kernel: rc rc0: receive overflow

Question

My Ubuntu server 20.04 keeps freezing after a few hours of operation to the point where the fan is running hot and I can't even establish a connection to ssh to it.

After rebooting it behaves normally with no CPU load spikes or memory issues. The server is a fresh install and only really running an empty MongoDB database.

I looked at the kern.log and found it flooded with these logs at the time before the reboot.

Dec 10 21:41:05 backend kernel: [102373.982171] rc rc0: receive overflow
Dec 10 21:41:05 backend kernel: [102373.986010] rc rc0: receive overflow

It just started happening again and I got a chance to see which processes are running hot.

  /usr/sbin/rsyslogd -n -iNONE
  /lib/systemd/systemd-journald
  /usr/lib/accountsservice/accounts-daemon

Do you have any idea why this keeps happening?

I found this issue which seems related and applied the workaround but my issue still persists — itchap, Dec 12 '21 at 17:42

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 18 '22 at 16:03

I've had the same problem on an Intel NUC and strace-ing the process revealed a couple of interesting files:

openat(AT_FDCWD, "/run/log/journal/0322fcd160934520a68be3469a358ed3/system.journal", O_RDWR|O_NONBLOCK|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
gettid()                                = 393
timerfd_settime(17, TFD_TIMER_ABSTIME, {it_interval={tv_sec=0, tv_nsec=0}, it_value={tv_sec=13887, tv_nsec=175660000}}, NULL) = 0
epoll_wait(8, [], 62, 0)                = 0
ftruncate(37, 16777216)                 = 0
gettid()                                = 393
epoll_wait(8, [{events=EPOLLIN, data={u32=3603220400, u64=94565898176432}}], 62, -1) = 1
read(9, "4,1594792,13834610419,-;rc rc0: "..., 8192) = 79
access("/sys/subsystem/rc/devices/rc0", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
access("/sys/bus/rc/devices/rc0", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
access("/sys/class/rc/rc0", F_OK)       = 0
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC|O_PATH|O_DIRECTORY) = 23
openat(23, "sys", O_RDONLY|O_NOFOLLOW|O_CLOEXEC|O_PATH) = 36
newfstatat(36, "", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0555, st_size=0, ...}, AT_EMPTY_PATH) = 0
close(23)                               = 0
openat(36, "class", O_RDONLY|O_NOFOLLOW|O_CLOEXEC|O_PATH) = 23
newfstatat(23, "", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=0, ...}, AT_EMPTY_PATH) = 0
close(36)                               = 0
openat(23, "rc", O_RDONLY|O_NOFOLLOW|O_CLOEXEC|O_PATH) = 36
newfstatat(36, "", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=0, ...}, AT_EMPTY_PATH) = 0
close(23)                               = 0
openat(36, "rc0", O_RDONLY|O_NOFOLLOW|O_CLOEXEC|O_PATH) = 23
newfstatat(23, "", {st_mode=S_IFLNK|0777, st_size=0, ...}, AT_EMPTY_PATH) = 0
readlinkat(36, "rc0", "../../devices/pnp0/00:01/rc/rc0", 4096) = 31
close(23)                               = 0
openat(36, "..", O_RDONLY|O_NOFOLLOW|O_CLOEXEC|O_PATH) = 23
close(36)                               = 0
openat(23, "..", O_RDONLY|O_NOFOLLOW|O_CLOEXEC|O_PATH) = 36
close(23)                               = 0
openat(36, "devices", O_RDONLY|O_NOFOLLOW|O_CLOEXEC|O_PATH) = 23
newfstatat(23, "", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=0, ...}, AT_EMPTY_PATH) = 0
close(36)                               = 0
openat(23, "pnp0", O_RDONLY|O_NOFOLLOW|O_CLOEXEC|O_PATH) = 36
newfstatat(36, "", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=0, ...}, AT_EMPTY_PATH) = 0
close(23)                               = 0
openat(36, "00:01", O_RDONLY|O_NOFOLLOW|O_CLOEXEC|O_PATH) = 23
newfstatat(23, "", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=0, ...}, AT_EMPTY_PATH) = 0
close(36)                               = 0
openat(23, "rc", O_RDONLY|O_NOFOLLOW|O_CLOEXEC|O_PATH) = 36
newfstatat(36, "", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=0, ...}, AT_EMPTY_PATH) = 0
close(23)                               = 0
openat(36, "rc0", O_RDONLY|O_NOFOLLOW|O_CLOEXEC|O_PATH) = 23
newfstatat(23, "", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=0, ...}, AT_EMPTY_PATH) = 0
close(36)                               = 0
close(23)                               = 0
access("/sys/devices/pnp0/00:01/rc/rc0/uevent", F_OK) = 0
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/sys/devices/pnp0/00:01/rc/rc0/uevent", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 23
newfstatat(23, "", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=4096, ...}, AT_EMPTY_PATH) = 0
read(23, "NAME=rc-rc6-mce\nDRV_NAME=ite-cir"..., 4104) = 66
close(23)                               = 0
readlinkat(AT_FDCWD, "/sys/devices/pnp0/00:01/rc/rc0/subsystem", "../../../../../class/rc", 4096) = 23
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/run/udev/data/+rc:rc0", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/run/log/journal/0322fcd160934520a68be3469a358ed3/system.journal", O_RDWR|O_NONBLOCK|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)

