dmesg on Linux

Basic Troubleshooting

Platform
Intel® PAC
Napatech SmartNIC
Content Type
User Guide
Capture Software Version
Link™ Capture Software 12.11

Print the message buffer

By executing the dmesg command on Linux, you can print the message buffer of the kernel. The messages are information about the hardware devices that the kernel detects during the boot process including the SmartNIC information or additional error messages from the driver.

Example

The following is an example output when running the dmesg command.

$ dmesg |grep -i nt3gd
nt3g: nt3gd: Napatech 3GD (2.10.0.254-a537d-NT) kernel component loading..
nt3g: nt3gd: Compiled for Linux kernel version 2.6.32-504.16.2.el6.x86_64
nt3g: nt3gd: Detected 1 NUMA nodes
nt3g: nt3gd: ntdmapool: init: Begin DMA slab allocator system initialization
nt3g: nt3gd: ntdmapool: init: Trying to allocate 8 MB from NUMA node 0
nt3g: nt3gd: ntdmapool: init: Begin allocating DMA memory for 2 slabs
nt3g: nt3gd: ntdmapool: init: Done allocating DMA memory for 2 slabs
nt3g: nt3gd: ntdmapool: init: Done initializing DMA slab allocator system.
nt3g: nt3gd: ntdmapool: init: DMA slab allocater is now online. Serving 8 MB of reserved memory on NUMA node 0.
nt3gd 0000:05:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 35 (level, low) -> IRQ 35
nt3gd 0000:05:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
nt3gd 0000:05:00.0: irq 64 for MSI/MSI-X
nt3gd 0000:07:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 40 (level, low) -> IRQ 40
nt3gd 0000:07:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
nt3gd 0000:07:00.0: irq 65 for MSI/MSI-X
nt3g: nt3gd: Napatech 3GD (2.10.0.254-a537d-NT) kernel component loaded.
nt3g: nt3gd: ntdmapool: DMA slab system statistics for NUMA 0:
nt3g: nt3gd: ntdmapool:  Current DMA memory                              is: 8 MB
nt3g: nt3gd: ntdmapool:  Total number of DMA allocations requested         : 0
nt3g: nt3gd: ntdmapool:  Maximum simultaneous held memory allocated for DMA: 0 bytes (pool+os)
nt3g: nt3gd: ntdmapool:  DMA allocations redirected to OS allocations      : 0
nt3g: nt3gd: ntdmapool:  Maximum simultaneous held memory allocated from OS: 0 bytes (only os)
nt3g: nt3gd: ntdmapool:  Recommended ReservedDMAPoolSize for NUMA id 0    : 4
nt3g: nt3gd: ntdmapool: init: Trying to allocate 260 MB from NUMA node 0
nt3g: nt3gd: ntdmapool: init: Begin allocating DMA memory for 65 slabs
nt3g: nt3gd: ntdmapool: init: Done allocating DMA memory for 65 slabs
nt3g: nt3gd: ntdmapool: init: Done initializing DMA slab allocator system.
nt3g: nt3gd: ntdmapool: init: DMA slab allocater is now online. Serving 260 MB of reserved memory on NUMA node 0.

supportinfo dump file

A supportinfo dump file which is created from the supportinfo tool contains output from the dmesg command on Linux. Please see Create a supportinfo Dump for more information on the supportinfo tool.