page allocation failure: order:2, mode:0x4020

My console and log files are filled with this message. The process involved varies, but it always happens when the system is a little stressed.

I can easily reproduce it by running dd on a sata disk

root@plug:~# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=1M ^C3819+0 records in 3819+0 records out 4004511744 bytes (4.0 GB) copied, 37.636 s, 106 MB/s

The speed seems to be OK and top gives:
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 3419 root 20 0 4472 1608 496 R 66.4 0.3 0:24.32 dd
And the log reads:

plug kernel: dd: page allocation failure: order:2, mode:0x4020 plug kernel: [<c000d070>] (unwind_backtrace+0x0/0xe0) from [<c0083e84>] (warn_alloc_failed+0xf4/0x120) plug kernel: [<c0083e84>] (warn_alloc_failed+0xf4/0x120) from [<c008613c>] (__alloc_pages_nodemask+0x544/0x65c) plug kernel: [<c008613c>] (__alloc_pages_nodemask+0x544/0x65c) from [<c0086264>] (__get_free_pages+0x10/0x3c) plug kernel: [<c0086264>] (__get_free_pages+0x10/0x3c) from [<c00af028>] (kmalloc_order_trace+0x20/0xd0) plug kernel: [<c00af028>] (kmalloc_order_trace+0x20/0xd0) from [<c0373808>] (__alloc_skb+0x50/0xf0) plug kernel: [<c0373808>] (__alloc_skb+0x50/0xf0) from [<c0373cdc>] (__netdev_alloc_skb+0x1c/0x44) plug kernel: [<c0373cdc>] (__netdev_alloc_skb+0x1c/0x44) from [<c0304134>] (rxq_refill+0x1b8/0x1d8) plug kernel: [<c0304134>] (rxq_refill+0x1b8/0x1d8) from [<c0304924>] (mv643xx_eth_poll+0x5d8/0x660) plug kernel: [<c0304924>] (mv643xx_eth_poll+0x5d8/0x660) from [<c037cecc>] (net_rx_action+0x5c/0x204) plug kernel: [<c037cecc>] (net_rx_action+0x5c/0x204) from [<c001b208>] (__do_softirq+0xf4/0x240) plug kernel: [<c001b208>] (__do_softirq+0xf4/0x240) from [<c001b784>] (irq_exit+0x44/0x9c) plug kernel: [<c001b784>] (irq_exit+0x44/0x9c) from [<c0009418>] (handle_IRQ+0x64/0x84) plug kernel: [<c0009418>] (handle_IRQ+0x64/0x84) from [<c044c4d4>] (__irq_svc+0x34/0x98) plug kernel: [<c044c4d4>] (__irq_svc+0x34/0x98) from [<c024e264>] (__copy_from_user+0x90/0x42c) plug kernel: Mem-info: plug kernel: Normal per-cpu: plug kernel: CPU 0: hi: 186, btch: 31 usd: 5 plug kernel: active_anon:2649 inactive_anon:2688 isolated_anon:0 plug kernel: active_file:4439 inactive_file:112238 isolated_file:0 plug kernel: unevictable:0 dirty:10295 writeback:3201 unstable:0 plug kernel: free:967 slab_reclaimable:2602 slab_unreclaimable:879 plug kernel: mapped:2141 shmem:35 pagetables:150 bounce:0 plug kernel: Normal free:3868kB min:2884kB low:3604kB high:4324kB active_anon:10596kB inactive_anon:10752kB acti ve_file:17756kB inactive_file:448952kB unevictable:0kB isolated(anon):0kB isolated(file):0kB present:520192kB mlocked:0kB dirty: 41180kB writeback:12804kB mapped:8564kB shmem:140kB slab_reclaimable:10408kB slab_unreclaimable:3516kB kernel_stack:544kB pageta bles:600kB unstable:0kB bounce:0kB writeback_tmp:0kB pages_scanned:0 all_unreclaimable? no plug kernel: lowmem_reserve[]: 0 0 plug kernel: Normal: 901*4kB 1*8kB 2*16kB 1*32kB 1*64kB 1*128kB 0*256kB 0*512kB 0*1024kB 0*2048kB 0*4096kB = 386 8kB plug kernel: 116720 total pagecache pages plug kernel: 0 pages in swap cache plug kernel: Swap cache stats: add 0, delete 0, find 0/0 plug kernel: Free swap = 526996kB plug kernel: Total swap = 526996kB plug kernel: 131072 pages of RAM plug kernel: 1115 free pages plug kernel: 2761 reserved pages plug kernel: 3260 slab pages plug kernel: 119397 pages shared plug kernel: 0 pages swap cached

It happens with kernel 3.4.7 and 2.6.38.5, so it's old. Beside the fact that it annoys me because it fills the log, should I worry?

Rgds,
Nicolas