I don't have anything to connect the memory issue (if it IS an issue) to
my ppp connection problem, except the fact that they *may* have cleared
up once I rebooted.
The box described is a 486. It runs little besides some basic services
(FTP, sometimes httpd, junkbuster proxy and netatalk server being the
big ones). Connected to it via Ethernet is another Linux client and a
Mac client. I've not made many mods beyond the RH 5.0 install. 2.0.34
kernel.
There was nothing in /var/log/* about the memory problem. Also, the
dropped connections show nothing I didn't already know. For instance, a
hangup says "hangup (SIGHUP)". Well, this is exactly what a normal
hangup looks like, so that's not very helpful.
I HAVE noticed, however the following message occasionally:
Unsupported protocol (0xd) received
This message doesn't necessarily correlate to any issues I'm having,
however.
Attached find the asked-for stats.
My main question is: Why the "memory exhausted" message from "who"? I'm
perfectly willing to accept that either my phone line or ISP sucks to
explain the rest.
Ray Olszewski wrote:
>
> Yes, it does need an explanation. But do realize that what you're describing
> now is very different from your original, general question.
>
> Look at your log files (probably /var/log/messages and /var/log/debug, but
> the exact names are somewhat installation specific) and see what they report
> about the "memory exhausted" problem. Post those messages, along with a
> basic description of your system -- what distribution and version of Linux,
> how much physical memory, how much swap space -- and the output of "ps -ax",
> "free", "uptime", and "df".
>
> Also post the log entries from one of the failed ISP connections that
> occurred about the time you encountered the "memory exhausted" message. I
> assume this is a modem connection using pppd - if it's something more
> exotic, mention that too.
>
> When you had the problem, were you running X, and if so, were you running
> any substantial X app (such as Netscape or Gimp)? And can you remember
> EXACTLY what the message was (a plain "memory exhausted" isn't complete -
> there would at least have been an indication of the process reporting the
> error)?
>
> If you want to have better info if the problem occurs again, run "top" on
> one virtual terminal or in an xterm, then see what it is reporting about
> memory when the problem occurs (you'll need it running since if you can't
> run "who", you probably won't be able to run "free" either). If you do this
> and want help interpreting what you see, send ALL the info that appears on
> the first 5 lines of the "top" display.
>
> Without those basic facts, any attempt to troubleshoot your problem is
> limited to wild guesses. But in any case, cache and buffer memory *isn't*
> the cause.
>
> At 02:37 PM 6/12/99 -0700, David Rysdam wrote:
> >HOWEVER, there's still something amiss. Or at least there was the other
> >day. Let me explain:
> >
> >I've been having on and off problems with my ISP. Things like not being
> >able to connect, dropped connections, slow tranfers over supposedly fast
> >connections, etc. On Wed it was being particularly slow all of a sudden
> >and I thought to myself "What if someone hacked into my server and is
> >tranferring files or something?". So as part of my checking around I
> >tried to do a "who" on the server--and I got a "memory exhausted"
> >message. I had an uptime of about 50 days until then and was down to 2
> >MB. I don't know what the cache and buffer values were. I messed with
> >this a bit and then decided to reboot. No ISP problems since (although
> >that could easily be coincidence). Now I'm back down to ~2 MB but "who"
> >works correctly.
> >
> >In any case the "memory exhausted" message needs an explanation.
> [prior messages deleted]
> ------------------------------------"Never tell me the odds!"---
> Ray Olszewski -- Han Solo
> Palo Alto, CA 94303-3603 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
--
My public encryption key is available from
www.az.com/~drysdam/crypt/rysdam.gpg.html
and of course www.keyserver.net
PID TTY STAT TIME COMMAND
1 ? S 0:03 init [3]
2 ? SW 0:00 (kflushd)
3 ? SW< 0:00 (kswapd)
48 ? S 0:08 /sbin/kerneld
207 ? S 0:36 syslogd
216 ? S 0:00 klogd
238 ? S 0:00 crond
249 ? S 0:00 inetd
296 ? S 0:00 atalkd
319 1 S 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tty1
320 2 S 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tty2
321 3 S 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tty3
322 4 S 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tty4
323 5 S 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tty5
325 ? S 0:00 update (bdflush)
326 6 S 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tty6
367 ? S 0:00 papd
376 ? S 0:03 afpd -g nobody -c 5 -n linux.home.net
10546 ? S 0:00 in.telnetd
12842 S0 S 0:00 /usr/sbin/pppd login debug lock modem crtscts /dev/ttyS0 115
13709 ? S 0:00 in.rlogind
13897 ? S 0:00 in.rlogind
13910 p1 S 0:00 su
13911 p1 S 0:00 bash
13941 p1 R 0:00 ps ax
227 ? S 0:00 /usr/sbin/atd
258 ? S 0:32 /usr/sbin/junkbuster /etc/junkbuster/config
13710 p0 S 0:00 login -p -h biglinux home.net -f drysdam
13711 p0 S 0:00 -bash
13898 p1 S 0:00 login -p -h biglinux home.net -f drysdam
13899 p1 S 0:00 -bash
10544 ? S 0:09 afpd -g nobody -c 5 -n linux.home.net
10547 p2 S 0:00 /bin/login -h littlehachi home.net -p
10548 p2 S 0:00 -bash
Filesystem 1024-blocks Used Available Capacity Mounted on
/dev/hda1 495714 405488 64625 86% /
3:22pm up 2 days, 19:49, 3 users, load average: 0.07, 0.05, 0.06
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 34852 33776 1076 13436 10564 15928
-/+ buffers/cache: 7284 27568
Swap: 20124 0 20124
