Re: [expert] garbage collection ?
On Tuesday 18 Nov 2003 9:30 am, elPunishar wrote: hi everybody, i noticed that my 1 gig of ram is getting filled up real quick, which may be okay since i'm running a lot of programs. BUT it doesn't come down again even when i close the programs... memory use just grows and grows (slow but steady), then beginns to fill up the swap space... Linux uses memory very differently from Windows. This is normal behaviour, making all memory quickly available at all times. It dynamically releases memory least likely to be needed whenever something else requires it. It's nothing to worry about at all. i hope you don't rip my head off for this, but that behaviour seems a little window-esque to me... granted, its a lot slower than on a windows box. It shouldn't be a lot slower. Things that might affect it are How much RAM have you got? How full is your drive? In a console, type df Is the drive using dma? - try hdparm -d /dev/hda (assuming hda is your drive letter) Paste here what replies you get. Anne -- Registered Linux User No.293302 Have you visited http://twiki.mdklinuxfaq.org yet? Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [expert] garbage collection ?
On Tuesday 18 Nov 2003 9:42 am, Anne Wilson wrote: On Tuesday 18 Nov 2003 9:30 am, elPunishar wrote: hi everybody, i noticed that my 1 gig of ram is getting filled up real quick, which may be okay since i'm running a lot of programs. BUT it doesn't come down again even when i close the programs... memory use just grows and grows (slow but steady), then beginns to fill up the swap space... Linux uses memory very differently from Windows. This is normal behaviour, making all memory quickly available at all times. It dynamically releases memory least likely to be needed whenever something else requires it. It's nothing to worry about at all. i hope you don't rip my head off for this, but that behaviour seems a little window-esque to me... granted, its a lot slower than on a windows box. It shouldn't be a lot slower. Things that might affect it are How much RAM have you got? How full is your drive? In a console, type df Is the drive using dma? - try hdparm -d /dev/hda (assuming hda is your drive letter) Paste here what replies you get. Anne okay, your answer clarifies that. i'm reliefed :) what i meant was: the process of using up all avalable memory is much slower than on windows. the machine runs a LOT faster than on windows! :)) output: [EMAIL PROTECTED] root]# hdparm -d /dev/hda /dev/hda: using_dma= 1 (on) Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [expert] garbage collection ?
On Tue, 2003-11-18 at 07:43, elPunishar wrote: On Tuesday 18 Nov 2003 9:42 am, Anne Wilson wrote: On Tuesday 18 Nov 2003 9:30 am, elPunishar wrote: hi everybody, i noticed that my 1 gig of ram is getting filled up real quick, which may be okay since i'm running a lot of programs. BUT it doesn't come down again even when i close the programs... memory use just grows and grows (slow but steady), then beginns to fill up the swap space... Linux uses memory very differently from Windows. This is normal behaviour, making all memory quickly available at all times. It dynamically releases memory least likely to be needed whenever something else requires it. It's nothing to worry about at all. i hope you don't rip my head off for this, but that behaviour seems a little window-esque to me... granted, its a lot slower than on a windows box. It shouldn't be a lot slower. Things that might affect it are How much RAM have you got? How full is your drive? In a console, type df Is the drive using dma? - try hdparm -d /dev/hda (assuming hda is your drive letter) Paste here what replies you get. Anne okay, your answer clarifies that. i'm reliefed :) what i meant was: the process of using up all avalable memory is much slower than on windows. the machine runs a LOT faster than on windows! :)) output: [EMAIL PROTECTED] root]# hdparm -d /dev/hda /dev/hda: using_dma= 1 (on) What sounds a little strange to me is that the system starts filling the swap space. Given the amount of memory you have (1Gb) it shouldn't use the swap space (unless you have a lot of processes running simultaneously). I have read about some problems when using more than 768 Mb ram and the advise has always been passing mem=860 at the lilo prompt or in lilo.conf. Just my 2 cents. Adolfo Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [expert] garbage collection ?
