Re: Page alloc problems with 2.6.32-rc kernels

[Mel Gorman <mel@csn.ul.ie>]

On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 11:38:00AM +0100, Frans Pop wrote:
> Michael Guntsche wrote:
> > I noticed that I get page alloc errors on one of my machines.
> > It is an old server I use as a fileserver with 512MB RAM. Before
> > 2.6.3[12] I did not see this problem at all.
> > This only seems to happens when I use mutt on this machine.
> > I know that it means I am running out of memory here, but I am wondering
> > why I did not see this before....
> > 
> > mutt: page allocation failure. order:1, mode:0x20
> > Pid: 21746, comm: mutt Not tainted 2.6.32-rc5 #2
> 
> This is a known issue that's being heavily investigated, but is proving 
> very elusive. See http://lkml.org/lkml/2009/10/22/128 for an overview.
> 
> Can you easily reproduce the problem, or does it happen at random moments? 
> If you can reproduce it, it would be great if you could test the patches 
> mentioned in that mail.
> 

Specifically, this looks very like the bug

"page allocation failure message kernel 2.6.31.4 (tty-related)"

The first three patches on the thread Frans Pop are expected to close
that one out. Michael, I'm hoping they'll help you too. Whether they
help or not, let me know please.

Thanks

-- 
Mel Gorman
Part-time Phd Student                          Linux Technology Center
University of Limerick                         IBM Dublin Software Lab