Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Wed, 12 Mar 2003 02:20:22 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Wed, 12 Mar 2003 02:20:22 -0500 Received: from 101.24.177.216.inaddr.g4.Net ([216.177.24.101]:59777 "EHLO sparrow.stearns.org") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Wed, 12 Mar 2003 02:20:21 -0500 Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2003 02:30:53 -0500 (EST) From: William Stearns X-X-Sender: wstearns@sparrow Reply-To: William Stearns To: "M. Soltysiak" cc: ML-linux-kernel , William Stearns Subject: Re: Linux BUG: Memory Leak In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 4447 Lines: 101 Good day, Matt, On Wed, 12 Mar 2003, M. Soltysiak wrote: > I sent this here because i don't know which author screwed up. Please don't start the post with a negative tone; focus on a problem in software rather than on insulting the people from whom you want help. Please take a look at /usr/src/linux/REPORTING-BUGS. At an absolute minimum, the people on this list can't do anything at all until you tell us what kernel version you're using, what modules are loaded, etc. - all things that that file is designed to uncover. You might also want to mention what Linux distribution you're using. Did you compile the kernel yourself, or are you using a vendor-supplied kernel? If it's from your vendor, have you updated it to the most current for your distribution? If you compiled it yourself, what compile options did you use? Did you apply any patches to the source? > Basically, it's a massive kernel memory leak or a VM problem. > > System specs: > 1 GBytes RAM > duel CPU system; 1 Ghz each. > IDE disk system, 133 Mhz bus speed, DMA. > USB mouse. > PS/2 Keyboard. > Creative Labs emu10k1-based sound card. (LIVE!) > Asus Motherboard. Does the system pass a night's worth of memtest86 successfully? If we can rule out hardware, that narrows the problem space down some. > Problem: > > When I boot the system, run X11 with KDE--totalling 100 M at most--things > are fine. > > When I run applications that use quite a bit of memory -- those that use 500 > Megs of RAM -- Linux keeps on allocating memory until it's full. When full, > system acts dead, as expected from the bad VM design. But why does the Again, it sounds like you're taking an insulting tone. :-) > system allocate memory until the RAM is full? User applications are NOT > leaking memory. "Acts dead" - what does that mean? Sluggish? Pauses for a few seconds, then returns to normal? Swapping madly? For how long? Hard lockup, no keys do anything? Does the caps lock key change the state of the caps lock led? Do the caps/scroll/numlock lights flash on and off without keypresses? Does anything show up in the logs on next boot? Can you kill X11 with Ctrl-Alt-Backspace? Can you reboot the box with Ctrl-Alt-Del? Does Sysrq-S force disk activity? Can you ssh in from another box when it "acts dead"? > Example: Installing Unreal Tournament 2003 -- from the CD drive, IDE -- for > example, playing mp3 files and browsing the web with Mozilla, and the system > will eventually allocate memory until the system freezes. All of RAM is > allocated, and the system is frozen. What are the last few lines from "vmstat 1" when the system freezes? Does top show any memory amounts=0? What does top claim is the biggest memory user, both in the header area and down in application space? Can you make the problem occur with fewer programs, say, just with Mozilla, or just with Unreal? How long does it take for the problem to show up? Minutes, hours, days? > Possible problem: VM algorithm is not too good, and should take a lesson to > BSD; or the kernel is leaking memory -- unknown location. I'll look into > the problem in a few weeks when i'm free; but now, i got work. > > I'm sure many people are getting this problem... As I mentioned above... ;-) > I can fix the problem, but i got engineering projects to worry about. If you'd prefer, feel free. You do remember that the people from whom you're asking help have day jobs too, right? *grin* http://www.stearns.org/doc/howtoask.current.html Cheers, - Bill --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "A raccoon tangled with a 23,000 volt line today. The results blacked out 1400 homes and, of course, one raccoon." -- Steel City News (Courtesy of G.W. Wettstein ) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- William Stearns (wstearns@pobox.com). Mason, Buildkernel, freedups, p0f, rsync-backup, ssh-keyinstall, dns-check, more at: http://www.stearns.org Linux articles at: http://www.opensourcedigest.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------- - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/