Quoting Bernd Sieker (20-Apr-01 02:21:58):

> On 19.04.01, 22:35:07, Georges Heinesch wrote:

>> Hi.
>> 
>> Since yesterday, I get a weird message with my NetBSD 1.5 / amiga
>> system. It says ...
>> 
>>     last message repeated X times
>> 
>> X can be anything between 2 and 25 (seen values). No scheme is
>> detectable when the error appears. However I believe it happens
>> most when compiling out of the pkgsrc tree. I have no idea if
>> pkgsrc is involved in this message or not.

> This message is not an error message in itself, but rather means
> quite literally what it says: the error message directly before this
> has been issued several times.

This was:
/netbsd: ser0: silo overflow

> syslogd is clever enough not to flood
> the log with many identical messages, but prints this message
> instead.

> Common messages that are repeated are fifo overflows on the serial
> line when using too high speeds, or "carrier lost"-messages on
> ethernet devices when no cable is connected, or "nfs server XYZ not
> responding" when the server is unreachable.

Indeed, it's a ser0 problem.

> In most cases it indicates a misconfiguration, e. g. repeated
> unsuccessfull attempts to start a program. I recently got 198(!)
> repeated messages when switching off the scanner while the scsi bus
> was being probed. In situations like these I am quite thankful for a
> smart syslogd :)

Very well explained. Thanks a lot.

-- 
Cu  Georges Heinesch, Luxembourg
    geohei@geohei.lu
    http://www.geohei.lu
    PGP RSA & DH/DSS public key on request and on public servers

... Only happy at FL 370, Mach 0.76