Kernel Panic / System Freeze on RPi 4 when creating Docker bridge networks - Debian 13 (Trixie) - Kernel 6.12.75

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Assessment

Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Newbie friendliness
38/100
Issue type
Bug
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Quiet
Tech stack
c, debian, docker, linux
Domain
devops, networking, operating-systems

Research direction

Reproduce on a Raspberry Pi 4 running Raspberry Pi OS/Debian 13 with kernel 6.12.75+rpt-rpi-v8 by running docker network create test-bridge or starting a container with default networking. Compare this with the /etc/docker/daemon.json bridge workaround and --net=host; inspect the Docker and kernel environment, noting that no logs are provided. Done requires a confirmed cause or a clearly reported kernel networking regression.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

Describe the bug

Problem Description:
The system suffers a complete hard freeze (no SSH, no local input, heart-beat LED stops) whenever Docker attempts to create or manage a standard bridge network. This happens consistently during apt upgrade of Docker-related packages or when starting containers with default networking.

​Workaround found:
The system is stable only if Docker is forced to disable bridge networking by adding {"bridge": "none"} to /etc/docker/daemon.json. Using --net=host for containers also works without crashing. This points to a regression in the bridge/veth kernel module or its interaction with the RPi 4 network driver in the 6.12.y branch.

Steps to reproduce the behaviour

​Use Raspberry Pi OS based on Debian Trixie (Kernel 6.12.75).
​Install Docker.
​Attempt to run a container with default bridge networking or run docker network create test-bridge.
​System freezes immediately and requires a hard power cycle.

Device (s)

Raspberry Pi 4 Mod. B

System

Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.4
OS: Raspberry Pi OS / Debian 13 (Trixie)
GPU firmware: Aug 20 2025, cd866525580337c0aee4b25880e1f5f9f674fb24
EEPROM VL805: 000138cO
Kernel: 6.12.75+rpt-rpi-v8
Docker Version: Latest from Debian 13 repos

Logs

No response

Additional context

​Diagnostic info:
I have had to manually fix /var/lib/dpkg/status multiple times as the crash occurs mid-configuration during apt upgrade, leaving the package database in an inconsistent state.

Dominant language
C
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Avg merge
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Merged PRs (30d)
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