esp32s2: xQueueGenericCreate() fails assertion due to failed malloc() after ~2h #21923
Description
Description
I observed this when I left a esp32s2-devkit running examples/networking/gnrc/gnrc_networking after doing the Release Specs testing.
Steps to reproduce the issue
Flash examples/networking/gnrc/gnrc_networking on an esp32s2 board. Might also apply to different members of the ESP32 family.
I had a 2nd ESP32 act as a border router between WiFi and esp_now, I don't know yet if that communication was necessary to trigger the bug.
I didn't change the channel here, so this only communicated with a esp8266 that I used to test changing channels, that's where it picked up the router information from, since the BR is on channel 1 this was never connected to the internet, so we can rule out lots of 6lo traffic.
Expected results
The MCU keeps operating indefinitely.
Actual results
MCU runs out of memory (malloc in xQueueGenericCreate() fails) after ~2h of uptime
2025-11-30 22:45:31,821 # Instruction cache : size 8KB, 4Ways, cache line size 32Byte
2025-11-30 22:45:31,821 # Data cache : size 8KB, 4Ways, cache line size 32Byte
2025-11-30 22:45:31,821 # Unicore app
2025-11-30 22:45:31,821 # Initializing. RAM available for dynamic allocation:
2025-11-30 22:45:31,822 # At 3FFD5488 len 00026B78 (154 KiB): RAM
2025-11-30 22:45:31,822 # At 3FFFC000 len 00003A10 (14 KiB): RAM
2025-11-30 22:45:31,822 # detected chip: generic
2025-11-30 22:45:31,822 # flash io: qio
2025-11-30 22:45:31,822 #
2025-11-30 22:45:32,922 # NETOPT_TX_END_IRQ not implemented by driver
2025-11-30 22:45:32,927 # main(): This is RIOT! (Version: 2026.01-devel-23-g349db-HEAD)
2025-11-30 22:45:32,930 # RIOT network stack example application
2025-11-30 22:45:32,934 # All up, running the shell now
> ifconfig
2025-11-30 22:45:37,218 # ifconfig
2025-11-30 22:45:37,220 # Iface 10 HWaddr: 7C:DF:A1:02:EC:D5 Channel: 6
2025-11-30 22:45:37,226 # L2-PDU:249 MTU:1280 HL:64 RTR
2025-11-30 22:45:37,229 # RTR_ADV 6LO Source address length: 6
2025-11-30 22:45:37,232 # Link type: wireless
2025-11-30 22:45:37,237 # inet6 addr: fe80::7edf:a1ff:fe02:ecd5 scope: link VAL
2025-11-30 22:45:37,240 # inet6 group: ff02::2
2025-11-30 22:45:37,243 # inet6 group: ff02::1
2025-11-30 22:45:37,248 # inet6 group: ff02::1:ff02:ecd5
2025-11-30 22:45:37,251 # inet6 group: ff02::1a
2025-11-30 22:45:37,251 #
2025-11-30 22:45:37,254 # Statistics for Layer 2
2025-11-30 22:45:37,257 # RX packets 0 bytes 0
2025-11-30 22:45:37,262 # TX packets 0 (Multicast: 0) bytes 58
2025-11-30 22:45:37,265 # TX succeeded 1 errors 0
2025-11-30 22:45:37,268 # Statistics for IPv6
2025-11-30 22:45:37,270 # RX packets 0 bytes 0
2025-11-30 22:45:37,273 # TX packets 3 (Multicast: 3) bytes 162
2025-11-30 22:45:37,278 # TX succeeded 3 errors 0
2025-11-30 22:45:37,278 #
> ping ff02::1
2025-11-30 22:45:40,626 # ping ff02::1
2025-11-30 22:45:40,640 # 12 bytes from fe80::ecfa:bcff:fe5f:8291%10: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=6.894 ms
2025-11-30 22:45:41,645 # 12 bytes from fe80::ecfa:bcff:fe5f:8291%10: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=11.773 ms
2025-11-30 22:45:42,640 # 12 bytes from fe80::ecfa:bcff:fe5f:8291%10: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=6.986 ms
2025-11-30 22:45:42,640 #
2025-11-30 22:45:42,643 # --- ff02::1 PING statistics ---
2025-11-30 22:45:42,648 # 3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0% packet loss
2025-11-30 22:45:42,652 # round-trip min/avg/max = 6.894/8.551/11.773 ms
> ifconfig
2025-12-01 00:28:33,469 # ifconfig
2025-12-01 00:28:33,472 # Iface 10 HWaddr: 7C:DF:A1:02:EC:D5 Channel: 6
2025-12-01 00:28:33,477 # L2-PDU:249 MTU:1280 HL:64 RTR
2025-12-01 00:28:33,480 # RTR_ADV 6LO Source address length: 6
2025-12-01 00:28:33,483 # Link type: wireless
2025-12-01 00:28:33,488 # inet6 addr: fe80::7edf:a1ff:fe02:ecd5 scope: link VAL
2025-12-01 00:28:33,496 # inet6 addr: 2001:9e8:1408:57fe:7edf:a1ff:fe02:ecd5 scope: global DPR
2025-12-01 00:28:33,499 # inet6 group: ff02::2
2025-12-01 00:28:33,502 # inet6 group: ff02::1
2025-12-01 00:28:33,505 # inet6 group: ff02::1:ff02:ecd5
2025-12-01 00:28:33,508 # inet6 group: ff02::1a
2025-12-01 00:28:33,508 #
2025-12-01 00:28:33,510 # Statistics for Layer 2
2025-12-01 00:28:33,513 # RX packets 0 bytes 0
2025-12-01 00:28:33,519 # TX packets 0 (Multicast: 0) bytes 9492
2025-12-01 00:28:33,521 # TX succeeded 150 errors 0
2025-12-01 00:28:33,524 # Statistics for IPv6
2025-12-01 00:28:33,527 # RX packets 30 bytes 1744
2025-12-01 00:28:33,533 # TX packets 152 (Multicast: 139) bytes 9298
2025-12-01 00:28:33,537 # TX succeeded 152 errors 0
2025-12-01 00:28:33,537 #
> 2025-12-01 00:39:23,820 # cpu/esp_common/freertos/queue.c:95 => FAILED ASSERTION.
Versions
2025.10 / master