This is obviously a bug in the r8169 kernel module and it seems to affect a lot of people. I upgraded to the latest kernel and hope this won't happen anymore, as it is a very serious error. This is especially serious for those who are running servers with this chipset, who can afford for the NIC to randomly go off-line for no apparent reason?
[655548.189113] type=1505 audit(1277067560.902:5): operation="profile_load" name="/usr/bin/freshclam" name2="default" pid=31671
[701564.988039] ------------[ cut here ]------------
[701564.988055] WARNING: at /build/buildd/linux-2.6.27/net/sched/sch_generic.c:219 dev_watchdog+0x21a/0x230()
[701564.988062] NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0 (r8169): transmit timed out
[701564.988067] Modules linked in: nls_cp437 cifs sha256_generic aes_i586 aes_generic cbc isofs udf crc_itu_t sr_mod cdrom usb_storage libusual i915 drm binfmt_misc bridge stp bnep rfcomm sco l2cap bluetooth vboxdrv ppdev cpufreq_userspace cpufreq_conservative cpufreq_stats cpufreq_powersave cpufreq_ondemand freq_table pci_slot sbs sbshc video output ac wmi container battery ipv6 iptable_filter ip_tables x_tables dm_crypt crypto_blkcipher lp snd_hda_intel snd_pcm_oss snd_mixer_oss snd_pcm snd_seq_dummy evdev snd_seq_oss snd_seq_midi psmouse snd_rawmidi serio_raw snd_seq_midi_event parport_pc parport snd_seq snd_timer snd_seq_device snd button pcspkr iTCO_wdt iTCO_vendor_support soundcore snd_page_alloc intel_agp agpgart shpchp pci_hotplug ext3 jbd mbcache sd_mod crc_t10dif sg ata_piix pata_acpi ata_generic libata scsi_mod dock r8169 ehci_hcd mii uhci_hcd usbcore raid10 raid456 async_xor async_memcpy async_tx xor raid1 raid0 multipath linear md_mod thermal processor fan fbcon tileblit font bitblit softcursor fuse dm_raid4_5 dm_region_hash dm_mem_cache dm_message dm_mirror dm_log dm_mod
[701564.988291] Pid: 0, comm: swapper Not tainted 2.6.27-16-generic #1
[701564.988298] [<c0132f05>] warn_slowpath+0x65/0x90
[701564.988315] [<c0125b8a>] ? enqueue_entity+0xda/0x2f0
[701564.988325] [<c012b758>] ? enqueue_task_fair+0x48/0x50
[701564.988340] [<c0122057>] ? enqueue_task+0x57/0x70
[701564.988350] [<c012c60e>] ? try_to_wake_up+0xde/0x290
[701564.988361] [<c0119e48>] ? read_hpet+0x8/0x20
[701564.988371] [<c014fedb>] ? getnstimeofday+0x5b/0x120
[701564.988383] [<c0137b16>] ? set_normalized_timespec+0x16/0x90
[701564.988392] [<c0155687>] ? timer_stats_update_stats+0x17/0x250
[701564.988403] [<c02564d9>] ? strlen+0x9/0x20
[701564.988412] [<c025455d>] ? strlcpy+0x1d/0x60
[701564.988422] [<c02f3557>] ? netdev_drivername+0x37/0x40
[701564.988432] [<c03087da>] dev_watchdog+0x21a/0x230
[701564.988441] [<c0145086>] ? __queue_work+0x36/0x50
[701564.988451] [<c013d128>] run_timer_softirq+0x138/0x210
[701564.988460] [<c03085c0>] ? dev_watchdog+0x0/0x230
[701564.988468] [<c03085c0>] ? dev_watchdog+0x0/0x230
[701564.988477] [<c0138822>] __do_softirq+0x92/0x120
[701564.988485] [<c013890d>] do_softirq+0x5d/0x60
[701564.988493] [<c0138a85>] irq_exit+0x55/0x90
[701564.988505] [<c01141cd>] smp_apic_timer_interrupt+0x5d/0x90
[701564.988514] [<c01050f8>] apic_timer_interrupt+0x28/0x30
[701564.988528] [<c010acda>] ? mwait_idle+0x4a/0x50
[701564.988536] [<c010288d>] cpu_idle+0x7d/0x140
[701564.988544] [<c037d781>] start_secondary+0x9d/0xcc
[701564.988558] =======================
[701564.988563] ---[ end trace b699db82d00423f1 ]---
[701565.005988] r8169: eth0: link up
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