Posted by rmcgowan on Thu 22 Dec 2005 at 02:18
I've recently upgraded my system to the new Debian 3.1r0a, using kernel version 2.6.8-2-686-smp. I purchased my system in late (November, I believe) 2001. My initial efforts to install with the 2.6 kenel failed, with what later turned out to be problems related to APIC. Using pci=noapic allowed me to use the 2.6 kernel.
But, I wanted full functionality of the 2.6 kernel, so I obtained a BIOS upgrade for my motherboard from ESupport.com. I can now boot the 2.6 kernel without the pci=noapic option.
But, during boot and on examination of /var/log/messages, I see rather large numbers (as in 153 in a file of 4096 total lines) of the error message "APIC error on CPU0: 00(40)". There are minor variations in the strings listed, some referring to CPU2, some with the last 'word' as "40(40)". The '00(40)' is always first. The sequence is the same for both CPU's.
Dumping /proc/cpuinfo gives the following details.
processor : 0 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 6 model : 8 model name : Pentium III (Coppermine) stepping : 10 cpu MHz : 1003.681 cache size : 256 KB fdiv_bug : no hlt_bug : no f00f_bug : no coma_bug : no fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 2 wp : yes flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 mmx fxsr sse bogomips : 1986.56 processor : 1 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 6 model : 8 model name : Pentium III (Coppermine) stepping : 10 cpu MHz : 1003.681 cache size : 256 KB fdiv_bug : no hlt_bug : no f00f_bug : no coma_bug : no fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 2 wp : yes flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 mmx fxsr sse bogomips : 2002.94
Searching the web for this error message returned lots of hits, most being similar to this one. One I found seemed to indicate the error is innocuous and I can ignore it.
But is it? And, I do have the problem of my system hanging during pretty heavy I/O on the USB bus (3 data streams, two cp's of ~500MB files, and a cpio restore of a several Gig file). Is it possible there is a relationship? Do I need to consider purchasing newer CPU's (or should I just go back to the pci=noapic)?
Thanks,
Bob
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