Page allocation failures on Dell E5500

[Chris Coulson]

I'm seeing a lot of these types of errors in my /var/log/kern.log, which did not exist in Karmic:

Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.070726] swapper: page allocation failure. order:2, mode:0x4020
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.070736] Pid: 0, comm: swapper Not tainted 2.6.32-16-generic #25-Ubuntu
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.070741] Call Trace:
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.070746] <IRQ> [<ffffffff810f742e>] __alloc_pages_slowpath+0x56e/0x580
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.070773] [<ffffffff810f759e>] __alloc_pages_nodemask+0x15e/0x1a0
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.070784] [<ffffffff8112f282>] kmalloc_large_node+0x62/0xb0
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.070793] [<ffffffff811338f5>] __kmalloc_node_track_caller+0x135/0x180
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.070839] [<ffffffffa027fce7>] ? iwl_rx_allocate+0x197/0x2f0 [iwlcore]
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.070851] [<ffffffff81468210>] __alloc_skb+0x80/0x190
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.070871] [<ffffffffa027fce7>] iwl_rx_allocate+0x197/0x2f0 [iwlcore]
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.070892] [<ffffffffa028114b>] iwl_rx_replenish_now+0x1b/0x30 [iwlcore]
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.070908] [<ffffffffa029b388>] iwl_rx_handle+0x288/0x2f0 [iwlagn]
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.070923] [<ffffffffa029b9e0>] iwl_irq_tasklet+0x140/0x4f0 [iwlagn]
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.070935] [<ffffffff8106ac15>] tasklet_action+0xd5/0xe0
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.070943] [<ffffffff8106c637>] __do_softirq+0xb7/0x1e0
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.070953] [<ffffffff810c2f70>] ? handle_IRQ_event+0x60/0x170
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.070963] [<ffffffff8101432c>] call_softirq+0x1c/0x30
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.070970] [<ffffffff81015cf5>] do_softirq+0x65/0xa0
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.070977] [<ffffffff8106c4d5>] irq_exit+0x85/0x90
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.070987] [<ffffffff8155be95>] do_IRQ+0x75/0xf0
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.070997] [<ffffffff81013b53>] ret_from_intr+0x0/0x11
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.071001] <EOI> [<ffffffff813089e9>] ? acpi_idle_enter_simple+0x109/0x13d
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.071019] [<ffffffff813089e2>] ? acpi_idle_enter_simple+0x102/0x13d
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.071028] [<ffffffff8144cb87>] ? cpuidle_idle_call+0xa7/0x140
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.071036] [<ffffffff81011eb3>] ? cpu_idle+0xb3/0x110
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.071046] [<ffffffff815414eb>] ? rest_init+0x6b/0x80
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.071055] [<ffffffff8187ade5>] ? start_kernel+0x35c/0x365
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.071066] [<ffffffff8187a33a>] ? x86_64_start_reservations+0x125/0x129
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.071075] [<ffffffff8187a438>] ? x86_64_start_kernel+0xfa/0x109
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.071080] Mem-Info:
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.071084] Node 0 DMA per-cpu:
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.071091] CPU 0: hi: 0, btch: 1 usd: 0
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.071097] CPU 1: hi: 0, btch: 1 usd: 0
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.071101] Node 0 DMA32 per-cpu:
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.071107] CPU 0: hi: 186, btch: 31 usd: 100
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.071113] CPU 1: hi: 186, btch: 31 usd: 30
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.071126] active_anon:312518 inactive_anon:104762 isolated_anon:13
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.071129] active_file:16328 inactive_file:16967 isolated_file:21
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.071131] unevictable:24 dirty:0 writeback:41 unstable:0
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.071134] free:3130 slab_reclaimable:9026 slab_unreclaimable:8509
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.071136] mapped:16776 shmem:49508 pagetables:8892 bounce:0
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.071142] Node 0 DMA free:7852kB min:40kB low:48kB high:60kB active_anon:1004kB inactive_anon:1708kB active_file:1892kB inactive_file:2772kB unevictable:0kB isolated(anon):0kB isolated(file):0kB present:15344kB mlocked:0kB dirty:0kB writeback:0kB mapped:244kB shmem:368kB slab_reclaimable:552kB slab_unreclaimable:84kB kernel_stack:8kB pagetables:16kB unstable:0kB bounce:0kB writeback_tmp:0kB pages_scanned:0 all_unreclaimable? no
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.071167] lowmem_reserve[]: 0 1960 1960 1960
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.071178] Node 0 DMA32 free:4668kB min:5644kB low:7052kB high:8464kB active_anon:1249068kB inactive_anon:417340kB active_file:63420kB inactive_file:65096kB unevictable:96kB isolated(anon):52kB isolated(file):84kB present:2007424kB mlocked:80kB dirty:0kB writeback:164kB mapped:66860kB shmem:197664kB slab_reclaimable:35552kB slab_unreclaimable:33952kB kernel_stack:2984kB pagetables:35552kB unstable:0kB bounce:0kB writeback_tmp:0kB pages_scanned:67 all_unreclaimable? no
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.071205] lowmem_reserve[]: 0 0 0 0
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.071215] Node 0 DMA: 21*4kB 31*8kB 30*16kB 22*32kB 11*64kB 8*128kB 8*256kB 1*512kB 0*1024kB 1*2048kB 0*4096kB = 7852kB
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.071241] Node 0 DMA32: 901*4kB 3*8kB 1*16kB 0*32kB 0*64kB 0*128kB 0*256kB 0*512kB 1*1024kB 0*2048kB 0*4096kB = 4668kB
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.071266] 91128 total pagecache pages
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.071271] 8322 pages in swap cache
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.071276] Swap cache stats: add 64725, delete 56403, find 49561/51105
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.071281] Free swap = 5697592kB
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.071285] Total swap = 5895812kB
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.080476] 512909 pages RAM
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.080476] 9807 pages reserved
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.080476] 110494 pages shared
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.080476] 460491 pages non-shared
Mar 14 23:57:23 chris-laptop kernel: [46417.080476] iwlagn 0000:0c:00.0: Failed to allocate SKB buffer with GFP_ATOMIC. Only 0 free buffers remaining.

