Re: 2.4 kernel and 4GB+ of RAM
* John (totaloverseer@home.com) spake thusly:
> > Note that 2.4 kernels die (after 14 days uptime here) with "out of
> > memory". I wouldn't use a 2.4 kernel for a production machine until
> > that is fixed.
>
> Ive never had a memory problem with a 2.4 kernel. I actually ran a machine
> with NO powersupply fan (it had burnt out) for about 6 months before getting
> a new one, with absolutely no downtime. It was kinda nice in the winter
> actually, kept my feet warm :)
Yeah, well, that doesn't mean I've imagined it. Out of curiosity, datestamp
on http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.4/linux-2.4.0.tar.bz2 is
04-Jan-2001. Is it already 4th of July where you are? (4 Jan + 6 months = ?)
I did some more googling (at http://groups.google.com) and found that bug
still exists in 2.4.5-ac3. Apparently the system runs out of swap after X
days of uptime (dep. on the load/job mix etc; X = 13 here) because VM doesn't
release swap space. According to Alan Cox it's a known bug in all 2.4 kernels.
The bug is hard to catch because it may or may not manifest itself, depending
on your VM configuration and job mix.
Bottom line: it's more likely to hit production servers that stay up 24/7.
You'll never see it on a dual-boot home box because swap is cleared every
time you reboot to GameOS, besides, a home box doesn't run too many jobs.
I haven't seen it until 2.4.5 because new kernel releases came out (& I
had to reboot the box after installing new kernel) before the bug had a
chance to bit.
That's nothing new: 2.2 kernels didn't stabilize until 2.2.16 or so IIRC.
Dima
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