My original question was:
Dear managers,
any comments on the following syslog message?
Feb 16 11:38:11 DLANSERV vmunix: Stray interrupt - IR:0 (intmask:cb)
System still seems to run fine. Should I worry / contact DEC service?
Of course, as Dr. Thomas P. Blinn (tpb_at_zk3.dec.com) pointed out, the
information given by we was quite sparse, so I add the following info:
DEC 3000 800S, running Digital UNIX 3.2G (patchlevel 2), Firmware 7.0,
all options are DEC
Mr. Blinn's is also giving a profound explanation for from where the
error originates:
A "stray interrupt" message means that the interrupt service code
in the kernel got called from the interrupt delivery code in the
console PALcode (which is what really deals with the initial
interrupt handling) to process a hardware originated interrupt, but
there is no interrupt handler set up in the kernel for the recorded
interrupt source. There are two possible reasons for this to
happen: 1) the software is misconfigured, e.g., there is a device
driver that doesn't sign up for all the interrupts that can be
produced by the hardware it supports, or a device driver simply
wasn't set up during system configuration, or 2) the hardware is
malfunctioning and is delivering the interrupt to the wrong
location.
In either case, if it only happens once in, say, 100 days of
operation and the system seems to be running fine otherwise,
there's no real reason to do anything. On the other hand, if it
happens frequently, something's wrong, but without knowing the
intimate personal details of the system including the system model,
the software version, and exactly what options are in the system
(including any third-party options), it's impossible to diagnose
the problem.
further mails (thanks to Wanderley O. Mendes, Bert.Deknuydt and Bernt
Christandl) and a query in the archives of this mailing list suggested
that the problem is often seen with hardware problems like loose
connectins or a poor power ground.
As there was no indication of possible harm and as the problem
occurred once only, I decided not to do anything right now, but to
keep a watchful eye.
Regards,
Thomas Meyer, EDV-Systemadministrator
email: Thomas.Meyer_at_dla-marbach.de
smail: Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach
Schillerhoehe 8-10
D-71672 Marbach
Telefon: +49-7144-848-141
Fax: ...-387
WWW:
http://www.dla-marbach.de
Received on Tue Feb 17 1998 - 10:57:49 NZDT