While upgrading Linux to version 2.6.24-rc1 on a test machine, I noticed that the network card (Intel E1000) was gone. It did not appear in dmesg and was not in lspci either.
Ok, I thought, maybe a bug, and so I went back to the old 2.6.23.1 kernel. However, the same problem occurred here: the NIC was not in lspci and was not detected by the kernel.
So I put it into a different machine: still dead. So I simply took a known good E1000 from the stack and put it into the machine, fired up Linux 2.6.24-rc1 – the NIC came up dead, and remained dead afterwards. Booting Linux 2.6.24-rc1 on a different test machine killed a third E1000.
Looking around a bit I found an entry in the Linux Kernel bugzilla describing how Linux 2.6.24-rc1 kills network cards. It is unresolved as of now, but has been reproduced with Realtek 8169 Gigabit cards. Sometimes it appears to help to turn the power off completely for a while, but I cannot confirm this resolution.
Considering the fact that the hard disk eater bug is unfixed since Linux 1.3.26, I am wondering if Linus is going to wait for a fix to this bug before releasing the next version, and if the kernel is going to undergo serious testing. I am expecting to see a half finished band aid going into the code again, which will continue to toast a NIC once in a while – just like it happened with the hard disks. In any case I urge every Linux user to boot 2.6.24-rc1 with great care and on computers inside warranty only, and continue to be happy about my choice of NetBSD and OpenSolaris as my main operating systems.