printk: message
 

I am unable to use any text mode console because the following message keeps repeating, disrupting anything on the screen:

printk: 1 messages suppressed.

I suspect it is a kernel issue, since I've been unable to find printk in any Debian package. I use kernel 2.6.9 which I've compiled from the source at kernel.org, and the Debian unstable distribution. Thanks for any help.

to see if it's actually the kernel's fault
try apt-get install kernel-image-2.6.9 or something, and see if you have the same problem, if you don't, you can recompile the kernel into a debian package and install it that way.

if you _are_ using a debian compiled kernel already, then perhaps you have to review your config file.

i tried to compile last week and the compilating was eating A LOT of my disk space that I ran out of memory. but good luck to ya

It is a very strange problem, because I tried switching to my previously compiled kernel, a 2.6.7, and experienced the same problem. In /var/log/kern.log I notice that the message appears alternating with this one:
UDP: short packet: From 196.*.*.*:0 0/25 to 255.255.255.255:0
( numbers replaced with * for isp protection )

i wish a guru would comment on this

i was just sayin that maybe in your custom compile that some options that debian need to run is disabled, so that tryin a debian compiled kernel maybe solve the problem, and if printk appears even with the official debian kernel, then it's a software/config problem, imo

I am not sure how it happened, but all seems to be working fine now. From /var/log/kern.log it appears that it had gone on unnoticed ( or just printed as an error to that file until it started clogging up the screen just recently ). I don't know what could have triggered this; it could have been during the last upgrade when one of the packages, named libreadline-common appeared as 'obsolete' and so I purged it and replaced it with a new 'experimental' package, ( I have since purged that and all programs depending on it ) but the underlying cause would still remain a mystery even if that were the case, unless the problem was with libreadline-common to begin with. Anyway, what finally seemed to correct it was when I put it in hibernation last night; I got an error during the shut-down saying I needed to put 'resume' in lilo.conf instead of 'pmdsk' which it now has. Then this morning it didn't resume and reported 'hda was not cleanly unmounted', but the printk problem is now gone! So the unexpected problem now is with lilo.conf, and why it must now have another configuration instead of the one that appeared to be working fine previously. If I can't figure that one out I'll be posting again. Thanks for your help anyway.