HP-UX 11i v1 Installation and Update Guide, December 2006

Known Problems and Troubleshooting
Known Install Problems
Appendix B140
System Console
"kthread table full" or
"fork failed" Messages
This section was modified in the March 2003 release to reflect
how the maxusers tunable value varies depending on the type
of system you have.
After a successful cold install, the system starts displaying
console messages such as
kthread table full
or
fork failed console
These messages are also logged in /var/adm/syslog.log.
This is caused by the maxusers kernel tunable not set at high
enough value.
An example of what you might see is the following message
logged onto the system console:
kthread: table is full
You would also see the following message being logged in
/var/adm/syslog.log:
Jan 30 09:21:39 sd2600 vmunix: kthread: table is full
To correct this, increase the maxusers tunable:
• Log on as root and edit /stand/system and add the
following value (depending on your system):
— Large 64-way systems (Superdome): maxusers 400
— 16-way systems: maxusers 200
Consult your HP Customer Engineer for setting the
appropriate values on your system
• Run the following commands:
mk_kernel -v -o /stand/vmunix
kmupdate
reboot -r
Table B-1 Known Install Problems (Continued)
Problem Description/Action