2002-10-22 09:18:46

by Amol Kumar Lad

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: running 2.4.2 kernel under 4MB Ram

Hi,
I want to run 2.4.2 kernel on my embedded system that has only 4 Mb
SDRAM . Is it possible ?? Is there any constraint for the minimum SDRAM
requirement for linux 2.4.2

Please cc me

Thanks
Amol





2002-10-22 09:30:27

by Arjan van de Ven

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: running 2.4.2 kernel under 4MB Ram

On Tue, 2002-10-22 at 20:54, Amol Kumar Lad wrote:
> Hi,
> I want to run 2.4.2 kernel on my embedded system that has only 4 Mb
> SDRAM . Is it possible ?? Is there any constraint for the minimum SDRAM
> requirement for linux 2.4.2

2.4.2 was not a good kernel (not unless you patch it to death with 2.4.3
and 2.4.4 stuff) and especially the VM blows chunks. I'd recommend
either using the 2.4.9-ac VM or 2.4.18 with either the -aa or rmap vm
for small machines.


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2002-10-22 09:44:34

by Alan

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: running 2.4.2 kernel under 4MB Ram

On Tue, 2002-10-22 at 19:54, Amol Kumar Lad wrote:
> Hi,
> I want to run 2.4.2 kernel on my embedded system that has only 4 Mb
> SDRAM . Is it possible ?? Is there any constraint for the minimum SDRAM
> requirement for linux 2.4.2

You want to run something a lot newer than 2.4.2. 2.4.19 will run on a
4Mb box, and with Rik's rmap vm seems to be run better than 2.2. That
will depend on the workload.

2002-10-22 10:48:15

by jbradford

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: running 2.4.2 kernel under 4MB Ram

> I want to run 2.4.2 kernel on my embedded system that has only 4 Mb
> SDRAM . Is it possible ?? Is there any constraint for the minimum SDRAM
> requirement for linux 2.4.2

I've successfully run the following kernels all in 4 MB of RAM:

2.2.13
2.2.20
2.4.18
2.4.19
2.5.40
2.5.41
2.5.43

John.

2002-10-22 14:56:15

by Amol Kumar Lad

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: running 2.4.2 kernel under 4MB Ram

It means that I _cannot_ run 2.4.2 on a 4MB box.
Actually my embedded system already has 2.4.2 running on a 16Mb. I was
looking for a way to run it in 4Mb.
So Is upgrade to 2.4.19 the only option ??

-- Amol


On Tue, 2002-10-22 at 06:06, Alan Cox wrote:
> On Tue, 2002-10-22 at 19:54, Amol Kumar Lad wrote:
> > Hi,
> > I want to run 2.4.2 kernel on my embedded system that has only 4 Mb
> > SDRAM . Is it possible ?? Is there any constraint for the minimum
> SDRAM
> > requirement for linux 2.4.2
>
> You want to run something a lot newer than 2.4.2. 2.4.19 will run on a
> 4Mb box, and with Rik's rmap vm seems to be run better than 2.2. That
> will depend on the workload.


2002-10-22 15:17:09

by Alan

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: running 2.4.2 kernel under 4MB Ram

On Wed, 2002-10-23 at 01:31, Amol Kumar Lad wrote:
> It means that I _cannot_ run 2.4.2 on a 4MB box.
> Actually my embedded system already has 2.4.2 running on a 16Mb. I was
> looking for a way to run it in 4Mb.
> So Is upgrade to 2.4.19 the only option ??

You should move to a later kernel anyway 2.4.2 has a lot of bugs
including some security ones.

2002-10-22 15:48:59

by jbradford

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: running 2.4.2 kernel under 4MB Ram

> On Tue, 2002-10-22 at 06:06, Alan Cox wrote:
> > On Tue, 2002-10-22 at 19:54, Amol Kumar Lad wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > > I want to run 2.4.2 kernel on my embedded system that has only 4 Mb
> > > SDRAM . Is it possible ?? Is there any constraint for the minimum
> > SDRAM
> > > requirement for linux 2.4.2
> >
> > You want to run something a lot newer than 2.4.2. 2.4.19 will run on a
> > 4Mb box, and with Rik's rmap vm seems to be run better than 2.2. That
> > will depend on the workload.
>
> It means that I _cannot_ run 2.4.2 on a 4MB box.
> Actually my embedded system already has 2.4.2 running on a 16Mb. I was
> looking for a way to run it in 4Mb.
> So Is upgrade to 2.4.19 the only option ??

You _should_ be able to run 2.4.2 in 4Mb, but as Alan pointed out,
there is no reason to stick with that old version just because of lack
of memory. Exactly what problems are you having running 2.4.2 in 4Mb
anyway? By the way, I am assuming that your embedded system is X86
based. I have run all of the kernels I mentioned in my previous post
in swapless_ 4Mb on X86.

John.

2002-10-26 08:07:02

by Rogier Wolff

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: running 2.4.2 kernel under 4MB Ram

On Tue, Oct 22, 2002 at 04:39:24PM +0100, Alan Cox wrote:
> On Wed, 2002-10-23 at 01:31, Amol Kumar Lad wrote:
> > It means that I _cannot_ run 2.4.2 on a 4MB box.
> > Actually my embedded system already has 2.4.2 running on a 16Mb. I was
> > looking for a way to run it in 4Mb.
> > So Is upgrade to 2.4.19 the only option ??
>
> You should move to a later kernel anyway 2.4.2 has a lot of bugs
> including some security ones.

If the "embedded system" just brews his coffee, then there are not
many security issues he cares about. It gets the job done.

Amol, Just add a "mem=4M" to the kernel commandline and see what
happens. It depends a lot on what and how many applications you run
on that system.

But still, Alan is right. You might run into odd problems that are
simply fixed if you upgrade. (My workstation was "pretty good" at
staying up under 2.4.2 (about a month at a time), and I didn't want
to upgrade, for fear of it getting worse. I upgraded and now get
much better uptimes (until my colleague types "reboot -n -f" into
the wrong window)).

Roger.

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