Well I went back to where I found that Ram info, a mailing list for my
local Linux User Group, and I guess I was slightly wrong. Here's his words:
-----------------
Now, let's say I launch an application called `foo' that uses the shared
library `bar'. When the OS first finds `foo' in the filesystem it will
cache that information in RAM so that, if I were to immediately run
another instance of `foo', it would not need to access the disk for
something it already knew.
Now what about the `bar'? Well, that's shared information. Not only will
that show up in the filesystem cache but it will also show up in the
shared cache. A second instance of `foo' will not load a second instance
of `bar' since it already has it loaded.
`foo' takes a bit of size in the filesystem and also when it is running.
Well, what you see when you stop `foo' is that the runnable part is
unloaded but the cached information is not. Hence the descrepency.
The OS is smart enough with its cache to know when it's a good thing and
when it's not. Let's say I ran something huge just before running `foo'
and most of the available filesystem cache has been used. Well, the OS
just unloads the oldest bits and makes room for the new stuff. If `foo',
in turn, decides to allocate 3/4 of my RAM as dynamic memory for some
reason, the OS will unload *all* of its cache to make room for the
application. If it needs more, however, it will go to swap.
Don't be decieved by the output of these programs thinking you're not
getting resources released back to you. Once your user application
terminates there is no trace of it left running in the system. The only
thing left is what is controlled by the OS--the filesystem cache and the
shared memory cache.
(Okay, this is a bit of an oversimplification and I probably got a few
minor technical details askew, but it should serve to point out what's
going on.)
---------------------
So that might explain it more throughly and more right than I did. Sorry for
the misinformation.
But I guess it sitll doesn't explain why it's so slow. However, in reading
through old postings on that list, I found some stuff that may or may not help.
First use "ps" and "top" to see if there are any programs that are taking up a
lot of CPU/Ram. You can hit "M" (make sure it's a capital M) when using "top"
to sort by memory usage. X should take up around 25% or less of the memory, and
should take up the most memory. If you do see something hogging the memory or
whatever, trying killing it.
> Anthony, my RAM in my K6-2 machine is 96meg.
> With two netscape windows open and KDE I am using 29meg.
> Mine don't use all the RAM at start. But 96 Meg is a lot.
>
> I have run MacMillan Mandrake 5.2 and 6.0 with no problems.
>
> I bought MacMillan Mandrake 7.0 recently and I experienced the same problems
> Charles did on it being very slow.
> Also 6.0 takes about 30 minutes to install, and this new 7.0 took 2:40.
> Ridiculous.
>
> I grabbed the Mandrake 6.0 and threw it back on the machine.
>
> I sent 7.0 back, and I am still waiting on a refund from MacMillan.
>
> fwiw
> steve
>
> ----Original Message Follows----
> From: Anthony Huereca <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> I'm not sure why your system is so slow, but I can explain the RAM
> utilization.
> I've found out (as I once complained about the same thing that you are) that
> Linux uses RAM differently than Windows. It'll take up all "x" (in your case
> 256
> MB) RAM soon after bootup. However, it shouldn't affect the performance at
> all when you open program or anything. Instead of taking the Ram
> in chunks like Windows, Linux just takes the whole thing at once. So don't
> worry about seeing 100% ram utilization. Not sure why
> Linux is slow though for you.
>
>
> > my processor is a PIII 450 overclocked to 540( not the problem I've
> already
> > declocked it and the same thing happens ), I have 256 megs of
> SDRAM@100mhz,
> > I have two ATA-66 drives one at 18 gigs and another at 27.3 gigs, and a
> > diamond viper v770.
> >
> > It is really wierd... I boot up and look at the system resource manager(I
> > forget the name) and I can see my RAM usage go up by about 6 to 12 megs a
> > second until it is all used up. It doesn't use any of the swap file
> either.
> > I don't understand.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Charles Ulwelling
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> >
> >
> > What is your processor speed, and how fast is
> > your harddrive, like is it an older ide or newer udma33,
> > or scsi?
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sat, 25 Mar 2000, Charles Ulwelling mewed:
> > > I'm having a serious problem with linux mandrake 7.0. I boot up and
> with
> > > in a matter of seconds my ram utilization goes to max. I have 256 megs
> of
> > > RAM so I don't understand how this could be. It makes linux completely
> > > unuseable. I'm booting into KDE.
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > > Charles Ulwelling
--
Anthony Huereca
http://m3000.1wh.com
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