Re: Problem with swapping - computer crash.
On Sat, 12 Aug 2000, Marko Cehaja wrote:
marko >There were just 4-5 programs in memory, taking about 80-100 MB, which
marko >are Netscape, Gimp, rxvt+mc, mutt.
I can't speak for the others, but its good to restart netscape at least 2
or 3 times a day if you only have 128MB.
marko >Usually there is no problem, but then about 5 o'clock when cron jobs
marko >start working, memory is filled up somehow, and my X becomes so slow,
marko >that I cannot switch to console any more to kill some programs.
Are these system cron jobs or are they cron jobs you set? 5AM ?
marko >Everything becomes so slow, and hard disk is working and working...
marko >On every single text console I get messages how it couldn't swap the
marko >memory or find the free page for that.
could this be the locate database updating ? that takes about 30 minutes
on the average system i think. the system can drag real bad during that
time if its slow.
marko >I have seen that swap file is being filled over few days, but it doesn't
marko >free itself, when programs don't run anymore.
Check to see what is using all the memory...(via the 'ps' command)
marko >Does somebody know how to free the swap? Or someone knows how to take
marko >some steps to ensure that used memory will not come to this death range.
you shouldn't have to "free" swap. but in your case i would for sure add
more swap, and even better to add more ram, it is good practice to have 3
times the amount of swap as memory installed in the system, linux systems
typically use much less then other systems so you should be able to get by
using 2X swap as you have memory installed. This may drag your system
down real slow at times as the system swaps a lot, but it should help
prevent a lot of crashes due to out of memory.
If you really wanted to free swap you can use the swapoff command and
swapon to turn swap back on, if you do this when programs are swapping
that may cause them to crash if there is not enough memory to keep them in
memory (assuming that is what would happen) use that with care.
nate
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