2001-10-10 20:11:55

by Stephen Torri

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Memory free report error (kernel-2.4.10-ac10)


I have installed and used kernel-2.4.10-ac10 on a SMP system (Dual P3)
using 768 MB Ram. Yet on startup of the system (RedHat 7.0), the system
resources are almost all used. Here are the files started:

USER PID %CPU %MEM VSZ RSS TTY STAT START TIME COMMAND
root 1 1.1 0.0 1304 528 ? S 15:56 0:06 init [3]
root 2 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? SW 15:56 0:00 [keventd]
root 3 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? SWN 15:56 0:00 [ksoftirqd_CPU0]
root 4 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? SWN 15:56 0:00 [ksoftirqd_CPU1]
root 5 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? SW 15:56 0:00 [kswapd]
root 6 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? SW 15:56 0:00 [kreclaimd]
root 7 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? SW 15:56 0:00 [bdflush]
root 8 0.2 0.0 0 0 ? SW 15:56 0:01 [kupdated]
root 9 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? SW 15:56 0:00 [khubd]
root 341 0.0 0.0 1364 596 ? S 16:03 0:00 syslogd -m 0
root 351 0.1 0.1 2004 1176 ? S 16:03 0:00 klogd
nobody 405 0.0 0.0 7596 708 ? S 16:03 0:00 identd -e -o
nobody 407 0.0 0.0 7596 708 ? S 16:03 0:00 identd -e -o
nobody 408 0.0 0.0 7596 708 ? S 16:03 0:00 identd -e -o
nobody 409 0.0 0.0 7596 708 ? S 16:03 0:00 identd -e -o
nobody 410 0.0 0.0 7596 708 ? S 16:03 0:00 identd -e -o
daemon 424 0.0 0.0 1336 576 ? S 16:03 0:00 /usr/sbin/atd
root 455 0.0 0.1 2192 992 ? S 16:03 0:00 xinetd -stayalive
root 473 0.0 0.2 1904 1896 ? SL 16:03 0:00 ntpd
root 524 0.0 0.2 3224 1552 ? S 16:03 0:00 sendmail: accepti
root 540 0.0 0.0 1328 492 ? S 16:03 0:00 gpm -t ps/2
root 555 0.0 0.0 1532 708 ? S 16:03 0:00 crond
xfs 594 0.1 0.4 4404 3176 ? S 16:03 0:00 xfs -droppriv -da
root 630 0.0 0.0 1276 432 tty2 S 16:04 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tt
root 631 0.0 0.0 1276 432 tty3 S 16:04 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tt
root 632 0.0 0.0 1276 432 tty4 S 16:04 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tt
root 633 0.0 0.0 1276 432 tty5 S 16:04 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tt
root 634 0.0 0.0 1276 432 tty6 S 16:04 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tt
root 677 0.1 0.1 2264 1204 tty1 S 16:04 0:00 login -- torri
torri 678 0.0 0.1 2436 1416 tty1 S 16:04 0:00 -bash
torri 700 0.0 0.1 2048 1080 ? S 16:04 0:00 /usr/bin/fetchmai
torri 733 0.1 0.3 6588 2640 tty1 T 16:05 0:00 pine
torri 734 0.0 0.0 2528 732 tty1 R 16:06 0:00 ps aux

Here is the report of the memory (free -m):
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 751 662 89 0 564 18
-/+ buffers/cache: 78 672
Swap: 133 0 133

Here is the version I am using (/proc/version):

Linux version 2.4.10-ac10 ([email protected]) (gcc version 3.0.2
20010908 (prerelease)) #2 SMP Wed Oct 10 14:16:51 EDT 2001

I have never run across this problem. I don't know where to begin or what
information is required to help debug this. Advise would be helpful.

Stephen Torri
[email protected]


Subject: Re: Memory free report error (kernel-2.4.10-ac10)

Which is the way unix works... Free memory is useless: better use it as
cache or else...