On Tuesday 18 Nov 2003 11:43 am, elPunishar wrote: On Tuesday 18 Nov 2003 9:42 am, Anne Wilson wrote: On Tuesday 18 Nov 2003 9:30 am, elPunishar wrote: hi everybody, i noticed that my 1 gig of ram is getting filled up real quick, which may be okay since i'm running a lot of programs. BUT it doesn't come down again even when i close the programs... memory use just grows and grows (slow but steady), then beginns to fill up the swap space... Linux uses memory very differently from Windows. This is normal behaviour, making all memory quickly available at all times. It dynamically releases memory least likely to be needed whenever something else requires it. It's nothing to worry about at all. i hope you don't rip my head off for this, but that behaviour seems a little window-esque to me... granted, its a lot slower than on a windows box. It shouldn't be a lot slower. Things that might affect it are How much RAM have you got? How full is your drive? In a console, type df Is the drive using dma? - try hdparm -d /dev/hda (assuming hda is your drive letter) Paste here what replies you get. Anne okay, your answer clarifies that. i'm reliefed :) what i meant was: the process of using up all avalable memory is much slower than on windows. the machine runs a LOT faster than on windows! :)) output: [EMAIL PROTECTED] root]# hdparm -d /dev/hda /dev/hda: using_dma= 1 (on) Everything looks fine. Anne -- Registered Linux User No.293302 Have you visited http://twiki.mdklinuxfaq.org yet? Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [expert] garbage collection ?
On Tuesday 18 November 2003 06:08 am, Adolfo Bello wrote: I have read about some problems when using more than 768 Mb ram and the advise has always been passing mem=860 at the lilo prompt or in lilo.conf. Or use the Enterprise kernel. -- /g Outside of a dog, a man's best friend is a book, inside a dog it's too dark to read -Groucho Marx Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [expert] garbage collection ?
On Tuesday 18 November 2003 12:31 pm, Greg Meyer wrote: On Tuesday 18 November 2003 06:08 am, Adolfo Bello wrote: I have read about some problems when using more than 768 Mb ram and the advise has always been passing mem=860 at the lilo prompt or in lilo.conf. Or use the Enterprise kernel. Most reports are that the system will preform better with the regular kernel, and passing 'mem=860M' (or 880M) than using = 1 gig or ram and the enterprise kernel. The 'bigmem' memory addressing scheme the enterprise kernels use imposes a performance hit. This has been mentioned off and on on the cooker and lkml lists. It's also been my experience. -- Tom Brinkman Corpus Christi, Texas Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [expert] garbage collection ?
On Tue, 2003-11-18 at 01:30, elPunishar wrote: hi everybody, i noticed that my 1 gig of ram is getting filled up real quick, which may be okay since i'm running a lot of programs. BUT it doesn't come down again even when i close the programs... memory use just grows and grows (slow but steady), then beginns to fill up the swap space... memory at 80% full is normal disk caching, and Windows does it too (they just don't report it). Growing usage and using swap may not be normal though. Try running top and pressing M to sort by memory usage, then watch it. You may have an app leaking memory. ... -- Jack at Monkeynoodle Dot Org: It's A Scientific Venture... I couldn't guarantee that I wouldn't do wrong, not sure what it is I'd be saving you from... heaven's blue and it's vaulted white, every breath you take takes mine, gotta see it's no good leaving it up to me to make you happy. -- Hanging By Strands from Homeless Where The Heart Is by Barbara Manning and the Go-Luckys! Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [expert] garbage collection ?
