Reproducible on maria-5.5 (revno 3281), mysql-5.5 (revno 3737).
Not reproducible on maria-5.3, mysql-5.1.60, mysql-trunk (revno 3706).

It might well be another manifestation of http://bugs.mysql.com/bug.php?id=64037 (MDEV-110) and/or http://bugs.mysql.com/bug.php?id=64038 (MDEV-111), which might or might be not fixed in MySQL 5.5, but is unlikely to be fixed on MariaDB side. However, this crash has a different stack trace and the crashing query, which I need to show up on 5.5 bug search, otherwise I will keep investigating the same test failure again and again; so I am filing it for the record.

#4 <signal handler called>
#5 0x0883edd9 in handle_opt_part (thd=0x963db10, check_opt=0x0, file=0x0, flag=6)
at /home/elenst/maria-5.5/sql/ha_partition.cc:1062
#6 0x0883f33a in ha_partition::handle_opt_partitions (this=0x970a1b8, thd=0x963db10, check_opt=0x0, flag=6)
at /home/elenst/maria-5.5/sql/ha_partition.cc:1204
#7 0x0883ec9d in ha_partition::preload_keys (this=0x970a1b8, thd=0x963db10, check_opt=0x0)
at /home/elenst/maria-5.5/sql/ha_partition.cc:1025
#8 0x0832a111 in mysql_admin_table (thd=0x963db10, tables=0x96ed6d0, check_opt=0x0,
operator_name=0x8900cdf "preload_keys", lock_type=TL_READ_NO_INSERT, open_for_modify=false,
repair_table_use_frm=false, extra_open_options=0, prepare_func=0,
operator_func=&virtual table offset 244, view_operator_func=0)
at /home/elenst/maria-5.5/sql/sql_admin.cc:636
#9 0x0832b219 in mysql_preload_keys (thd=0x963db10, tables=0x96ed6d0)
at /home/elenst/maria-5.5/sql/sql_admin.cc:971
#10 0x0823616a in mysql_execute_command (thd=0x963db10) at /home/elenst/maria-5.5/sql/sql_parse.cc:2312
#11 0x0823f2a8 in mysql_parse (thd=0x963db10, rawbuf=0x96ed610 "LOAD INDEX INTO CACHE t1", length=24,
parser_state=0xad1a1db8) at /home/elenst/maria-5.5/sql/sql_parse.cc:5728
#12 0x0823373e in dispatch_command (command=COM_QUERY, thd=0x963db10, packet=0x96e7989 "", packet_length=24)
at /home/elenst/maria-5.5/sql/sql_parse.cc:1054
#13 0x08232c03 in do_command (thd=0x963db10) at /home/elenst/maria-5.5/sql/sql_parse.cc:793
#14 0x0831bdce in do_handle_one_connection (thd_arg=0x963db10)
at /home/elenst/maria-5.5/sql/sql_connect.cc:1252
#15 0x0831b91c in handle_one_connection (arg=0x963db10) at /home/elenst/maria-5.5/sql/sql_connect.cc:1167
#16 0x0853ea23 in pfs_spawn_thread (arg=0x972e868) at /home/elenst/maria-5.5/storage/perfschema/pfs.cc:1015
#17 0xb7811b25 in start_thread () from /lib/libpthread.so.0

Test case:

CREATE TABLE t1 ( a INT )
PARTITION BY KEY(a) PARTITIONS 3;
ALTER TABLE t1 REPAIR PARTITION p1, p3;
ALTER TABLE t1 ORDER BY a;
LOAD INDEX INTO CACHE t1;

bzr version-info
revision-id: knielsen@knielsen-hq.org-20120226151144-cjmfu063vpmwcica
date: 2012-02-26 16:11:44 +0100
build-date: 2012-03-03 04:26:07 +0400
revno: 3281