Re: safe load average
On Wed, May 08, 2002 at 03:14:04PM -0500, dman wrote:
> On Wed, May 08, 2002 at 03:33:47PM -0400, Seneca wrote:
> | On Tue, May 07, 2002 at 09:11:50PM -0500, dman wrote:
>
> | > What services is that system running? It sounds like you're trying to
> | > push the machine way too far. How powerful is it (CPU, RAM)?
> |
> | This system is my most powerful one. It's a P100 with 16M RAM and 100M
> | swap.
>
> P100 is ok, the 16MB RAM is your problem. Rather recently I compiled
> a lot of stuff on a P90 w/ 96MB RAM. It wasn't fast, but it ran ok
> because it had plenty of memory. I also have a 486SX/25 with 8MB RAM.
> The CPU is never loaded because it's mostly idle while the box
> thrashes about. Memory (apart from disk for I/O intensive
> applications) is the primary constraint on systems. CPU clock speed
> is only secondary.
On my budget, any upgrades are impossible. So it looks like I'm staying
with my 16M RAM unless dad buys me some, but his priorities are on
upgrading the collective's memory from 64M/system to something higher
(and I can't just scoop up the unused memory after an upgrade, according
to the manual, I can't upgrade this system's memory beyond 40M, and none
of the systems in the collective have small enough DIMMs)
> | (but I have my eye on a P133 with 96M RAM that is laying unused in
> | the basement... and the other two unused systems that mom won't let me
> | have (for some reason she considers my current 3 systems to be too
> | many))
>
> Maybe you can convince her to let you swap systems as opposed to
> collecting more. Maybe you can come up with a rewards system that
> gives you more memory (or just another machine) in return for good
> grades in your CS. course?
I wish... a while ago I had a windoze system that by way of raw power
was four times as powerful as my laptop. The moment I was able to
connect to the proxy with this system, she took it away. By way of
grades, now that I comment my programs and implement useless features
(such as graphics and GUI (I love the command line)), in addition to
creating and using testfiles that expose more bugs than the teacher's
testfiles, I consistently get 100% on all my assignments, but that
doesn't stop mom from taking away my systems every time I forget to do a
chore. (how am I supposed to do CS without C?)
> | Currently I am running X, cardmgr (this is a laptop after all), getmail,
> | exim, netscape (I would prefer not to, but I need javascript and java
> | support to connect to the proxy, and mozilla is massive), dictd, cron,
> | and lpd. The stuff that I am using is mutt, vim, lynx, garlic, xcircuit,
> | gnuplot, and sometimes playmidi.
>
> Suggestions :
> o kill dictd. It's a memory hog and you probably don't need it that
> much.
>
> o run exim and lpd out of xinetd, not as daemons
> I don't think this machine is supposed to be a primary server
> (and if you have other machines then offload the load to
> them).
None of the other systems that I have are able to take the load that I
would be offloading. But by not running exim and lpd as daemons, the
load has dropped a bit, although when I send stuff off to print, it sets
off this cron-operated alarmclock.
> o see if dropping the music playing helps. it probably runs
> lots of data through memory and might take some CPU too. Try
> and move that duty to another system.
The other systems don't have a soundcard or chip.
> | (not counting countless compiles of homework for computer science, a
> | class where the teacher gives bonus marks for "features" such as
> | confirmation messages, and GUI messes)
>
> Compilation requires resources. When you combine that with limited
> amounts of memory and the other services you have resident you're
> causing trouble (as you've noticed :-)).
When a minimalist kernel takes ~24h to compile, you know you have
problems.
> What are the specs and loads on the other machines you have running?
> If you can distribute the load amongst them that would help your
> laptop out. Also try not to do everything at once. Do one (resource
> hungry) thing at a time.
If anyone can tell me how to get the load of a 386 with 1M RAM and
MSDOS 3.0, and of a 286 with 640k RAM and MSDOS 5.0 that cannot be on at
the same time as the 386 because of a monitor shortage, please do so.
Somehow I doubt that I'll be using them for anything other than terminal
duty (300 baud, I can't afford proper cabling) any time soon.
--
Seneca
seneca-cunningham@rogers.com
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