Help understanding dmesg output

Thu Nov 12 17:23:37 UTC 2009

I have a syn U40 machine that we use for our backup master machine. It hs
been locking up on a regular bassis. I am fairly certain it is a hardware
issue, but Sun support does not seem to be able to diagnose the problem.

Lst night, it did somethign strange. It did not lock up, but when I loged
in to it this mr`orning, some caommnads would just "hang" I think that the
dmesg output may give ma clue, as to what the hardware issue is, but I
can't seem to decode it.

Here it is:

[189483.370019] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[189487.428525] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[189491.206038] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[189494.913666] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[189498.319412] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[189501.426329] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[189505.267163] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[189508.419697] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[189512.221273] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190249.953416] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190253.544113] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190257.025029] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190260.195888] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190263.612689] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190266.803057] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190270.039345] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190273.219348] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190276.436049] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190279.648183] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190283.039458] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190286.230574] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190289.633279] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190292.822394] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190296.233586] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190299.410620] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190302.808750] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190305.972526] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190309.398784] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190312.615423] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190316.032188] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190319.238066] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190322.645804] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190325.806934] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190329.232188] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190332.427933] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190335.851147] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190338.972611] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190342.417982] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190345.617721] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190349.028417] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190352.257730] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190355.669715] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190358.829680] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190362.265867] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190365.459573] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190368.868129] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190372.053528] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190375.500000] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[190378.687972] st0: Failed to read 262144 byte block with 32768 byte transfer.
[284957.331201] general protection fault: 0000 [#1] SMP 
[284957.331207] last sysfs file: /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:19.3/temp3_input
[284957.331211] Dumping ftrace buffer:
[284957.331213]    (ftrace buffer empty)
[284957.331215] CPU 3 
[284957.331216] Modules linked in: binfmt_misc ppdev bridge stp bnep video output input_polldev xfs dm_crypt lp parport snd_hda_intel snd_pcm_oss snd_mixer_oss snd_pcm snd_seq_dummy snd_seq_oss snd_seq_midi snd_rawmidi snd_seq_midi_event jedec_probe snd_seq cfi_probe gen_probe snd_timer snd_seq_device cfi_util mtd chipreg snd map_funcs psmouse k8temp i2c_nforce2 shpchp tpm_infineon tpm soundcore snd_page_alloc nvidia(P) serio_raw tpm_bios pcspkr reiserfs osst st usbhid mptspi mptscsih mptbase scsi_transport_spi forcedeth ohci1394 ieee1394 fbcon tileblit font bitblit softcursor
[284957.331249] Pid: 21069, comm: gkrellm Tainted: P        W  2.6.28-16-generic #55-Ubuntu
[284957.331251] RIP: 0010:[<ffffffff802b74e5>]  [<ffffffff802b74e5>] free_hot_cold_page+0x85/0x270
[284957.331260] RSP: 0018:ffff8801001c5d28  EFLAGS: 00010246
[284957.331261] RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffffe2000498a838 RCX: 8000000000080008
[284957.331263] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: ffffe2000498a838 RDI: ffffe2000498a838
[284957.331265] RBP: ffff8801001c5d58 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000
[284957.331266] R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 00000000ffffffff R12: ffff8801001c5da8
[284957.331268] R13: 8000000000080008 R14: 0000000000000001 R15: ffff8800280608d8
[284957.331270] FS:  00007f69edbd57d0(0000) GS:ffff88015f802f00(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
[284957.331272] CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
[284957.331273] CR2: 00007f69eda1c000 CR3: 00000001009d0000 CR4: 00000000000006a0
[284957.331275] DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000
[284957.331277] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000ffff0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400
[284957.331279] Process gkrellm (pid: 21069, threadinfo ffff8801001c4000, task ffff880055182cc0)
[284957.331281] Stack:
[284957.331282]  00000000280608d8 0000000000000001 ffff8801001c5da8 0000000000000000
[284957.331285]  0000000000000001 ffff8800280608d8 ffff8801001c5d88 ffffffff802b770a
[284957.331288]  ffff8801001c5d88 ffffe2000498a838 0000000000000001 ffffffff8090f700
[284957.331291] Call Trace:
[284957.331293]  [<ffffffff802b770a>] __pagevec_free+0x3a/0x50
[284957.331295]  [<ffffffff802ba9e4>] release_pages+0x1c4/0x210
[284957.331299]  [<ffffffff802c4b20>] ? unmap_vmas+0x180/0x2c0
[284957.331303]  [<ffffffff802d2c3e>] free_pages_and_swap_cache+0x7e/0xa0
[284957.331306]  [<ffffffff802c9720>] unmap_region+0x130/0x150
[284957.331309]  [<ffffffff802cb102>] do_munmap+0x302/0x3b0
[284957.331312]  [<ffffffff802cb200>] sys_munmap+0x50/0x80
[284957.331315]  [<ffffffff8021253a>] system_call_fastpath+0x16/0x1b
[284957.331318] Code: d2 0f 95 c2 83 c0 01 0f b6 d2 09 c2 31 c0 83 7e 08 00 0f 95 c0 09 c2 48 89 c8 48 63 d2 25 e1 9c 34 00 48 09 c2 0f 85 d6 01 00 00 <f6> c1 10 74 07 0f ba 33 04 48 8b 0b f7 c1 00 00 08 00 74 07 0f 
[284957.331338] RIP  [<ffffffff802b74e5>] free_hot_cold_page+0x85/0x270
[284957.331341]  RSP <ffff8801001c5d28>
[284957.331345] ---[ end trace e8c9126e7b03f6ae ]---

It appears that the first problem was reading from the tape drive, but it's
the reest of the stuff that I do not understand.

Can anyone give me some guidance as to understanding this?

-- 
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
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