HP Proliant DL 385 / Enterprise Linux 4 / system hangs

[Singar]

Linux Gurus,

I am running Enterprise Linux 4 on HP Proliant DL385 (AMD Opteron Processors). Since last few days, system started hanging. I checked up /var/log/messages file and found following messages getting repeated. Could anybody guide me thru as to why I am getting this message ?

-velu

==============================================
Jul 26 12:37:18 tsus006 kernel: powernow-k8: error - out of sync, fid 0xa 0xe, vid 0xc 0x8
Jul 26 12:37:18 tsus006 kernel: Warning: CPU frequency is 2200000, cpufreq assumed 1800000 kHz.
Jul 26 12:37:20 tsus006 kernel: powernow-k8: error - out of sync, fid 0xe 0xc, vid 0x8 0xa
Jul 26 12:37:23 tsus006 kernel: powernow-k8: error - out of sync, fid 0xc 0xa, vid 0xa 0xc
Jul 26 12:37:31 tsus006 gconfd (gur12378-22465): Exiting
.
.
.
Jul 26 12:45:44 tsus006 kernel: a.out[23472]: segfault at 000000000000005e rip 0
00000358546b146 rsp 0000007fbffff800 error 4
Jul 26 12:45:56 tsus006 kernel: gam_server[23313]: segfault at 0000000000000072
rip 0000003587723dc3 rsp 0000007fbfffe050 error 4
Jul 26 12:48:56 tsus006 kernel: a.out[23671]: segfault at 0000000000000060 rip 0
00000358546b146 rsp 0000007fbffff800 error 4
Jul 26 12:49:25 tsus006 kernel: a.out[23707]: segfault at 0000007fc0000000 rip 0
00000000040056f rsp 0000007fbffff900 error 4
Jul 26 13:00:08 tsus006 kernel: Warning: CPU frequency is 1800000, cpufreq assumed 2200000 kHz.
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[Matti_Kurkela]

Somewhere, deep in the bowels of RedHat Enterprise Linux 4 Release Notes, there is a sentence like this:

"Dual-core Opteron CPUs are supported only in RedHat ES4 _Update 2_ and above." (emphasis mine)

The reason for this: the kernel on RHES4 "base" installation CDs did not yet have a kernel patch required to properly handle dual-core Opterons.

Recommendation: Register your system to RedHat Network (if not already done) and use up2date to download and install all available updates. If you're using up2date GUI, you must explicitly select updated kernel packages for installation (by default, they are skipped). If you use up2date from the command line, the command is "up2date --force --update".

When the updates are installed, reboot. The system should automatically boot using a new kernel (you can still select an older kernel from the boot menu if necessary). The version string in /etc/redhat-release should now also show that you're now at the latest update level of RedHat ES 4.