Re: Bug#664064: linux-image-3.3.0-rc6-amd64: 4 messages every minute in syslog from netlink

Re: Bug#664064: linux-image-3.3.0-rc6-amd64: 4 messages every minute in syslog from netlink

[Ben Hutchings]

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On Thu, 2012-03-15 at 13:00 +0100, Reinhard Karcher wrote:
> Package: linux-2.6
> Version: 3.3~rc6-1~experimental.1
> Severity: normal
> 
> The kernel log says all!
> I have 2 laptops showing the messages, both amd64.
> One of them runs a 32-bit system in a VM with the linux-image-3.3.0-rc6-686-pae kernel,
> that does not have this problem.
> The amd64 kernel from unstable (3.2.0-2) does not show the messages. 
> 
> Reinhard
> 
> -- Package-specific info:
> ** Version:
> Linux version 3.3.0-rc6-amd64 (Debian 3.3~rc6-1~experimental.1) (debian-kernel@lists.debian.org) (gcc version 4.6.3 (Debian 4.6.3-1) ) #1 SMP Mon Mar 5 20:53:11 UTC 2012
> 
> ** Command line:
> BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.3.0-rc6-amd64 root=UUID=9bb56ba6-3117-47d6-b07c-2cca477643e9 ro quiet cgroup_enable=memory
> 
> ** Not tainted
> 
> ** Kernel log:
> [46368.760279] netlink: 140 bytes leftover after parsing attributes.
[...]

The code that generates this warning (nla_parse()) has not changed
between 3.2 and 3.3-rc6, so this is probably due to a difference
elsewhere.  It seems to indicate a bug in the userland program sending
the message that is being parsed, but perhaps I misunderstand.

It would be useful if we could tell which program is sending the
message, but I think that may be difficult to do.

Ben.

-- 
Ben Hutchings
Life would be so much easier if we could look at the source code.

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Re: Bug#664064: linux-image-3.3.0-rc6-amd64: 4 messages every minute in syslog from netlink

[Reinhard Karcher]

Am 15.03.2012 18:14, schrieb Ben Hutchings:
> It would be useful if we could tell which program is sending the
> message, but I think that may be difficult to do.
>

Some further investigation showed that the 1st occurrence of the message 
is related to the start of KDE. After stopping X (and KDE) there are no 
new messages logged.

Reinhard

Re: Bug#664064: linux-image-3.3.0-rc6-amd64: 4 messages every minute in syslog from netlink

[Ben Hutchings]

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[Please reply to all, not just to me.]

On Thu, 2012-03-15 at 19:01 +0100, Reinhard Karcher wrote:
> Am 15.03.2012 18:14, schrieb Ben Hutchings:
> > On Thu, 2012-03-15 at 13:00 +0100, Reinhard Karcher wrote:
> >> Package: linux-2.6
> >> Version: 3.3~rc6-1~experimental.1
> >> Severity: normal
> >>
> >> The kernel log says all!
> >> I have 2 laptops showing the messages, both amd64.
> >> One of them runs a 32-bit system in a VM with the linux-image-3.3.0-rc6-686-pae kernel,
> >> that does not have this problem.
> >> The amd64 kernel from unstable (3.2.0-2) does not show the messages.
> >>
> >> Reinhard
> >>
> >> -- Package-specific info:
> >> ** Version:
> >> Linux version 3.3.0-rc6-amd64 (Debian 3.3~rc6-1~experimental.1) (debian-kernel@lists.debian.org) (gcc version 4.6.3 (Debian 4.6.3-1) ) #1 SMP Mon Mar 5 20:53:11 UTC 2012
> >>
> >> ** Command line:
> >> BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.3.0-rc6-amd64 root=UUID=9bb56ba6-3117-47d6-b07c-2cca477643e9 ro quiet cgroup_enable=memory
> >>
> >> ** Not tainted
> >>
> >> ** Kernel log:
> >> [46368.760279] netlink: 140 bytes leftover after parsing attributes.
[...]
> The same system, but using the kernel from unstable and not from 
> experimental does not show the messages, so they are related to the 
> experimetal kernel.
> Does this tell anything?
> root@apollon:/home/reinhard# lsof | grep netlink
> dnsmasq   1862     dnsmasq  mem       REG                8,2     24712 
>    7391593 /usr/lib/libnfnetlink.so.0.2.0 
> 
> kded4     2839    reinhard  mem       REG                8,2     12272 
>    9683029 /usr/lib/ntrack/modules/ntrack-rtnetlink.so 

Well, netlink is a protocol, not a file.  But most programs using
netlink will probably use a library with 'netlink' or 'libnl' in its
name, so this does provide some clues.

[later:]
> Some further investigation showed that the 1st occurrence of the message 
> is related to the start of KDE. After stopping X (and KDE) there are no 
> new messages logged.

OK, so it's something running in your KDE session.  And the results you
got from lsof suggest that it's some kind of network monitor that's
hosted by kded4, using the ntrack library
<https://launchpad.net/ntrack>.  I've never heard of this before.

ntrack appearently has the option to use either libnl or its own
built-in netlink protocol code, and is using the latter on your system.
If you install ntrack-module-libnl-0 and remove
ntrack-module-rtnetlink-0, does this fix the problem?

Ben.

-- 
Ben Hutchings
Larkinson's Law: All laws are basically false.

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Re: Bug#664064: linux-image-3.3.0-rc6-amd64: 4 messages every minute in syslog from netlink

[Reinhard Karcher]

Am 18.03.2012 04:15, schrieb Ben Hutchings:
> OK, so it's something running in your KDE session.  And the results
> you got from lsof suggest that it's some kind of network monitor
> that's hosted by kded4, using the ntrack library
> <https://launchpad.net/ntrack>.  I've never heard of this before.
>
> ntrack appearently has the option to use either libnl or its own
> built-in netlink protocol code, and is using the latter on your
> system. If you install ntrack-module-libnl-0 and remove
> ntrack-module-rtnetlink-0, does this fix the problem?
>

Yes, that fixes the problem. Thanks for your help.
Should the bug be filed against an other package?
kde-runtime -> libntrack-qt4-1 -> libntrack0 -> ntrack-module-rtnetlink-0
Which one from the packages above?

Reinhard