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List:       opensuse
Subject:    Re: [opensuse] Odd kernel MCE errors - OpenSuse 11.4
From:       Dennis Gallien <dwgallien () gmail ! com>
Date:       2012-04-28 14:53:17
Message-ID: 201204281053.17831.dwgallien () gmail ! com
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On Friday, April 27, 2012 07:39 PM James D. Parra wrote:
> <snip>
> Check the following links.  I seem to recall that there are issues with
> some bios's.  Also given the error msg, it may be that mcelog itself that
> is the culprit.
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> Thank you. On a similar note, how can I have these errors *not* write to
> the terminal, but instead to a file? I'd rather not see the following when
> I am editing a file;
> 
> 
> Message from syslogd@fmt at Apr 27 16:05:31 ...
>  kernel:[165960.993509] [Hardware Error]: No human readable MCE decoding
> support on this CPU type.
> 
> Message from syslogd@fmt at Apr 27 16:05:31 ...
>  kernel:[165960.993518] [Hardware Error]: Run the message through 'mcelog
> --ascii' to decode.
> 
> Message from syslogd@fmt at Apr 27 16:08:42 ...
>  kernel:[166151.444124] [Hardware Error]: No human readable MCE decoding
> support on this CPU type.
> 
> Message from syslogd@fmt at Apr 27 16:08:42 ...
>  kernel:[166151.444132] [Hardware Error]: Run the message through 'mcelog
> --ascii' to decode. <snip>
> 
> Would starting the mclog fix that problem? Currently it is not running;
> 
> 
> # /etc/init.d/mcelog status
> Checking for service mcelog...    unused
> 
> 
> Thanks again,
> 
> James

Suggest you read the man page.  The MCE error checking is being done by the 
kernel.  The kernel writes MCE error messages to the buffer attached to 
/dev/mcelog, mcelog just retrieves those errors and interprets/reports them.

Consequently, it's possible to get erroneous or misleading messages written by 
the kernel, this can be due to a problem in the kernel or more likely a flaw in 
the bios code.  It's also possible for there to be an issue with MCE 
interpreting a kernel message, possibly traceable back to the bios again (both  
described in the link I posted before).

If you determine that there is an issue with a kernel version and you want MCE 
checking, update the kernel.  If you determine that there is an issue with the 
bios, disable MCE checking with the nomce kernel argument.  If you want kernel 
checking and all messages written to the mcelog (i.e., divert the msgs above), 
you need to run the mcelog daemon (YaST runlevels).  
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