Hi all,
Just FYI that I have solved the nasty problem with X server crashing
once it consumed all available memory on the client.
I just added those lines at the beginning of the "startx" startup script.
XMEM_RESERVE=20000
MEMFREE=`grep MemFree /proc/meminfo | awk '{print $2}'`
XMEM=$(($MEMFREE - $XMEM_RESERVE))
echo "**** X sever limited to ${XMEM} kB RAM ****"
ulimit -v ${XMEM}
It did not solve the problem source, but at least X server (and users
whole session) survives.
It would be nice to see something like this in the next version of LTSP.
Happy new year!!
Ondrej
Jim McQuillan wrote:
>Ondrej,
>
>Your observations of Firefox and X.org are spot on.
>
>When you quit from firefox, the Xserver will release all of the memory
>>From the X.org guys that i've talked to about this, they say it's all
>firefox's fault, because the Xserver doesn't know whether firefox is
>still needing those resources.
>
>I hear occasional rumours that there is (or will be) an option in X.org
>to limit how much ram can be allocated. Then, a well behaved app should
>be able to pay attention to the error returned from the allocation
>request, and deal with it properly, rather than crashing the Xserver.
>
>I'm at the Ubuntu dev conf, and we've got X.org guys and Firefox guys
>here, so i'll try to corner them, to see what we can do.
>
>Jim McQuillan
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
>
>
>
>
>On Tue, 1 Nov 2005, Ondrej Valousek wrote:
>
>
>
>>Jim, Jason,
>>
>>I have done some more testing and here are the results:
>>- visiting some web pages in firefox (like the one Jason mentioned)
>>results in X consuming much more memory (50% in my case - I have 256Mb
>>on clients)
>> This memory is immediately released once you close firefox. I assume
>>this is a normal behaviour
>>- I tested several X servers connected via XDM to a logon box (RHEL 4,
>>Gnome) and used certain applications like gpdf (try to scroll up and down):
>>Xorg 6.8.2 builtin LTSP 4.1.1 - X growing constantly and memory is *not*
>>released even after you quit the application. The client eventually crash.
>>Xorg 6.8.2 shipped with RHEL 4 - same problem
>>XFree86 4.3, Suse 9.0 - same problem
>>XSun, Solaris 8, Sun Ultra 5 - unable to replicate the problem (was
>>working like a charm)
>>
>>So I think this must be a bug in the Xorg and Xfree86 servers as I was
>>not able to replicate this with Xsun X server.
>>I saw some discussion and there is a bug in Xorg 6.8.2. causing memory
>>leak when using Xcursor animated themes. Should be fixed in RC2.
>>I do not want that much - only a stable environment that does not crash
>>randomly.
>>
>>Ondrej
>>
>>Jim McQuillan wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>>Jason,
>>>
>>>I don't have any solid formula for setting the size of the swapfile.
>>>I've found that just going with 64mb of swap has solved any problems
>>>that I've encountered.
>>>
>>>As for "all situations", i'm sure there's a point where you could run
>>>out of ram, even with 64mb of ram and 64mb of swap.
>>>
>>>Jim.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>On Mon, 22 Aug 2005, Jason Maas wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>Hi Jim,
>>>>
>>>>On Mon, 22 Aug 2005, Jim McQuillan wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>There's just no getting around the fact that the Xserver is going to
>>>>>consume memory. And for the most part, it's not X's fault, it's the
>>>>>applications. the Xserver allocates memory on the apps behalf, and most
>>>>>apps don't tell the Xserver to release the memory when it is done with
>>>>>it.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>Thanks for the explanation, it's very helpful for someone like me who's not
>>>>familiar with the nitty gritty details of X.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>So, for now, we have the NFS-Swap safety net, which is better than
>>>>>having the Xserver croak.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>Definitely! So does NFS-Swap prevent X from getting nuked in all
>>>>situations?
>>>>Do you have any recommendations from your experience regarding RAM, swap, or
>>>>total combined memory size?
>>>>
>>>>Thanks so much for all of your hard work on LTSP, it's a fantastic project!
>>>>
>>>>Jason
>>>>
>>>>--
>>>>Jason Maas
>>>>DiscipleMakers Systems Dept -- www.dm.org
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>
>
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