On Tue, 2003-11-18 at 06:35, Jack Coates wrote: On Tue, 2003-11-18 at 01:30, elPunishar wrote: hi everybody, i noticed that my 1 gig of ram is getting filled up real quick, which may be okay since i'm running a lot of programs. BUT it doesn't come down again even when i close the programs... memory use just grows and grows (slow but steady), then beginns to fill up the swap space... memory at 80% full is normal disk caching, and Windows does it too (they just don't report it). Growing usage and using swap may not be normal though. Try running top and pressing M to sort by memory usage, then watch it. You may have an app leaking memory. ... -- Jack at Monkeynoodle Dot Org: It's A Scientific Venture... Curious, I have 512M ram and 256M swap - top shows I'm using 198M of mem and none of my swap - I've been running my computer all morning and I've got a few apps open. Why would 80% of 1G of memory be normal? -- Michael Holt Snohomish, WA (o_ [EMAIL PROTECTED] (o_ (o_ //\ www.holt-tech.net (/)_ (/)_ V_/_ www.mandrakelinux.com == 0. Just add yourself to the password file and make a directory... --Top 100 things you don't want the sysadmin to say Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [expert] garbage collection ?
On Tue, 2003-11-18 at 09:50, Michael Holt wrote: On Tue, 2003-11-18 at 06:35, Jack Coates wrote: On Tue, 2003-11-18 at 01:30, elPunishar wrote: hi everybody, i noticed that my 1 gig of ram is getting filled up real quick, which may be okay since i'm running a lot of programs. BUT it doesn't come down again even when i close the programs... memory use just grows and grows (slow but steady), then beginns to fill up the swap space... memory at 80% full is normal disk caching, and Windows does it too (they just don't report it). Growing usage and using swap may not be normal though. Try running top and pressing M to sort by memory usage, then watch it. You may have an app leaking memory. ... -- Jack at Monkeynoodle Dot Org: It's A Scientific Venture... Curious, I have 512M ram and 256M swap - top shows I'm using 198M of mem and none of my swap - I've been running my computer all morning and I've got a few apps open. Why would 80% of 1G of memory be normal? well, it's normal for me :-) I've read that the VMM will allocate as much RAM as feasible and practical to disk caching. -- Jack at Monkeynoodle Dot Org: It's A Scientific Venture... Take my hand and dry your tears babe, take my hand and forget your fears babe, there's no more pain, there's no more sorrow, they've all gone, gone in the years babe. -- The Broad Majestic Shannon from If I Should Fall From Grace With God by The P ogues Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [expert] garbage collection ?
On Tue, 2003-11-18 at 10:11, Jack Coates wrote: Curious, I have 512M ram and 256M swap - top shows I'm using 198M of mem and none of my swap - I've been running my computer all morning and I've got a few apps open. Why would 80% of 1G of memory be normal? well, it's normal for me :-) I've read that the VMM will allocate as much RAM as feasible and practical to disk caching. -- Jack at Monkeynoodle Dot Org: It's A Scientific Venture... LOL, I didn't mean anything by it, I've heard that too and wondered what the basis was :) -- Michael Holt Snohomish, WA (o_ [EMAIL PROTECTED] (o_ (o_ //\ www.holt-tech.net (/)_ (/)_ V_/_ www.mandrakelinux.com == 50. [looks at workstation] Say, what version of Dos is this running? --Top 100 things you don't want the sysadmin to say Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [expert] garbage collection ?
On Tue, 2003-11-18 at 10:18, Michael Holt wrote: On Tue, 2003-11-18 at 10:11, Jack Coates wrote: Curious, I have 512M ram and 256M swap - top shows I'm using 198M of mem and none of my swap - I've been running my computer all morning and I've got a few apps open. Why would 80% of 1G of memory be normal? well, it's normal for me :-) I've read that the VMM will allocate as much RAM as feasible and practical to disk caching. -- Jack at Monkeynoodle Dot Org: It's A Scientific Venture... LOL, I didn't mean anything by it, I've heard that too and wondered what the basis was :) If I do a cat on /proc/meminfo total:used:free: shared: buffers: cached: Mem: 390709248 371380224 193290240 13205504 181313536 Swap: 1230839808 48295936 1182543872 MemTotal: 381552 kB MemFree: 18876 kB MemShared: 0 kB Buffers: 12896 kB Cached: 172232 kB SwapCached: 4832 kB Active: 147668 kB Inactive: 190916 kB HighTotal: 0 kB HighFree:0 kB LowTotal: 381552 kB LowFree: 18876 kB SwapTotal: 1201992 kB SwapFree: 1154828 kB And the only thing beyond kde open is evolution. James Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [expert] garbage collection ?
