Here is the output of free: total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 513160 483688 29472 0 38896 214744 -/+ buffers/cache: 230048 283112 Swap: 658624 0 658624 I tried running top before and after but everything looked ok. Below is the output of top *after* the computer has been up fro a few days. Thanks for the info on how linux manages memory. Since I did not notice a similar behaviour with my work machine, I thought something was amiss. top output: 4:04pm up 1 day, 19:49, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00 33 processes: 31 sleeping, 2 running, 0 zombie, 0 stopped CPU states: 1.4% user, 0.6% system, 0.0% nice, 98.0% idle Mem: 513160K av, 483948K used, 29212K free, 0K shrd, 38896K buff Swap: 658624K av, 0K used, 658624K free 214792K cached PID USER PRI NI SIZE RSS SHARE STAT %CPU %MEM TIME COMMAND 5167 root 15 0 80020 13M 1832 S 1.6 2.6 3:20 X 10507 dcox 9 0 8600 8596 7024 S 0.0 1.6 0:00 kppp 10719 dcox 9 0 4528 4528 3248 S 0.0 0.8 0:00 sylpheed 10508 dcox 9 0 4256 4252 3972 S 0.0 0.8 0:00 kppp 5285 dcox 9 0 4220 4220 3284 S 0.0 0.8 0:00 gkrellm 5178 dcox 9 0 3692 3692 2036 S 0.0 0.7 0:02 enlightenment 343 nobody 9 0 3504 3504 784 S 0.0 0.6 0:00 xfs 5202 dcox 10 0 2724 2724 1748 R 0.4 0.5 0:00 Eterm 5224 dcox 9 0 1604 1604 1220 S 0.0 0.3 0:00 bash 865 dcox 9 0 1536 1536 1184 S 0.0 0.2 0:00 bash 864 root 9 0 1196 1196 824 S 0.0 0.2 0:00 login 5153 dcox 9 0 1180 1176 964 S 0.0 0.2 0:00 startx 210 root 9 0 1100 1100 452 S 0.0 0.2 0:00 klogd 10721 dcox 9 0 1060 1060 856 R 0.0 0.2 0:00 top 205 root 9 0 996 996 840 S 0.0 0.1 0:00 sshd 10710 root 9 0 992 992 816 S 0.0 0.1 0:00 pppd 397 root 9 0 948 932 752 S 0.0 0.1 0:00 xinetd 5166 dcox 9 0 704 704 600 S 0.0 0.1 0:00 xinit 361 root 9 0 664 664 572 S 0.0 0.1 0:00 cron 203 root 9 0 636 636 532 S 0.0 0.1 0:00 syslogd 447 root 9 0 604 604 524 S 0.0 0.1 0:00 mingetty 448 root 9 0 604 604 524 S 0.0 0.1 0:00 mingetty 449 root 9 0 604 604 524 S 0.0 0.1 0:00 mingetty 450 root 9 0 604 604 524 S 0.0 0.1 0:00 mingetty 451 root 9 0 604 604 524 S 0.0 0.1 0:00 mingetty 5155 dcox 9 0 520 520 448 S 0.0 0.1 0:00 tee 172 bin 9 0 436 436 368 S 0.0 0.0 0:00 portmap 1 root 9 0 224 224 188 S 0.0 0.0 0:03 init 2 root 9 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 keventd 3 root 19 19 0 0 0 SWN 0.0 0.0 0:00 ksoftirqd_CPU0 4 root 9 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 kswapd On Sat, 31 Aug 2002 16:01:01 +0200 Praise wrote:

Alle 15:26, sabato 31 agosto 2002, Dwayne Cox ha scritto:

...

I have been wrestling with this problem for a while and I need help.

With the computer 'idle', the available memory on it drops from around 471MB to 284MB in about a day or so (I use free to check the memory as well as gkrellm). This happens consistently, even if I do not start X. I have tried several things including replacing the NVidia card with a Radeon 7500 (suspecting drivers) and running a different kernel (2.4.7). I am considering reinstalling SUSE altogether or checking out a different distribution. I desparately need some suggestions.

I want to install Oracle8i and Oracle9i but would like to get this resolved first.

My current configuation: Dell 4300 512MB RAM Radeon 7500 SUSE 7.2 XFree86 4.2.0 kernel - 2.4.16-4GB

Let me know if there is any other configuration info you need.