Yesterday, my kern.log was flooded with these messages when copying a large file from another computer across my wireless network (I'll attach the whole section of that separately)

ProblemType: Bug
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: chr1s 4010 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC1: chr1s 4010 F.... pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xf6afc000 irq 21'
   Mixer name : 'Intel G45 DEVCTG'
   Components : 'HDA:111d76b2,10280263,00100302 HDA:80862802,80860101,00100000'
   Controls : 22
   Simple ctrls : 11
Card1.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:1 'U0x46d0x9a4'/'USB Device 0x46d:0x9a4 at usb-0000:00:1a.7-3.3, high speed'
   Mixer name : 'USB Mixer'
   Components : 'USB046d:09a4'
   Controls : 2
   Simple ctrls : 1
Card1.Amixer.values:
 Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
   Capabilities: cvolume cvolume-joined cswitch cswitch-joined penum
   Capture channels: Mono
   Limits: Capture 0 - 14
   Mono: Capture 0 [0%] [23.75dB] [on]
Date: Tue Mar 16 10:38:44 2010
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=762f3439-67ac-4828-aa94-caf2a2ba0f9a
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release amd64 (20091027)
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release amd64 (20091027)
MachineType: Dell Inc. Latitude E5500
Package: linux-image-2.6.32-16-generic 2.6.32-16.25
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   no product info available
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-16-generic root=UUID=4ce5e12b-6e82-4fa4-90ff-7d9859d7504e ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_GB.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-16.25-generic
Regression: Yes
RelatedPackageVersions: linux-firmware 1.32
Reproducible: Yes
SourcePackage: linux
TestedUpstream: No
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-16-generic x86_64
dmi.bios.date: 11/05/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A15
dmi.board.name: 0DW635
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA15:bd11/05/2009:svnDellInc.:pnLatitudeE5500:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn0DW635:rvr:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvr:
dmi.product.name: Latitude E5500
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

Here is a section from my kern.log from yesterday, when I was copying a large file over the wireless network. Eventually, my wireless just died (the device no longer appeared in Network Manager), and I had to reboot. That probably coincided with the "BUG" message at the end of the log

[Richard Dawe (richdawe)]

I installed a backport 2.6.35 from Maverick to Lucid, and that seems to have resolved this errors for me:

 rich@theroux:~$ uname -a
 Linux theroux 2.6.35-19-generic #25~lucid1-Ubuntu SMP Wed Aug 25 04:24:28 UTC 2010 i686 GNU/Linux

I found the backport details at <http://www.ubuntuupdates.org/ppa/kernel-ppa?dist=lucid>

I ran these commands, to install the backport:

 sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kernel-ppa/ppa
 sudo aptitude update
 sudo aptitude install linux-image-generic-lts-backport-maverick linux-headers-generic-lts-backport-maverick

The graphical splash screen doesn't seem to work too well on my netbook with 2.6.35, so I disabled it in the GRUB2 config -- see <http://richdawe.livejournal.com/7368.html>.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Chris Coulson, this bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? If so, could you please test for this with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ .

If it remains an issue, could you please run the following command in the development release from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal), as it will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report:

apport-collect -p linux <replace-with-bug-number>

Also, could you please test the latest upstream kernel available following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds ? It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Please do not test the daily folder, but the one all the way at the bottom. Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please comment on which kernel version specifically you tested. If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tags:
kernel-fixed-upstream
kernel-fixed-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

where VERSION-NUMBER is the version number of the kernel you tested. For example:
kernel-fixed-upstream-v3.11

This can be done by clicking on the yellow circle with a black pencil icon next to the word Tags located at the bottom of the bug description. As well, please remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the following tags:
kernel-bug-exists-upstream
kernel-bug-exists-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

As well, please remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug's Status as Confirmed. Please let us know your results. Thank you for your understanding.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]