Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 16:05:54 -0500 From: Jeremy Messenger <mezz7@cox.net> To: Bill Moran <wmoran@potentialtech.com> Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Memory Mangement Problem in 5.1-RELEASE Message-ID: <oprst174vu8ckrg5@smtp.central.cox.net> In-Reply-To: <3F204594.7070907@potentialtech.com> References: <000001c3521a$7fa912c0$6bd4bfac@AlHindawi> <3F203931.3030300@potentialtech.com> <oprst0gcrl8ckrg5@smtp.central.cox.net> <3F204594.7070907@potentialtech.com>
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On Thu, 24 Jul 2003 16:46:12 -0400, Bill Moran <wmoran@potentialtech.com> wrote: > 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. It's in the subject, he said that he has 5.1-RELEASE. Mine is... =============================================== # uname -a FreeBSD mezz.mezzweb.com 5.1-CURRENT FreeBSD 5.1-CURRENT #0: Fri Jul 18 18:43:42 CDT 2003 mezz@mezz.mezzweb.com:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/BSDRULZ i386 =============================================== I am planning to CVSup and do the another update of -CURRENT sometime this weekend. >> 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. Well, it still should not touch the swap since I have very few stuff running with 256mb ram. I just reboot and start with Gnome 2.3.x and Opera, then doing the update (compile/install) gnome-panel. Now, it's already use the swap in minutes and later hours I will get more mbs or swap. =============================================== last pid: 69694; load averages: 0.30, 0.73, 0.54 up 0+00:26:23 15:56:49 49 processes: 2 running, 47 sleeping CPU states: 25.0% user, 0.0% nice, 0.0% system, 0.0% interrupt, 75.0% idle Mem: 123M Active, 21M Inact, 41M Wired, 5776K Cache, 35M Buf, 53M Free Swap: 512M Total, 3M Used, 512M Free =============================================== Cheers, Mezz >> 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. -- bsdforums.org 's moderator, mezz.
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