Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Tue, 9 Oct 2001 10:17:06 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Tue, 9 Oct 2001 10:16:57 -0400 Received: from wiprom2mx1.wipro.com ([203.197.164.41]:4601 "EHLO wiprom2mx1.wipro.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Tue, 9 Oct 2001 10:16:47 -0400 Message-ID: <3BC30701.2060908@wipro.com> Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2001 19:47:37 +0530 From: "BALBIR SINGH" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:0.9.4) Gecko/20010913 X-Accept-Language: en-us MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Marcelo Tosatti CC: Linus Torvalds , Andrea Arcangeli , lkml Subject: Re: pre6 VM issues In-Reply-To: Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="------------InterScan_NT_MIME_Boundary" Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------InterScan_NT_MIME_Boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Most of the traditional unices maintained a pool for each subsystem (this is really useful when u have the memory to spare), so not matter what they use memory only from their pool (and if needed peek outside), but nobody else used the memory from the pool. I have seen cases where, I have run out of physical memory on my system, so I try to log in using the serial console, but since the serial driver does get_free_page (this most likely fails) and the driver complains back. So, I had suggested a while back that important subsystems should maintain their own pool (it will take a new thread to discuss the right size of each pool). Why can't Linux follow the same approach? especially on systems with a lot of memory. Balbir Marcelo Tosatti wrote: >Hi, > >I've been testing pre6 (actually its pre5 a patch which Linus sent me >named "prewith 16GB of RAM (thanks to OSDLabs for that), and I've found >out some problems. First of all, we need to throttle normal allocators >more often and/or update the low memory limits for normal allocators to a >saner value. I already said I think allowing everybody to eat up to >"freepages.min" is too low for a default. > >I've got atomic memory failures with _22GB_ of swap free (32GB total): > > eth0: can't fill rx buffer (force 0)! > >Another issue is the damn fork() special case. Its failing in practice: > >bash: fork: Cannot allocate memory > >Also with _LOTS_ of swap free. (gigs of them) > >Linus, we can introduce a "__GFP_FAIL" flag to be used by _everyone_ which >wants to do higher order allocations as an optimization (eg allocate big >scatter-gather tables or whatever). Or do you prefer to make the fork() >allocation a separate case ? > >I'll take a closer look at the code now and make the throttling/limits to >what I think is saner for a default. > > >- >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/ > --------------InterScan_NT_MIME_Boundary Content-Type: text/plain; name="Wipro_Disclaimer.txt" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="Wipro_Disclaimer.txt" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Information transmitted by this E-MAIL is proprietary to Wipro and/or its Customers and is intended for use only by the individual or entity to which it is addressed, and may contain information that is privileged, confidential or exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you are not the intended recipient or it appears that this mail has been forwarded to you without proper authority, you are notified that any use or dissemination of this information in any manner is strictly prohibited. In such cases, please notify us immediately at mailto:mailadmin@wipro.com and delete this mail from your records. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------InterScan_NT_MIME_Boundary-- - 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/