On Tue, 2003-11-18 at 11:36, James Sparenberg wrote: On Tue, 2003-11-18 at 10:18, Michael Holt wrote: On Tue, 2003-11-18 at 10:11, Jack Coates wrote: Curious, I have 512M ram and 256M swap - top shows I'm using 198M of mem and none of my swap - I've been running my computer all morning and I've got a few apps open. Why would 80% of 1G of memory be normal? well, it's normal for me :-) I've read that the VMM will allocate as much RAM as feasible and practical to disk caching. -- Jack at Monkeynoodle Dot Org: It's A Scientific Venture... LOL, I didn't mean anything by it, I've heard that too and wondered what the basis was :) If I do a cat on /proc/meminfo total:used:free: shared: buffers: cached: Mem: 390709248 371380224 193290240 13205504 181313536 Swap: 1230839808 48295936 1182543872 MemTotal: 381552 kB MemFree: 18876 kB MemShared: 0 kB Buffers: 12896 kB Cached: 172232 kB SwapCached: 4832 kB Active: 147668 kB Inactive: 190916 kB HighTotal: 0 kB HighFree:0 kB LowTotal: 381552 kB LowFree: 18876 kB SwapTotal: 1201992 kB SwapFree: 1154828 kB And the only thing beyond kde open is evolution. James Ok, now I'm seeing what you guys are saying. I did cat /proc/meminfo and got similar results. Then I started vmware+WinXP and this was my output: total:used:free: shared: buffers: cached: Mem: 527233024 522104832 5128192045056 423895040 Swap: 263168000 626688 262541312 MemTotal: 514876 kB MemFree: 5008 kB MemShared: 0 kB Buffers:44 kB Cached: 413416 kB SwapCached:544 kB Active: 125232 kB Inactive: 24 kB HighTotal: 0 kB HighFree:0 kB LowTotal: 514876 kB LowFree: 5008 kB SwapTotal: 257000 kB SwapFree: 256388 kB Committed_AS: 148076 kB Then I killed vmware and tried again: total:used:free: shared: buffers: cached: Mem: 527233024 477216768 50016256040960 384438272 Swap: 263168000 626688 262541312 MemTotal: 514876 kB MemFree: 48844 kB MemShared: 0 kB Buffers:40 kB Cached: 374884 kB SwapCached:544 kB Active: 120796 kB Inactive: 254776 kB HighTotal: 0 kB HighFree:0 kB LowTotal: 514876 kB LowFree: 48844 kB SwapTotal: 257000 kB SwapFree: 256388 kB Committed_AS: 112800 kB I gained some back, but not as much as I originally had free. That's strange, when I looked at it an hour ago, I had barely used any memory and none of my swap. So I must have just not had enough opened this morning? Now I'm going to have to shut down and see what it looks like - maybe I'll run root-tail and keep an eye on it. -- Michael Holt Snohomish, WA (o_ [EMAIL PROTECTED] (o_ (o_ //\ www.holt-tech.net (/)_ (/)_ V_/_ www.mandrakelinux.com == Windows is the best $89 solitaire game you can buy. Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [expert] garbage collection ?
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 11:43:06 +, elPunishar [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote about Re: [expert] garbage collection ?: what i meant was: the process of using up all avalable memory is much slower than on windows. the machine runs a LOT faster than on windows! :)) YMMV: I have 458 MB of RAM, 1024 Mb of swap and my machine is a lot slower under KDE than under W2K. But with IceWM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (24/24h) runs only marginally slower than under W2K. Granted, I cannot compare the differences in coding the Unix and Windows versions of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Still, swap is never used a lot. Perhaps with OpenOffice.org, but I didn`t have time to run the new version from the CD`s. My fs is ext3. And it made a lot of difference when I disabled swsusp: I could feel it slowing me down at nice 0, less so when I reniced it to 19. Now it`s noapic apic-ht period for me. Hibernation undesirable :-) Regards, =Dick Gevers= -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.2.3 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Encryption is an envelope - the contents are private. iD8DBQE/uoX9wC/zk+cxEdMRAvQDAJ9gmn33zTJwaj0G+CCwmc5lBDiINwCfdDAM ro8GXF+pC7oeL4sB0Ovd/oQ= =BDbD -END PGP SIGNATURE- Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [expert] garbage collection ?
