__alloc_pages: 3-order allocation failed.

__alloc_pages: 3-order allocation failed.

[André Dahlqvist]

Hi guys,

With recent kernel, 2.4.7 and 2.4.8 my syslog file has been filled with
these messages:

Aug 12 02:08:58 sledgehammer kernel: __alloc_pages: 3-order allocation failed.
Aug 12 02:08:58 sledgehammer kernel: __alloc_pages: 2-order allocation failed.
Aug 12 02:08:58 sledgehammer kernel: __alloc_pages: 1-order allocation failed.
Aug 12 02:08:58 sledgehammer kernel: __alloc_pages: 3-order allocation failed.

I have not yet found a pattern for when it happens but it doesn't seam to
affect my system all that much. Let me know if you want further info or if
this is a known thing.
-- 

André Dahlqvist <andre.dahlqvist@telia.com>

Re: __alloc_pages: 3-order allocation failed.

[Marcelo Tosatti]

On Sun, 12 Aug 2001, André Dahlqvist wrote:

> Hi guys,
> 
> With recent kernel, 2.4.7 and 2.4.8 my syslog file has been filled with
> these messages:
> 
> Aug 12 02:08:58 sledgehammer kernel: __alloc_pages: 3-order allocation failed.
> Aug 12 02:08:58 sledgehammer kernel: __alloc_pages: 2-order allocation failed.
> Aug 12 02:08:58 sledgehammer kernel: __alloc_pages: 1-order allocation failed.
> Aug 12 02:08:58 sledgehammer kernel: __alloc_pages: 3-order allocation failed.
> 
> I have not yet found a pattern for when it happens but it doesn't seam to
> affect my system all that much. Let me know if you want further info or if
> this is a known thing.

Are you using SCSI? 

Re: __alloc_pages: 3-order allocation failed.

[Marcelo Tosatti]

On Sun, 12 Aug 2001, Douglas Gilbert wrote:

> Marcelo wrote:
> > > On Sun, 12 Aug 2001, André Dahlqvist wrote:
> > > With recent kernel, 2.4.7 and 2.4.8 my syslog file has been filled with
> > > these messages:
> > > 
> > > Aug 12 02:08:58 sledgehammer kernel: __alloc_pages: 3-order allocation failed.
> > > Aug 12 02:08:58 sledgehammer kernel: __alloc_pages: 2-order allocation failed.
> > > Aug 12 02:08:58 sledgehammer kernel: __alloc_pages: 1-order allocation failed.
> > > Aug 12 02:08:58 sledgehammer kernel: __alloc_pages: 3-order allocation failed.
> > > 
> > > I have not yet found a pattern for when it happens but it doesn't seam to
> > > affect my system all that much. Let me know if you want further info or if
> > > this is a known thing.
> > 
> > Are you using SCSI?
> 
> Marcelo,
> That looks just like the sg driver trying to build a
> scatter gather list, first it tries 32 KB, then 16 KB
> then 8 KB and final gets PAGE_SIZE. This is _not_ an
> error (it just leads to more elements in the scatter
> gather list).

Ok.

> Any chance that printk() in __alloc_pages() can be removed?

Hum, I don't think its a good idea: we _want_ to know if __alloc_pages()
failed in case the allocation being done is critical.

A new allocation flag to indicate if its the allocation being done is just
an "optimization" (which means the VM can be more lazy when trying to free
pages) and not a critical allocation is the way to go, IMO. 

Re: __alloc_pages: 3-order allocation failed.

[André Dahlqvist]

Marcelo Tosatti <marcelo@conectiva.com.br> wrote:

> Are you using SCSI? 

Sort of: I'm using SCSI-emulation for my IDE cd-burner.
-- 

André Dahlqvist <andre.dahlqvist@telia.com>

Re: __alloc_pages: 3-order allocation failed.

[Douglas Gilbert]

Marcelo wrote:
> > On Sun, 12 Aug 2001, André Dahlqvist wrote:
> > With recent kernel, 2.4.7 and 2.4.8 my syslog file has been filled with
> > these messages:
> > 
> > Aug 12 02:08:58 sledgehammer kernel: __alloc_pages: 3-order allocation failed.
> > Aug 12 02:08:58 sledgehammer kernel: __alloc_pages: 2-order allocation failed.
> > Aug 12 02:08:58 sledgehammer kernel: __alloc_pages: 1-order allocation failed.
> > Aug 12 02:08:58 sledgehammer kernel: __alloc_pages: 3-order allocation failed.
> > 
> > I have not yet found a pattern for when it happens but it doesn't seam to
> > affect my system all that much. Let me know if you want further info or if
> > this is a known thing.
> 
> Are you using SCSI?

Marcelo,
That looks just like the sg driver trying to build a
scatter gather list, first it tries 32 KB, then 16 KB
then 8 KB and final gets PAGE_SIZE. This is _not_ an
error (it just leads to more elements in the scatter
gather list).

Any chance that printk() in __alloc_pages() can be removed?

Doug Gilbert