Hi, According to the information you give, my suggestions are as follows: 1. Check if there are daemon processes named pdflush running in your system. 2. If NOT, 2.1 turn the value of /proc/sys/vm/dirty_backgound_ratio to 5 or less. 2.2 turn the value of /proc/sys/vm/dirty_ratio to 5 or less. 2.3 turn the value of /proc/sys/vm/dirty_expire_centisecs to 5 or less. 2.4 wait 3. If it still not works, 3.1 turn the value of /proc/sys/vm/vfs_cache_pressure to 1000. 3.2 run a much-memory-occupy program. 3.3 wait 4. If it still not works, reboot your computer... > -----Original Message----- > From: kernelnewbies-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxx > [mailto:kernelnewbies-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Joris van Rantwijk > Sent: Sunday, June 22, 2008 2:54 PM > To: kernelnewbies@xxxxxxxxxxxx > Subject: Memory usage and /proc/meminfo question > > Hello, > > My system recently started to act as if it is low on memory: much > harddisk activity and relatively high usage of swap. I have not seen > such behaviour before. > > The problem seems to persist even after stopping nearly all applications > including the X server. I have not rebooted the machine yet, because > I want to understand this situation before I destroy it. > > My question: What part of the system is using up my physical memory? > Can anyone help me figure out this issue? > > Physical memory is 1 GB. > I disabled swap just to make it easier to investigate this issue. > My kernel is Linux 2.6.25.4 for x86_64 with a 32-bit userland. > > Adding up all VSZ numbers from "ps auxw" gets me to about 75 MB, > so I figure I should have lots and lots of free memory. > > But /proc/meminfo gives me: > MemTotal: 996320 kB > MemFree: 67708 kB > Buffers: 17716 kB > Cached: 62412 kB > SwapCached: 0 kB > Active: 27320 kB > Inactive: 58720 kB > SwapTotal: 0 kB > SwapFree: 0 kB > Dirty: 12 kB > Writeback: 0 kB > AnonPages: 5932 kB > Mapped: 3916 kB > Slab: 193560 kB > SReclaimable: 26076 kB > SUnreclaim: 167484 kB > PageTables: 464 kB > NFS_Unstable: 0 kB > Bounce: 0 kB > CommitLimit: 498160 kB > Comitted_AS: 15536 kB > VmallocTotal: 34359738367 kB > VmallocUsed: 600 kB > VmallocChunk: 34359736326 kB > > One of my problems is that I really don't know how to read /proc/meminfo. > What do the numbers mean? > Are there rules such as Slab = SReclaimable + SUnreclaim? > > For example, it seems to me that all physical memory must be used > either by slab, cache or userland. So I tried adding it all up: > Buffers + Cached + AnonPages + Mapped + Slab + MemFree = 351244. > That is still way below 1 GB, so where are my other 645076 kB? > > I'm starting to suspect a problem in the kernel. I upgraded > to 2.6.25.4 a few weeks before this problem came up. Also, I'm > now running with CONFIG_SPARSEMEM while all my previous kernels > used CONFIG_FLATMEM. > > Any help appreciated. > > Joris. > > -- > To unsubscribe from this list: send an email with > "unsubscribe kernelnewbies" to ecartis@xxxxxxxxxxxx > Please read the FAQ at http://kernelnewbies.org/FAQ -- To unsubscribe from this list: send an email with "unsubscribe kernelnewbies" to ecartis@xxxxxxxxxxxx Please read the FAQ at http://kernelnewbies.org/FAQ
