Re: kernel: i8253 counting too high! resetting..

Willy Tarreau
2003-11-03T05:16:10Z

Hi,

On Sun, Nov 02, 2003 at 08:41:55PM -0800, CN wrote:
> As reported in my first message, the box running kernel 2.4.22 and
> Fjuitsu HD generated i8253 message while the other box running 2.4.20 and
> Maxtor did not. During the past 3 days I wiped out everything from the HD
> and reinstalled Debian woody on to the "normal" box (with Maxtor) and
> rebuilt the kernel to 2.4.22. This used-to-be normal box started to
> generate the i8253 message since then.

There's a simple reason for what you see : this message was introduced in
2.4.21 to detect buggy hardware. Before 2.4.21, you only had the luck to
see time go backwards without any apparent reason. There was a very long
thread about gettimeofday() jumping backwards a few months ago in which
you may find detailed informations about this problem.

Regards,
Willy