And looking at these files gave me a way to reproduce it:

marius@nuc:~$ cat /sys/devices/pnp0/00\:01/rc/rc0/input4/name
ITE8708 CIR transceiver
marius@nuc:~$ cat /sys/devices/pnp0/00\:01/rc/rc0/protocols
rc-5 nec [rc-6] jvc sony rc-5-sz sanyo sharp mce_kbd xmp imon rc-mm [lirc]

The NUC sits beneath a TV, it has an IR receiver(had no idea about that) and it captures the signal from the TV remote. Pressing any button on the remote would trigger this problem.

I found the kernel module responsible for this using lsmod and disabled it with sudo modprobe -r ite_cir. This fix is temporary, I'll have to look into blacklisting the module.

This does not really answer the question. If you have a different question, you can ask it by clicking Ask Question. To get notified when this question gets new answers, you can follow this question. Once you have enough reputation, you can also add a bounty to draw more attention to this question. - From Review — ThunderBird, Jan 18 '22 at 22:33

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 14 '22 at 12:35

I am running Linux Mint (not Ubuntu, but similar enough) on an Intel NUC with infrared receiver.

I found the solution here: https://support.tools/post/rc-rc0-overflow/

TLDR; The IR receiver, if not in use, can be disabled and blacklisted, solving the issue. You can do it as follows:

# Disable IR kernel module
sudo modprobe -r ite_cir
Check journal to make sure 'kernel: rc rc0: receive overflow' message is gone
sudo journalctl -f
If disabling the IR module resolved your issue, you have to blacklist it to make it permanent.
Edit this file: /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
Add to it the following line:
blacklist ite_cir
ctrl+o and return to save, ctrl+x to exit nano editor.
Update initramfs
sudo update-initramfs -u

This solved it for me (at least for the current kernel installed, might need to repeat steps after the next kernel update, fortunately, it is a small, repeatable operation.

score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 08 '23 at 14:21

Some methods I used for high CPU load issues on the NUC which worked.

#SOLUTION 1
sudo vim /etc/default/grub
# Add the following parameter to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT property
pci=nomsi
# And try also addin this parameter to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT and GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX properties
pcie_aspm=off 
#
sudo update-grub
sudo reboot
#SOLUTION 2 - Update the bios firmware
wget https://downloadmirror.intel.com/758735/BN0089.bio 
sudo cp BN0089.bio /boot/
sudo cp BN0089.bio /root/
sudo reboot
#SOLUTION 3 (Usually this fixes the problem)
Disable IR kernel module
sudo modprobe -r ite_cir
Check journal to make sure 'kernel: rc rc0: receive overflow' message is gone
sudo journalctl -f
If disabling the IR module resolved your issue, you have to blacklist it to make it permanent.
Edit this file: /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
sudo vi /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
Add to it the following line:
blacklist ite_cir
Update initramfs
sudo update-initramfs -u

This is a random set of commands. – Pilot6 Jan 08 '23 at 15:12 — Pilot6, Jan 08 '23 at 15:12

kernel: rc rc0: receive overflow

3 Answers3

Check journal to make sure 'kernel: rc rc0: receive overflow' message is gone

If disabling the IR module resolved your issue, you have to blacklist it to make it permanent.

Edit this file: /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

Add to it the following line:

ctrl+o and return to save, ctrl+x to exit nano editor.

Update initramfs

Disable IR kernel module

Check journal to make sure 'kernel: rc rc0: receive overflow' message is gone

If disabling the IR module resolved your issue, you have to blacklist it to make it permanent.

Edit this file: /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

Add to it the following line:

Update initramfs