RHEL5: kernel panic at e1000_clean_tx_irq(), RIP e1000_clean+0xdc

Issue

• System crash at net_rx_action() when handling soft IRQ.

Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 00000000000000e8 RIP: 
 [<ffffffff88260657>] :e1000:e1000_clean+0xdc/0x559
PGD 197934067 PUD 146f9b067 PMD 0 
Oops: 0000 [1] SMP 
last sysfs file: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:00.0/irq
CPU 0 
Modules linked in: netconsole sunrpc ip6t_REJECT xt_tcpudp ip6table_filter ip6_tables x_tables be2iscsi ib_iser rdma_cm ib_cm iw_cm ib_sa ib_mad ib_core ib_addr iscsi_tcp bnx2i cnic ipv6 xfrm_nalgo crypto_api uio cxgb3i libcxgbi cxgb3 8021q libiscsi_tcp libiscsi2 scsi_transport_iscsi2 scsi_transport_iscsi vsock(U) vmci(U) vmmemctl(U) acpiphp dm_multipath scsi_dh video backlight sbs power_meter hwmon i2c_ec dell_wmi wmi button battery asus_acpi acpi_memhotplug ac lp floppy sg i2c_piix4 pcspkr i2c_core tpm_tis e1000 tpm shpchp parport_pc parport serio_raw tpm_bios ide_cd cdrom dm_raid45 dm_message dm_region_hash dm_mem_cache dm_snapshot dm_zero dm_mirror dm_log dm_mod ata_piix libata mptspi mptscsih mptbase scsi_transport_spi sd_mod scsi_mod ext3 jbd uhci_hcd ohci_hcd ehci_hcd
Pid: 23259, comm: java Tainted: G     ---- 2.6.18-274.17.1.el5 #1
RIP: 0010:[<ffffffff88260657>]  [<ffffffff88260657>] :e1000:e1000_clean+0xdc/0x559
RSP: 0000:ffffffff804ade70  EFLAGS: 00010202
RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffff81023e3ccf80 RCX: ffff810074d17000
RDX: 0000000000000001 RSI: ffffc2001008ab90 RDI: 0000000000000000
RBP: ffff81023e94e500 R08: ffff81000dc3c000 R09: ffffffff804adf10
R10: 000000000000000c R11: 0000000000000000 R12: 000000000000004a
R13: 000000000000004a R14: ffff81023e94e000 R15: ffff81023e94e000
FS:  00002b996b6b25a0(0000) GS:ffffffff8042d000(0063) knlGS:00000000adfe2b90
CS:  0010 DS: 002b ES: 002b CR0: 0000000080050033
CR2: 00000000000000e8 CR3: 000000017c8c0000 CR4: 00000000000006e0
Process java (pid: 23259, threadinfo ffff8100b4860000, task ffff81023eae0820)
Stack:  ffff8100b4861f58 0000000100000000 ffffffff803418a0 ffffffff804adf0c
 0100000000000040 000024a200000007 0000004a0000000e ffff81023e94e858
 ffff810074d17000 0000000000000212 000000003d0b6b20 ffff81023f9dae40
Call Trace:
 <IRQ>  [<ffffffff8000ca57>] net_rx_action+0xac/0x1b1
 [<ffffffff80012575>] __do_softirq+0x89/0x133
 [<ffffffff8005e2fc>] call_softirq+0x1c/0x28
 [<ffffffff8006d646>] do_softirq+0x2c/0x7d
 [<ffffffff8006d4d6>] do_IRQ+0xee/0xf7
 [<ffffffff8005d615>] ret_from_intr+0x0/0xa
 <EOI> 

Code: 48 8b 87 e8 00 00 00 8b 40 08 66 85 c0 74 03 0f b7 d0 8b 87 
RIP  [<ffffffff88260657>] :e1000:e1000_clean+0xdc/0x559
RSP <ffffffff804ade70>