Panic from mptspi_dv_renegotiate_work in 2.6.18-mm2

Panics on boot.

http://test.kernel.org/abat/50728/debug/console.log

Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 0000000000000500 RIP:
 [<ffffffff803fa9af>] mptspi_dv_renegotiate_work+0x10/0x4a
PGD 0
Oops: 0000 [1] SMP
last sysfs file:
CPU 0
Modules linked in:
Pid: 14, comm: events/0 Not tainted 2.6.18-mm2-autokern1 #1
RIP: 0010:[<ffffffff803fa9af>]  [<ffffffff803fa9af>] mptspi_dv_renegotiate_work+0x10/0x4a
RSP: 0000:ffff8101000e1e20  EFLAGS: 00010286
RAX: 0000000000000001 RBX: ffff810001fea8c0 RCX: 000000000000001f
RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: ffff810001fea8c0 RDI: 0000000000001fea
RBP: ffff8101000e1e30 R08: ffff8101000e0000 R09: 0000000000000011
R10: ffff810001014820 R11: ffff810001014820 R12: 0000000000000500
R13: ffff810001ef1640 R14: 0000000000000202 R15: ffff810001fea8c0
FS:  0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffffffff80582000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
CS:  0010 DS: 0018 ES: 0018 CR0: 000000008005003b
CR2: 0000000000000500 CR3: 0000000000201000 CR4: 00000000000006e0
Process events/0 (pid: 14, threadinfo ffff8101000e0000, task ffff8100816b1040)
Stack:  ffff810001fea8c0 ffff810001fea8c8 ffff8101000e1e70 ffffffff802387e3
 ffffffff803fa99f ffff810001ef1640 ffff810001f0dd40 ffffffff80238827
 00000000fffffffc ffffffff804b0298 ffff8101000e1f00 ffffffff8023891a
Call Trace:
 [<ffffffff802387e3>] run_workqueue+0xa2/0xe6
 [<ffffffff803fa99f>] mptspi_dv_renegotiate_work+0x0/0x4a
 [<ffffffff80238827>] worker_thread+0x0/0x126
 [<ffffffff8023891a>] worker_thread+0xf3/0x126
 [<ffffffff80224498>] default_wake_function+0x0/0xf
 [<ffffffff80224498>] default_wake_function+0x0/0xf
 [<ffffffff80238827>] worker_thread+0x0/0x126
 [<ffffffff8023b984>] kthread+0xd0/0xfc
 [<ffffffff8020a658>] child_rip+0xa/0x12
 [<ffffffff8023b8b4>] kthread+0x0/0xfc

Yeah, Bryce@osdl is hitting this. Apparently it can be worked around by compiling the driver as a module.