on Wed, Apr 18, 2001 at 05:13:07PM -0700, Jeff Davis (list-debian@dynworks.com) wrote: > I am running unstable (also kernel 2.4.3). I was exporting a > display and runnning a second instance of kde on a remote machine > (seperate user). When I came back, my computer was very slow (almost > all my 256MB RAM used, way more than normal). Out-of-memory conditions can lead to a sluggish, and sometimes terminally swapped, system. Best thing to do is find and isolate the memory-hogging application and shut it down. > I closed everything and tried to get out of kde/X (at this time the > remote computer had already logged off, etc). Suggestions: - Switch to a virtual console window (<ctl><alt><F[1-6]>) rather than killing X. You're going to need a console anyway, and you can kill X from it. You might want to run 'screen' and get both a 'top' session and a shell prompt going. - Leave the remote connection open. It uses minimal overhead and is quite useful if you wedge the system. - Using top or other monitoring tools, start shutting down large processes. > I eventually got to a black screen with an immobile mouse and an > unresponsive keyboard. I had to reboot. Sometimes necessary, but often not. You'll also want to read up on the "magic sysrq" key combinations. I've got these taped up in strategic locations. > I am not sure that the display export had anything to do with the > "crash". Did I do something wrong? My computer hasn't had any > problems like this for a long time (and I have had 2.4.2/3 & debian > unstable for at least a month). Check your system logs for error messages, may be something there. Could just be userspace apps. You can set user limits (ulimit) to prevent runaway memory utilization. There's also low-memory cleanup support being added to the Linux kernel itself, though I believe this is still experimental and doesn't quite perform as expected or desired. -- Karsten M. Self <kmself@ix.netcom.com> http://kmself.home.netcom.com/ What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand? There is no K5 cabal http://gestalt-system.sourceforge.net/ http://www.kuro5hin.org
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