syncing file systems...

Cause

This indicates that the kernel is updating the super-blocks before taking the system down, to ensure filesystem integrity. This message appears after a halt(1M) or reboot(1M) command. It can also appear after a system panic, in which case the system might contain corrupted data.

Action

If you just halted or rebooted the machine, don't worry-- this message is normal. In case of a system panic, look up the panic messages that appear above this one. Your system vendor might be able to help diagnose the problem. So that you can describe the panic to the vendor, either leave your system in its panicked state or be sure that you can reproduce the problem.

Technical Notes

Numbers that sometimes display after the three dots in the message show the count of dirty pages that are being written out. Numbers in brackets show an estimate of the number of busy buffers in the system.