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Hello,
Recently I installed Debian Linux 6 (Squeeze, kernel 2.6.32-5-amd64 #1 SMP) via netinst on an IBM eServer platform. The system has dual AMD Opteron processors. While transferring lots of data from the original server this server was expected to replace, I noticed errors appearing repeatedly every 4 minutes or so in the ssh sessions: Message from syslogd@jupiter at Jul 24 07:30:07 ... kernel:[43618.440106] Northbridge Error, node 0 Message from syslogd@jupiter at Jul 24 07:30:07 ... kernel:[43618.440304] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. The errors appeared regularly, and it seemed only during very large data transfers across the network. As soon as the file transfers (using rsync) were completed, the errors stopped appearing. These messages show on all ssh sessions I had open to that server. After some searching, I found a Linux kernel patch from Borislav Petkov at AMD where the exact error message was listed. I also searched the Debian lists and found this bug report (600487) but that seemed related to X which I don't use on this particular machine, plus, the symptoms I see are triggered by data transfers via the network interface. The following document from AMD however gave me the best information, but doesn't yet explain why the errors appear in the ssh sessions, much less why this appears during bulk data transfers. AMD states these messages should be suppressed. http://support.amd.com/us/Processor_TechDocs/26094.PDF On Page 333 I read: ------------------------------ 12.10.1 GART Table Walk Error Reporting This error is typically caused by a software graphics driver that improperly reserves or allocates aperture pages in the GART, resulting in benign visual artifacts which are often undetected on other platforms.Setting MC4_CTL[10] allows software developers to debug this error; the resulting benign machine check errors can, however, confuse an end user. For this reason, AMD recommends that the BIOS developers disable this function by setting bit 10 of MC4_CTL_MASK register (MSR C001_0048h) to a value of 1. This bit must be set before MC4_CTL[10] bit is set. AMD also recommends adding a setup option to the BIOS setup menu. The following should be displayed in the setup option: Gart Table Walk Error MC reporting: Disabled/Enabled. The default setting is disabled. The device driver developer may enable this function for implementation and testing purposes. Also, a help message should be added with this setup option. An example of the help message is: This option should remain disabled for normal operation. ----------------------------------- It doesn't seem to be a real problem to me, but does anyone here have any further knowledge on this issue? root@jupiter:~# lspci 00:06.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] AMD-8111 PCI (rev 07) 00:07.0 ISA bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] AMD-8111 LPC (rev 05) 00:07.1 IDE interface: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] AMD-8111 IDE (rev 03) 00:07.2 SMBus: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] AMD-8111 SMBus 2.0 (rev 02) 00:07.3 Bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] AMD-8111 ACPI (rev 05) 00:0a.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] AMD-8131 PCI-X Bridge (rev 12) 00:0a.1 PIC: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] AMD-8131 PCI-X IOAPIC (rev 01) 00:0b.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] AMD-8131 PCI-X Bridge (rev 12) 00:0b.1 PIC: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] AMD-8131 PCI-X IOAPIC (rev 01) 00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration 00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map 00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller 00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control 00:19.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration 00:19.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map 00:19.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller 00:19.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control 01:00.0 USB Controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] AMD-8111 USB OHCI (rev 0b) 01:00.1 USB Controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] AMD-8111 USB OHCI (rev 0b) 01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Rage XL (rev 27) 01:06.0 Mass storage controller: Silicon Image, Inc. SiI 3512 [SATALink/SATARaid] Serial ATA Controller (rev 01) 02:01.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5704 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 03) 02:01.1 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5704 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 03) grep -i gart /var/log/syslog, the times listed coincide with the data transfers I performed: Jul 23 19:23:16 jupiter kernel: [ 0.558019] PCI-DMA: using GART IOMMU. Jul 23 19:23:16 jupiter kernel: [ 0.572745] Linux agpgart interface v0.103 Jul 24 01:45:57 jupiter kernel: [22969.172109] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 01:53:13 jupiter kernel: [23405.177159] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 01:59:48 jupiter kernel: [23800.198627] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 02:07:56 jupiter kernel: [24288.213272] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 02:16:05 jupiter kernel: [24777.264098] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 02:25:04 jupiter kernel: [25316.292251] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 02:33:59 jupiter kernel: [25850.396117] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 02:41:05 jupiter kernel: [26276.428134] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 02:47:47 jupiter kernel: [26678.485158] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 02:56:09 jupiter kernel: [27180.511717] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 03:04:01 jupiter kernel: [27652.540110] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 03:10:59 jupiter kernel: [28070.573139] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 03:18:24 jupiter kernel: [28515.604177] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 03:25:39 jupiter kernel: [28950.669266] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 03:32:57 jupiter kernel: [29388.704171] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 03:41:07 jupiter kernel: [29878.756135] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 03:48:17 jupiter kernel: [30308.769289] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 03:54:45 jupiter kernel: [30696.800299] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 04:01:56 jupiter kernel: [31127.809561] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 04:09:51 jupiter kernel: [31602.856368] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 04:16:45 jupiter kernel: [32016.900212] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 04:23:34 jupiter kernel: [32425.968297] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 04:31:26 jupiter kernel: [32897.973248] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 04:36:19 jupiter kernel: [33191.004099] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 04:42:34 jupiter kernel: [33566.077240] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 04:49:56 jupiter kernel: [34008.116101] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 04:57:44 jupiter kernel: [34476.165189] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 05:03:41 jupiter kernel: [34833.209961] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 05:08:47 jupiter kernel: [35139.248310] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 05:14:12 jupiter kernel: [35464.297150] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 05:19:58 jupiter kernel: [35810.314438] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 05:23:57 jupiter kernel: [36048.324108] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 05:30:57 jupiter kernel: [36468.349242] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 05:38:34 jupiter kernel: [36925.376167] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 07:25:22 jupiter kernel: [43333.409857] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 07:30:07 jupiter kernel: [43618.440304] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 07:34:10 jupiter kernel: [43861.464551] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 07:38:12 jupiter kernel: [44103.473285] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 07:42:30 jupiter kernel: [44361.496401] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 07:47:11 jupiter kernel: [44642.644176] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 07:51:15 jupiter kernel: [44886.660174] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 07:57:50 jupiter kernel: [45281.744116] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 08:03:00 jupiter kernel: [45591.768321] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 08:09:55 jupiter kernel: [46006.780104] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 08:15:23 jupiter kernel: [46334.804131] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 08:19:38 jupiter kernel: [46589.828094] Invalid GART PTE entry during table walk. Jul 24 11:23:24 jupiter kernel: [ 0.562777] PCI-DMA: using GART IOMMU. Jul 24 11:23:24 jupiter kernel: [ 0.577640] Linux agpgart interface v0.103 Thanks, kind regards, Jaap Hoetmer |