What does "swap_free: Unused offset entry 00000100" message imply?

Solution Unverified - Updated 2011-03-24T08:18:17+00:00 -

English

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Environment

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5

Issue

Our server warns by itself about that it has a hardware problems. Currently, the system seems to work fine but "swap_free: Unused swap offset entry" messages fill up the messages log file. Are they caused by the hardware error?

Resolution

The message leaves when failing to search a valid entry from the swap_info_struct data structure in Linux kernel using the offset. It is most likely to be caused by a hardware error. Run memtest86, or other memory verification checks.

For more details about memtest86 command, refer to How can I check whether my RAM is faulty in Red Hat Enterprise Linux?.

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