Dear all, I have installed Suse 9.0 in two pcs. 1. A Pentium III with 256 MB of RAM. 2. A AMD 3200 with 1024 MB of RAM. Both have the same problem. Using top can see that used memory increases by 4-20kb every 1-2 secs and free is reduced by that amount. Further buffer size increases. Eventually all physical and swap is used and if unlucky will Hung too! Has anybody came across the same problem and if so what is set so wrong? Why buffer size increases all time ? Thank You, Savvas
Savvas Ladopoulos wrote:
Dear all,
I have installed Suse 9.0 in two pcs. 1. A Pentium III with 256 MB of RAM. 2. A AMD 3200 with 1024 MB of RAM.
Both have the same problem.
Using top can see that used memory increases by 4-20kb every 1-2 secs and free is reduced by that amount. Further buffer size increases. Eventually all physical and swap is used and if unlucky will Hung too!
Has anybody came across the same problem and if so what is set so wrong? Why buffer size increases all time ?
Thank You, Savvas
If the system is hanging/crashing or swap is being used up, there is some problem, but unlikely related to the buffer observations. Normally the OS (specifically the kernel) takes up 'spare' RAM for I/O or other buffers. This memory is instantly and transparently released when another process needs RAM. This is done for performance reasons & is beneficial, thought it is alarming to see top reporting all of your RAM 'used up' when nothing is happening. My 933 PIII, with 1 GB of RAM, normally has about 650 MB of RAM taken up by buffers & the rest free, though if something else needs RAM, it becomes available or shows up as used by that other process. If your box is showing swap being used up (mine is normally at 0k), then top should also show what is using up the RAM & you can investigate that. HTH, YMMV, & all that.
Στις 29/Ιούλ/2004, ημέρα Πέμπτη και ώρα 06:30, ο/η William A. Mahaffey III έγραψε:
Savvas Ladopoulos wrote:
Dear all,
I have installed Suse 9.0 in two pcs. 1. A Pentium III with 256 MB of RAM. 2. A AMD 3200 with 1024 MB of RAM.
Both have the same problem.
Using top can see that used memory increases by 4-20kb every 1-2 secs and free is reduced by that amount. Further buffer size increases. Eventually all physical and swap is used and if unlucky will Hung too!
Has anybody came across the same problem and if so what is set so wrong? Why buffer size increases all time ?
Thank You, Savvas
If the system is hanging/crashing or swap is being used up, there is some problem, but unlikely related to the buffer observations. Normally the OS (specifically the kernel) takes up 'spare' RAM for I/O or other buffers. This memory is instantly and transparently released when another process needs RAM. This is done for performance reasons & is beneficial, thought it is alarming to see top reporting all of your RAM 'used up' when nothing is happening. My 933 PIII, with 1 GB of RAM, normally has about 650 MB of RAM taken up by buffers & the rest free, though if something else needs RAM, it becomes available or shows up as used by that other process. If your box is showing swap being used up (mine is normally at 0k), then top should also show what is using up the RAM & you can investigate that. HTH, YMMV, & all that.
Have to check Kernel Configuration. The memory used and the swap used as reported by Top simply does not add up to the totals reported!
Hello, On 28-jul-04, at 23:53, Savvas Ladopoulos wrote:
Dear all,
I have installed Suse 9.0 in two pcs. 1. A Pentium III with 256 MB of RAM. 2. A AMD 3200 with 1024 MB of RAM.
Both have the same problem.
Using top can see that used memory increases by 4-20kb every 1-2 secs and free is reduced by that amount. Further buffer size increases. Eventually all physical and swap is used and if unlucky will Hung too!
Has anybody came across the same problem and if so what is set so wrong? Why buffer size increases all time ?
A friend of mine was asking me the same thing a few days ago. Not sure what configurations he's using, but he was talking about all resources being eaten up as well. I just know he's running suse 9.1, so it's not the same version, but it sure it worth looking into. It sounds like some application is not dealing with its memory resources too well. Then again, top should show this application as the one eating up the memory. I shall contact my friend and ask for more information ASAP. Kind regards, -- tinus.
Thank you for your input. The problem still is not solved, however it is true that Linux will use all the available memory it finds. The problem is that, what causes stability problems escapes TOP. Στις 31/Ιούλ/2004, ημέρα Σάββατο και ώρα 14:58, ο/η Martijn Houtman έγραψε:
Hello,
On 28-jul-04, at 23:53, Savvas Ladopoulos wrote:
Dear all,
I have installed Suse 9.0 in two pcs. 1. A Pentium III with 256 MB of RAM. 2. A AMD 3200 with 1024 MB of RAM.
Both have the same problem.
Using top can see that used memory increases by 4-20kb every 1-2 secs and free is reduced by that amount. Further buffer size increases. Eventually all physical and swap is used and if unlucky will Hung too!
Has anybody came across the same problem and if so what is set so wrong? Why buffer size increases all time ?
A friend of mine was asking me the same thing a few days ago. Not sure what configurations he's using, but he was talking about all resources being eaten up as well. I just know he's running suse 9.1, so it's not the same version, but it sure it worth looking into.
It sounds like some application is not dealing with its memory resources too well. Then again, top should show this application as the one eating up the memory. I shall contact my friend and ask for more information ASAP.
Kind regards, -- tinus.
participants (3)
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Martijn Houtman -
Savvas Ladopoulos -
William A. Mahaffey III