: ro root=/dev/sdb8 crashkernel=64M@16M rhgb quiet
..
SMP: Allowing 8 CPUs, 0 hotplug CPUs
Built 1 zonelists.  Total pages: 1027656
Kernel command line: ro root=/dev/sdb8 crashkernel=64M@16M rhgb quiet
..

Thanks,
Matthew.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Matthew Jones                                           Office: PHYS 378
Department of Physics, Purdue University      Office phone: 765-496-2464  
525 Northwestern Ave                        Fermilab Phone: 630-840-2859
West Lafayette, IN 47907-2036          e-mail: [log in to unmask]