Re: Query about failure of Debian 6 64 bit to swap properly
On Thu, Aug 30, 2012 at 02:16:23AM +0800, Bret Busby wrote:
> On Wed, 29 Aug 2012, Camaleón wrote:
>
> >On Wed, 29 Aug 2012 16:23:47 +0800, Bret Busby wrote:
> >
> >(...)
> >
> >>So, my query is this; is the inability of 64 bit Debian 6, to swap
> >>properly, instead using increasing amounts of RAM until it runs out of
> >>RAM, then crashing, while having 40GB of unused swap partition allocated
> >>and "swappiness" set to 70, due to the inability of the file manager to
> >>cope with filesize greater than 1GB?
> >
> >I think you are talking about two problems here. Let's see...
I agree with Camaleó. You have at least two problems.
> The problem is that the computer runs out of RAM.
OK, why?
Run top and tap 'm'. You will see the processes in your system
ordered according to memory usage. What are the top offenders,
and how much are they using?
> I can not save files larger than about 1.2GB, to the system.
>
> The file manager crashes, and, crashes the system, when the saved
> file size gets to 1.2GB, if it gets that big. I have had some
> attempted file saves crash at 12MB, crashing the system.
Which file manager are you using? There are roughly 300 of them
available in Debian.
Does the same problem occur when you rm a file from the command
line?
> In Debian 5, I could sometimes kickstart memory swapping, by running
> something like the GIMP, and opening images, then closing the
> application, at which stage, memory swapping would sometimes start
> (on a different computer - Debian 5 would not run on this computer),
> but I have not yet managed to get memory swapping working properly
> in the 64 bit Debian 6. I do not remember whether the memory
> swapping works on the 32 bit installation of Debian 6, on my NX5000
> laptop.
This is bizarre.
All you need to do to start swap availability is to have a swap
partition or swap file created and identified in /etc/fstab.
/sbin/swapon -s will show you what partitions or files you are
using, and how big they are and how much is used. Your goal is
to generally not be using swap at all.
You can turn swapping on and off with
/sbin/swapon -a
/sbin/swapoff -a
-a is for all.
-dsr-
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