dmesg queries

Chris Phillips SysAdmin at Rainbow-IT.net
Fri Jun 24 16:09:30 GMT 2005


Hi All,

I'm trying to figure out a couple of things & would like some advice please.

My server was on FreeBSD 5.3 STABLE #1 this morning (I only took it to 
STABLE, because at the time, my GigNIC was not supported fully 
@RELEASE).  I upgraded today & it's now looking like this: -

% uname -a
FreeBSD venus.rainbow-it.net 5.4-RELEASE-p2 FreeBSD 5.4-RELEASE-p2 #2: 
Fri Jun 24 13:43:08 BST 2005 
furrie at venus.rainbow-it.net:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/VENUS  i386

It's a lowly Dell PowerEdge 800 <DELL PE800>


Here's what has me writing... looking in /var/run/dmesg I see: -

kernel: ioapic0: Changing APIC ID to 2
kernel: ioapic1: Changing APIC ID to 3
kernel: ioapic1: WARNING: intbase 32 != expected base 24
kernel: ioapic0 <Version 2.0> irqs 0-23 on motherboard
kernel: ioapic1 <Version 2.0> irqs 32-55 on motherboard

Should I be worried by that WARNING?


Also in /var/run/dmesg I see: -

kernel: Interrupt storm detected on "irq19: uhci0 uhci2"; throttling 
interrupt source
kernel: Interrupt storm detected on "irq18: bge0 uhci1+"; throttling 
interrupt source

I think the top device is a Logitech QuickCam Express & the bottom one 
(using irq18), is my onboard Gigabit NIC.  Would these lines in dmesg 
suggest that there is a problem and if so, is there anything that I can 
do to combat it?  Is it likely that this 'throttling', is slowing my NIC 
at all?


I have seen this kind of notification (throttling), when printing.  This 
is the dmesg output for that device: -

kernel: ppc0: <ECP parallel printer port> port 0x778-0x77f,0x378-0x37f 
irq 7 drq 1 on acpi0
kernel: ppc0: Generic chipset (ECP/PS2/NIBBLE) in COMPATIBLE mode
kernel: ppc0: FIFO with 16/16/8 bytes threshold
kernel: ppbus0: <Parallel port bus> on ppc0
kernel: ppbus0: IEEE1284 device found /NIBBLE/ECP
kernel: Probing for PnP devices on ppbus0:
kernel: ppbus0: <HEWLETT-PACKARD DESKJET 990C> PRINTER MLC,PCL,PML
kernel: lpt0: <Printer> on ppbus0
kernel: lpt0: Interrupt-driven port
kernel: ppi0: <Parallel I/O> on ppbus0


Now, the upgrade may well have stopped the behavior mentioned below, but 
if not, does anyone know what I might have done wrong, to be getting (a 
lot of) messages like: -

sio0: 1848 more interrupt-level buffer overflows (total 11269) ?

This is the device: -

kernel: sio0: <16550A-compatible COM port> port 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4 flags 
0x10 on acpi0
kernel: sio0: type 16550A


Finally, is it considered "bad form", to ask multiple questions like I 
have, or should I have separated them & sent them in multiple emails?

Kind Regards,


Chris Phillips


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