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 12:35:46 -0800, Michael Holt [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote about Re: [expert] garbage collection ?: Ok, now I'm seeing what you guys are saying. I did cat /proc/meminfo and got similar results. Then I started vmware+WinXP and this was my output: Okay. Is this a poker game? Mine: total:used:free: shared: buffers: cached: Mem: 461123584 441339904 197836800 7800 127008768 Swap: 10527948800 1052794880 MemTotal: 450316 kB MemFree: 19320 kB MemShared: 0 kB Buffers: 72700 kB Cached: 124032 kB SwapCached: 0 kB Active: 111096 kB Inactive:85700 kB HighTotal: 0 kB HighFree:0 kB LowTotal: 450316 kB LowFree: 19320 kB SwapTotal: 1028120 kB SwapFree: 1028120 kB Committed_AS:62536 kB Running [EMAIL PROTECTED] niced at -5, Gkrellm, IceWM, Sylpheed, Eterm, cupsd reniced at 19. Even though I only use a Pentium II @ 350, it responds much faster than my office P III @ 833 with 256 MB of RAM running NT4. -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.2.3 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Encryption is an envelope - the contents are private. iD8DBQE/uo2NwC/zk+cxEdMRAsbVAKDhLkKFea7f9uqNJ3x2ohJ3uYy7RQCgwfYd ywyDOO1sQbvJSIbzbzT3Tbw= =4ao5 -END PGP SIGNATURE- Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [expert] garbage collection ?
On Tue, 2003-11-18 at 13:22, Dick Gevers wrote: Okay. Is this a poker game? LOL :) Yeah, you're bringing the pizza, right? :) Running [EMAIL PROTECTED] niced at -5 'Nice' sets the schedule priority - ok, what does that mean? How does that affect your performance both overall and for the specified program? -- Michael Holt Snohomish, WA (o_ [EMAIL PROTECTED] (o_ (o_ //\ www.holt-tech.net (/)_ (/)_ V_/_ www.mandrakelinux.com == Windows is the best $189 solitaire game you can buy. Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [expert] garbage collection ?
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 19:15:17 -0800, Michael Holt [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote about Re: [expert] garbage collection ?: LOL :) Yeah, you're bringing the pizza, right? :) Sure, if you take care of the beer whiskey, no sweat. Running [EMAIL PROTECTED] niced at -5 'Nice' sets the schedule priority - ok, what does that mean? How does that affect your performance both overall and for the specified program? Good really. I have a cron job running half hourly to check if the screensaver is on, if it is it renices seti to -15, if not to -5. If I am running lots of windows suimultaneously I may feel a slight slowdown of the box, so then I renice seti to 19. Comparison of seti results is statistically unreliable due to the huge variance in raw calculus needs within the workunits. But I can say that before I installed MD I had MOL maxed out my performance as against the other users (somewhere around 99.1% of all others surpassed, whatever). Now I am very slowly falling back by very small margins. Currently 97+. On the other hand I am of course also decelerating relatively speaking as I am not buying new mobo`s and cpu`s as soon as they are shipped. Even in w2k I guess I was starting to float back very slowly from my ceiling. So pls bring your stuffed wallet along tonight I`ll be able to finally buy that smp-mobo tomorrow;-) What kind of cigars do you prefer? I`ll stock up. Ciao, =Dick Gevers= -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.2.3 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Encryption is an envelope - the contents are private. iD8DBQE/uvk7wC/zk+cxEdMRAp9qAJ4mTEEdjUkEY50lV/GLjOl9afvdhQCfTdBV m4prxd4F5P++1iGRYC6beyU= =XUvf -END PGP SIGNATURE- Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
