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Extreme Memory Shortage on RedHat 4.0



Shlomi Fish writes:
 > Now, I tried to run X windows but couldn't get it to run on a virtual =
 > screen size higher than 320x200. When I executed "free" I noticed that =
 > at least 14 MB of my RAM was already taken by the processes which were =
 > already running. As for the swap partition memory, hardly any of it was =
 > used.

Was this total memory used, or memory used - buffers & cache?  Linux
uses spare memory for disk cache, so it's usually always using most of
your ram for something or other.  You should look at the 2nd line of
the free output (-/+ buffers:) to see what's really in use.

Furthermore, Linux often won't swap things out unless it needs to.
The fact that little swap space is in use might just mean that you
haven't yet run anything which demanded more memory.

Also, is it little swap space used or no swap space used?  It *is*
listing swap available, isn't it?  I ask because sometimes people
forget to turn on their swap, or format the partition improperly so
that 'swap on' can't mount the swap partition.

The odds are that your inability to run X windows under higher
resolutions has to do with your X configuration rather than your
memory usage.

-- 
Dr. Harvey J. Stein
Berger Financial Research
abel@netvision.net.il


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