Hi Mike,
I used to ask the list several times before without an answer, so I try to tell you what I found out through googling:
apparently the kernel is build for handling this. The message stems from linux/mm/page_alloc.c, grep for "failure". It happens very often if you run some scsi-devices like a scanner or a CD / DVD burner.
I reduced the size of the SG_SCATTER_SZ:
--- linux/include/scsi/sg.h
+++ linux/include/scsi/sg.h
@@ -252,7 +252,7 @@
#define SG_GET_ACCESS_COUNT 0x2289
-#define SG_SCATTER_SZ (8 * 4096) /* PAGE_SIZE not available to user */ +#define SG_SCATTER_SZ (2 * 4096) /* PAGE_SIZE not available to user */ /* Largest size (in bytes) a single scatter-gather list element can have. The value must be a power of 2 and <= (PAGE_SIZE * 32) [131072 bytes on
i386]. The minimum value is PAGE_SIZE. If scatter-gather not supported
by a factor of four, what drastically reduced those messages but did not show (for me!) negative consequences.
If you want to know more google for alloc_pages, you'll find some discussions on the kernel mailing list (but somewhat outdated, I think they refer to k-version 2.4.10~)
However, if this is really harmless I do not understand what the printk is good for at all - besides irritating people like you and me. And I did never see such messages on X86 architecture. If you find something in addition, please give me a note.
Take care
Dieter Jurzitza
--
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HARMAN BECKER AUTOMOTIVE SYSTEMS
Dr.-Ing. Dieter Jurzitza
Manager Hardware Systems
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> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: Mike Edwards [mailto:sauron-debian-sparc@psychology.rutgers.edu]
> Gesendet: Dienstag, 29. März 2005 06:10
> An: debian-sparc@lists.debian.org
> Betreff: Re: __alloc_pages: 2-order allocation failed
>
>
> I should also mention:
> Restarting qmail resolved the issue for a brief period, after
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