Understanding Linux System Errors with Mcelog Analysis（linuxmcelog）

Understanding Linux System Errors with Mcelog Analysis

When it comes to diagnosing and debugging system-level issues on Linux, understanding system errors are essential for successful troubleshooting. To assist with this, administrators can use the Mcelog analysis tool to help decipher system error information.

Mcelog is a tool to parse system logs from hardware error logs created by the Machine Check Architecture (MCA) of Intel CPUs. Using Mcelog, administrators can perform an analysis to determine the exact cause of hardware errors, be it something like a stack overflow, memory issues, or even an electrical problem.

When Mcelog is installed, it runs as a user-space utility and does not require root access or special privileges to run. To access Mcelog, simply type “mcelog” from a command line. Mcelog will parse system logs and output errors in a specific format to make them easier to understand. Administrators can use a variety of commands to view the information, including “mcelog –custom”, which prints a human-readable version of the error logs.

To further diagnose hardware issues, it is important to understand the hardware error codes that come with the Mcelog output. These error codes are helpful to know as they identify the exact cause of the error. The following is an example of a typical Mcelog output:

CPU: 0(0/1) 
  MC Type: 0x00000001 
  MC Code: 0xfd000044 
  MC Error: Internal error 
  MC Location: 0x00000000 
  MC Misc: 0x00004012

The type and code identify the exact cause of the error. The “Misc” field in the output contains additional information about the error, such as the exact memory location or the type of memory affected by the error.

To gain more detailed information, administrators can use additional commands, such as “mcelog –log”, to display detailed log files. However, these log files can be difficult to interpret without additional context. For this reason, administrators may prefer to use a third-party tool, such as mcelogviewer, to get a better understanding of the error messages.

Understanding system error logs is a crucial part of troubleshooting any issue related to Linux system performance. To assist with this, the Mcelog tool can be used to gain a better understanding of errors and hardware issues on Intel-based systems. By understanding the error codes and interpreting the log files, administrators can find issues quickly and diagnose them to resolution.