[email protected] (Stephen Torri) writes:
> I have installed and used kernel-2.4.10-ac10 on a SMP system (Dual P3)
> using 768 MB Ram. Yet on startup of the system (RedHat 7.0), the system
> resources are almost all used. Here are the files started:
>
> USER PID %CPU %MEM VSZ RSS TTY STAT START TIME COMMAND
> root 1 1.1 0.0 1304 528 ? S 15:56 0:06 init [3]
> root 2 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? SW 15:56 0:00 [keventd]
> root 3 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? SWN 15:56 0:00 [ksoftirqd_CPU0]
> root 4 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? SWN 15:56 0:00 [ksoftirqd_CPU1]
> root 5 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? SW 15:56 0:00 [kswapd]
> root 6 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? SW 15:56 0:00 [kreclaimd]
> root 7 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? SW 15:56 0:00 [bdflush]
> root 8 0.2 0.0 0 0 ? SW 15:56 0:01 [kupdated]
> root 9 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? SW 15:56 0:00 [khubd]
> root 341 0.0 0.0 1364 596 ? S 16:03 0:00 syslogd -m 0
> root 351 0.1 0.1 2004 1176 ? S 16:03 0:00 klogd
> nobody 405 0.0 0.0 7596 708 ? S 16:03 0:00 identd -e -o
> nobody 407 0.0 0.0 7596 708 ? S 16:03 0:00 identd -e -o
> nobody 408 0.0 0.0 7596 708 ? S 16:03 0:00 identd -e -o
> nobody 409 0.0 0.0 7596 708 ? S 16:03 0:00 identd -e -o
> nobody 410 0.0 0.0 7596 708 ? S 16:03 0:00 identd -e -o
> daemon 424 0.0 0.0 1336 576 ? S 16:03 0:00 /usr/sbin/atd
> root 455 0.0 0.1 2192 992 ? S 16:03 0:00 xinetd -stayalive
> root 473 0.0 0.2 1904 1896 ? SL 16:03 0:00 ntpd
> root 524 0.0 0.2 3224 1552 ? S 16:03 0:00 sendmail: accepti
> root 540 0.0 0.0 1328 492 ? S 16:03 0:00 gpm -t ps/2
> root 555 0.0 0.0 1532 708 ? S 16:03 0:00 crond
> xfs 594 0.1 0.4 4404 3176 ? S 16:03 0:00 xfs -droppriv -da
> root 630 0.0 0.0 1276 432 tty2 S 16:04 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tt
> root 631 0.0 0.0 1276 432 tty3 S 16:04 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tt
> root 632 0.0 0.0 1276 432 tty4 S 16:04 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tt
> root 633 0.0 0.0 1276 432 tty5 S 16:04 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tt
> root 634 0.0 0.0 1276 432 tty6 S 16:04 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tt
> root 677 0.1 0.1 2264 1204 tty1 S 16:04 0:00 login -- torri
> torri 678 0.0 0.1 2436 1416 tty1 S 16:04 0:00 -bash
> torri 700 0.0 0.1 2048 1080 ? S 16:04 0:00 /usr/bin/fetchmai
> torri 733 0.1 0.3 6588 2640 tty1 T 16:05 0:00 pine
> torri 734 0.0 0.0 2528 732 tty1 R 16:06 0:00 ps aux
>
> Here is the report of the memory (free -m):
> total used free shared buffers cached
> Mem: 751 662 89 0 564 18
> -/+ buffers/cache: 78 672
> Swap: 133 0 133
>
> Here is the version I am using (/proc/version):
>
> Linux version 2.4.10-ac10 ([email protected]) (gcc version 3.0.2
> 20010908 (prerelease)) #2 SMP Wed Oct 10 14:16:51 EDT 2001
>
> I have never run across this problem. I don't know where to begin or what
> information is required to help debug this. Advise would be helpful.
>
> Stephen Torri
> [email protected]
>
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
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>

--
Mathieu Chouquet-Stringer E-Mail : [email protected]
Learning French is trivial: the word for horse is cheval, and
everything else follows in the same way.
-- Alan J. Perlis

2001-10-10 20:28:29

by Richard B. Johnson

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Memory free report error (kernel-2.4.10-ac10)

On Wed, 10 Oct 2001, Stephen Torri wrote:

>
> I have installed and used kernel-2.4.10-ac10 on a SMP system (Dual P3)
> using 768 MB Ram. Yet on startup of the system (RedHat 7.0), the system
> resources are almost all used. Here are the files started:
>

> Here is the report of the memory (free -m):
> total used free shared buffers cached
> Mem: 751 662 89 0 564 18
> -/+ buffers/cache: 78 672
> Swap: 133 0 133
>

Yep. It's fine. Memory that's not used is wasted. Therefore anything
that is "spare" is used for buffers, usually to cache the file-system
to make your hard-disk run as fast as a RAM disk.

When your task needs memory, the kernel will give some of it to you,
but not before you actually need it. That's the way virtual memory
systems work.

Cheers,
Dick Johnson

Penguin : Linux version 2.4.1 on an i686 machine (799.53 BogoMips).

I was going to compile a list of innovations that could be
attributed to Microsoft. Once I realized that Ctrl-Alt-Del
was handled in the BIOS, I found that there aren't any.


2001-10-10 20:32:08

by Doug McNaught

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Memory free report error (kernel-2.4.10-ac10)

Stephen Torri <[email protected]> writes:

> I have installed and used kernel-2.4.10-ac10 on a SMP system (Dual P3)
> using 768 MB Ram. Yet on startup of the system (RedHat 7.0), the system
> resources are almost all used. Here are the files started:
>
> Here is the report of the memory (free -m):
> total used free shared buffers cached
> Mem: 751 662 89 0 564 18
> -/+ buffers/cache: 78 672
> Swap: 133 0 133

Unless I'm missing something, this is completely normal. You're using
78M of memory once buffers are factored out. Seems reasonable for a
just-started system.

For comparison, here's a moderately loaded machine running 2.2.19:

[doug@scooby doug]$ free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 505 480 24 137 42 278
-/+ buffers/cache: 159 345
Swap: 101 0 101

Are you actually seeing performance problems or are you just worried
about the 'free' output?

-Doug
--
Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees.
--T. J. Jackson, 1863