Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 16:46:12 -0400 From: Bill Moran <wmoran@potentialtech.com> To: Jeremy Messenger <mezz7@cox.net> Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Memory Mangement Problem in 5.1-RELEASE Message-ID: <3F204594.7070907@potentialtech.com> In-Reply-To: <oprst0gcrl8ckrg5@smtp.central.cox.net> References: <000001c3521a$7fa912c0$6bd4bfac@AlHindawi> <3F203931.3030300@potentialtech.com> <oprst0gcrl8ckrg5@smtp.central.cox.net>
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Jeremy Messenger wrote: > On Thu, 24 Jul 2003 15:53:21 -0400, Bill Moran > <wmoran@potentialtech.com> wrote: > >> Ahmed Al-Hindawi wrote: >> >>> Hi, >>> I have 160Mb of SDRAM (PC100) on a 233Mhz CyrixInstead machine and I >>> seem to have memory mangament problems. The BIOS indicates I have 160, >>> so does the BSD bootstrap program. >>> >>> When I launch GNOME 2.2 everythings is good as gold untill I open the >>> System monitor program. It says that I have 149 Mb of RAM which is fine >>> ( 4Mb of video..and the rest...god knows). >>> >>> I open every program I have and after 107Mb the machine starts to swap >>> with about 50Mb left unused!! >>> >>> I recompliled the GENERIC kernal for the sake of it really (Im still an >>> amature) I didn't mess with the configuration files or anything (I just >>> don't know how!!). >>> >>> Is this normal or mismanagement of memory in the 5.1 version of the >>> excellent FreeBSD kernel?? >> >> The mistake is in the way the Gnome System Monitor display the free >> memory. >> >> I just watched both 'top' and the System Monitor as I opened program >> after >> program until the system started swapping, and System monitor reports >> almost 100M free while top reported less than 10M. >> >> To _always_ have a little memory free is A Good Thing(tm). FreeBSD has >> some pretty advanced memory management that will start swapping _before_ >> the system runs out of RAM. However, the System Monitor's display of >> this is simply inaccurate. There was NOT 100M free when it started >> swapping >> on my system. > > Well, the 5.0, old -CURRENT and 4.8 have never touch the swap, until > 5.1- CURRENT. My system has 256mb ram and it's always touch swap now. If > I compile some stuff, sometime it will get around 300mb swap. Current, I > only have Gnome 2.3.x and Opera running, so what my top looks like this: Well, the old YMMV applies, but I'm not seeing this kind of behaviour. I'm also not running 5.1-CURRENT, but 5.1-RELEASE, so it may be a newly introduced problem. The original poster didn't specify whether he was using -CURRENT or 5.1-RELEASE. > Mem: 85M Active, 29M Inact, 51M Wired, 4496K Cache, 35M Buf, 73M Free > Swap: 512M Total, 79M Used, 433M Free, 15% Inuse Did something use most of the memory up to start the system swapping? If it started using swap while there was still 73M free, then that's new to me. > But, I will remove the Gnome System Monitor applet, then reboot and see > how it goes for the whole afternoon. I'm not saying that Gnome System Monitor is causing the problem, I'm just saying that it reports inaccurate numbers. -- Bill Moran Potential Technologies http://www.potentialtech.com
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