2000-11-08 17:58:10

by J.D. Hollis

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: major problem with linux-2.4.0test10

I've been having a problem with memory since 2.4.0test9...for some reason,
shortly after my system boots, my hard drive begins to seek rapidly for no
apparent reason, and suddenly about 150MB of my 256MB RAM is filled up with
something gtop labels 'Other.' whatever's filling my memory isn't attached
to any process. the one time I managed to get gtop open while the hard
drive was seeking, I noticed that kflushd was using about 98% of my
processor (an Athlon 900MHz). I'm running Redhat 7.0 (although I have no
idea whether that makes a difference).

regards,
j.d.

---
J.D. Hollis ([email protected])

"That which is overdesigned, too highly specific, anticipates outcome; the
anticipation of outcome guarantees, if not failure, the absence of grace." -
`All Tomorrow's Parties', William Gibson


2000-11-08 20:36:25

by Byron Stanoszek

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: major problem with linux-2.4.0test10

On Wed, 8 Nov 2000, J.D. Hollis wrote:

> I've been having a problem with memory since 2.4.0test9...for some reason,
> shortly after my system boots, my hard drive begins to seek rapidly for no
> apparent reason, and suddenly about 150MB of my 256MB RAM is filled up with
> something gtop labels 'Other.' whatever's filling my memory isn't attached
> to any process. the one time I managed to get gtop open while the hard
> drive was seeking, I noticed that kflushd was using about 98% of my
> processor (an Athlon 900MHz). I'm running Redhat 7.0 (although I have no
> idea whether that makes a difference).

It's probably a program called 'sa' that anacron starts up right after boot
(on RH 7.0). It's a system accounting program that starts up and scans the
entire drive looking for stuff, which fills up cache in RAM.

I generally disable all anacron stuff and remove /etc/cron.??* and the
daily/weekly/monthly entries in /etc/crontab, then I run
'/etc/rc.d/init.d/crond restart'. That oughta fix it, but you might want to
look into the cron scripts individually and selectively remove the lines you
don't want. :-)

--
Byron Stanoszek Ph: (330) 644-3059
Systems Programmer Fax: (330) 644-8110
Commercial Timesharing Inc. Email: [email protected]

2000-11-08 20:53:48

by Carey M. Drake

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: major problem with linux-2.4.0test10

Why not just remove the sa lines from /etc/crontab?

C.

Byron Stanoszek wrote:
>
> On Wed, 8 Nov 2000, J.D. Hollis wrote:
>
> > I've been having a problem with memory since 2.4.0test9...for some reason,
> > shortly after my system boots, my hard drive begins to seek rapidly for no
> > apparent reason, and suddenly about 150MB of my 256MB RAM is filled up with
> > something gtop labels 'Other.' whatever's filling my memory isn't attached
> > to any process. the one time I managed to get gtop open while the hard
> > drive was seeking, I noticed that kflushd was using about 98% of my
> > processor (an Athlon 900MHz). I'm running Redhat 7.0 (although I have no
> > idea whether that makes a difference).
>
> It's probably a program called 'sa' that anacron starts up right after boot
> (on RH 7.0). It's a system accounting program that starts up and scans the
> entire drive looking for stuff, which fills up cache in RAM.
>
> I generally disable all anacron stuff and remove /etc/cron.??* and the
> daily/weekly/monthly entries in /etc/crontab, then I run
> '/etc/rc.d/init.d/crond restart'. That oughta fix it, but you might want to
> look into the cron scripts individually and selectively remove the lines you
> don't want. :-)
>
> --
> Byron Stanoszek Ph: (330) 644-3059
> Systems Programmer Fax: (330) 644-8110
> Commercial Timesharing Inc. Email: [email protected]
>
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
> the body of a message to [email protected]
> Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/

--
C.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When in doubt, poke it with a stick

Disclaimer: the above is the author's personal opinion and is not the
opinion
or policy of his employer or of the little green men that have been
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him all day.