Viewing System Messages

When a system crashes, it may display a message on the system console like this:

panic: error message

where error message is one of the panic error messages described in crash(1M).

Less frequently, this message may be displayed instead of the panic message:

Watchdog reset !

The error logging daemon, syslogd, automatically records various system warnings and errors in message files. By default, many of these system messages are displayed on the system console and are stored in /var/adm (or /usr/adm) or . You can direct where these messages are stored by setting up system logging. See "How to Customize System Message Logging" for more information. These messages can alert you to system problems, such as a device that is about to fail.

The /var/adm directory contains several message files. The most recent messages are in /var/adm/messages (and in messages.0), and the oldest are in messages.3. After a period of time (usually every ten days), a new messages file is created. The messages.0 file is renamed messages.1, messages.1 is renamed messages.2, and messages.2 is renamed messages.3. The current /var/adm/messages.3 is deleted.

Because /var/adm stores large files containing messages, crash dumps, and other data, this directory can consume lots of disk space. To keep the /var/adm directory from growing too large, and to ensure that future crash dumps can be saved, you should remove unneeded files periodically. You can automate this task by using crontab. See "How to Delete Crash Dump Files" and Chapter 59, Scheduling System Events (Tasks) for more information on automating this task.

How to View System Messages

Display recent messages generated by a system crash or reboot by using the dmesg command.

$ dmesg

Or use the more command to display one screen of messages at a time.

$ more /var/adm/messages

For more information, refer to dmesg(1M).

Example--Viewing System Messages

The following example shows output from the dmesg command.

$ dmesg
Nov 12 16:53
SunOS Release 5.6 Version A [UNIX(R) System V Release 4.0]
copyright (c) 1983-1997, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
DEBUG enabled
WARNING: cannot load psm xpcimach
mem = 32376K (0x1f9e000)
avail mem = 25247744
root nexus = i86pc
Unable to install/attach drive `isa'
eisa0 at root
NOTICE: eisa: DMA buffer-chaining not enabled
NOTICE: IN i8042_acquire
NOTICE: out i8042_acquire
NOTICE: IN i8042_release
NOTICE: about to enable keyboard
NOTICE: out i8042_release
          .
          .
          .