Random system freezes on RPi 4/400 using kernel 6.18 - possible regression from 6.12

[wiindgg]

Describe the bug

Lately, I have been experiencing random, hard system freezes on Raspberry Pi OS Trixie 64-bit. The freezes occur primarily while using web browsers (Chromium and Firefox) during activities like watching YouTube, file downloading, Google Remote Desktop sessions, or even just typing text. This behavior did not happen 1–2 weeks ago under similar or heavier tasks.
Other users on the official Raspberry Pi forum have chimed in to confirm they are facing identical symptoms on Raspberry Pi 4 (both 4GB and 8GB models), ruling out insufficient RAM as a cause.
I temporarily downgraded to kernel 6.12.75+rpt-rpi-v8. In my initial few hours of testing, I have been unable to reproduce the freeze. Note: This is a preliminary finding and still needs longer testing/verification to be 100% certain it is a kernel regression introduced after 6.12.

Steps to reproduce the behaviour

1. Boot Raspberry Pi OS Trixie 64-bit on a Pi 4 or Pi 400.
2. Open Chromium or Firefox.
3. Browse heavy media sites (e.g., YouTube, X/Twitter) or run a Google Remote Desktop session.
   The system completely freezes randomly (hard crash requiring a power cycle).

Device (s)

Raspberry Pi 400

System

My System:
Hardware: Raspberry Pi 400 (4GB RAM)
Power Supply: Official Raspberry Pi PSU
Storage: Samsung V30 32GB SD-Card (Passes Raspberry Pi Diagnostics)
OS: Raspberry Pi OS Trixie 64-Bit
aarch64 GNU/Linux
Browser: Chromium with UBlock + h264ify Version 147.0.7727.101
Installed Packages: libreoffice, mtools, gnome-disk-utility, gparted, mpv, handbrake, winff, drawing, filezilla, file-roller, librecad, mediainfo-gui, gtkhumb, grsync, simple-scan, speedtest-cli, ink, innoextract, audacity
raspinfo : https://pastebin.com/yqRrbCFZ
OS and version: Raspberry Pi reference 2026-04-21
Generated using pi-gen, https://github.com/RPi-Distro/pi-gen, 4ad56cc850fa60adcc7f07dc15879bc95cc1d281, stage4
_firmware version:_May 8 2026 18:13:05
Copyright (c) 2012 Broadcom
version ae9a8ea9f3ca745de6f357bd7fc8307721ad38b7 (clean) (release) (start)
kernel version: Linux raspberrypi 6.18.29+rpt-rpi-v8 #1 SMP PREEMPT Debian 1:6.18.29-1+rpt1 (2026-05-12) aarch64 GNU/Linux
dmesg: https://pastebin.com/m9LUakd1

Logs

No response

Additional context

No response

[popcornmix]

Does #7304 (comment) help?

[wiindgg]

I executed this command: sudo ethtool --set-eee eth0 eee off however, it did not resolve the issue.

[spockfish]

But does your kernel include this commit? fde5cc8

[wiindgg]

Ah, I missed this. I applied the command on the default kernel. I will test again. Many thanks.

Update: I tried to build the kernel with the commit, but I failed. I updated to the latest version (6.18.32-v8+ #1979) with rpi-update and tried again to disable EEE using sudo ethtool --set-eee eth0 eee off. So far, everything is working fine without any freezes. Thanks!