1. freeing up memory in Linux <OFFTOPIC>
Anybody know how to free up memory in Linux? My
machine has 20Mb RAM, and under 1Mb free at all
times...usually around 600Kb. I'm using kernel
2.2.10. What daemons do what and would they help free
up space? I tried limiting my consoles to just 2 in
'inittab', but that didn't help.
Any help is appreciated:
Mike Hurley
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2. Re: freeing up memory in Linux <OFFTOPIC>
Mike:
The free command shows how memory is being used by your system.
Maybe that will help you determine what is happening. I'am not
running LINUX so thats the best I can do to help.
Bernie
3. Re: freeing up memory in Linux <OFFTOPIC>
My advice is, dont worry! Linux manages it's memory very efficiently, and if
you are not running much, it fills the remainder up with kernel, libraries,
etc in it's spare time, to speed up loading if these are needed. But once
the memory is needed for something else, some of the contents of the memory
will be dumped or moved to the swap partition to make room. I have a 64mb
system, and the memory is full shortly after boot, but I can still load
x-windows, netscape and StarOffice comfortably side by side.
Nick
----- Original Message -----
From: Mike Hurley <mike_hurley_2 at YAHOO.COM>
To: <EUPHORIA at LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2000 3:18 AM
Subject: freeing up memory in Linux <OFFTOPIC>
> Anybody know how to free up memory in Linux? My
> machine has 20Mb RAM, and under 1Mb free at all
> times...usually around 600Kb. I'm using kernel
> 2.2.10. What daemons do what and would they help free
> up space? I tried limiting my consoles to just 2 in
> 'inittab', but that didn't help.
>
> Any help is appreciated:
> Mike Hurley
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger.
> http://im.yahoo.com
>
>
4. Re: freeing up memory in Linux <OFFTOPIC>
But it takes time to access the hard drive. If harddrives and their overhead
were as fast as SDRAM, what would we need the ram for? My 7200rpm drive is
fast alright, but when it's auto-powered-down, i haveto wait 5-10 seconds
for power-up, memory writeout, diskreads, and occasionally that's too long
and something happens. I can't put the rest of the world on hold while the
platters spin up,, especially the firewall logging. It's a pain to be forced
to either keep accessing the hd with dummy requests just to prevent it from
powering down (thereby significantly shortening the drive's MTBF), or
putting the data on a slower drive that won't go into sleep mode.
Kat,
peeved at harddrives that auto-power-down.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Nick Johnson" <arachnid at MAD.SCIENTIST.COM>
To: <EUPHORIA at LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU>
Sent: Monday, March 27, 2000 1:09 PM
Subject: Re: freeing up memory in Linux <OFFTOPIC>
> My advice is, dont worry! Linux manages it's memory very efficiently, and
if
> you are not running much, it fills the remainder up with kernel,
libraries,
> etc in it's spare time, to speed up loading if these are needed. But once
> the memory is needed for something else, some of the contents of the
memory
> will be dumped or moved to the swap partition to make room. I have a 64mb
> system, and the memory is full shortly after boot, but I can still load
> x-windows, netscape and StarOffice comfortably side by side.
>
> Nick
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Mike Hurley <mike_hurley_2 at YAHOO.COM>
> To: <EUPHORIA at LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU>
> Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2000 3:18 AM
> Subject: freeing up memory in Linux <OFFTOPIC>
>
>
> > Anybody know how to free up memory in Linux? My
> > machine has 20Mb RAM, and under 1Mb free at all
> > times...usually around 600Kb. I'm using kernel
> > 2.2.10. What daemons do what and would they help free
> > up space? I tried limiting my consoles to just 2 in
> > 'inittab', but that didn't help.
> >
> > Any help is appreciated:
> > Mike Hurley
> >
> > __________________________________________________
> > Do You Yahoo!?
> > Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger.
> > http://im.yahoo.com
> >
> >
>
5. Re: freeing up memory in Linux <OFFTOPIC>
Kat wrote:
>peeved at harddrives that auto-power-down.
>
I know of no hard drives that auto-power-down on their own without
instructions from the BIOS or APM in the operating system. If there is
one such, I would be interested in the make and model...so that I can
avoid it. I always turn off all such nonsense. It can do mischief to just
about anything. It comes in right behind overactive screen-savers as
one of the major sources of unsuspected trouble.
Everett L.(Rett) Williams
rett at gvtc.com
6. Re: freeing up memory in Linux <OFFTOPIC>
On Mon, 27 Mar 2000, Nick wrote:
> My advice is, dont worry! Linux manages it's memory very efficiently, and if
> you are not running much, it fills the remainder up with kernel, libraries,
> etc in it's spare time, to speed up loading if these are needed. But once
> the memory is needed for something else, some of the contents of the memory
> will be dumped or moved to the swap partition to make room. I have a 64mb
> system, and the memory is full shortly after boot, but I can still load
> x-windows, netscape and StarOffice comfortably side by side.
>
> Nick
That's correct. No matter how few programs are running, you'll usually only
have 200k to 500k free. However, even with that small amount of memory
"available", you can still load a memory-hog such as the Gimp without problems,
because Linux manages memory as Nick describes.
Only when things grind to a halt, and you hear lots of disk activity
(indicating lots of swapping) do you have to worry about low memory.
Irv
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Mike Hurley <mike_hurley_2 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject: freeing up memory in Linux <OFFTOPIC>
>
>
> > Anybody know how to free up memory in Linux? My
> > machine has 20Mb RAM, and under 1Mb free at all
> > times...usually around 600Kb. I'm using kernel
> > 2.2.10. What daemons do what and would they help free
> > up space? I tried limiting my consoles to just 2 in
> > 'inittab', but that didn't help.
> >
> > Any help is appreciated:
> > Mike Hurley
> >
7. Re: freeing up memory in Linux <OFFTOPIC>
Thanks guys-
The main reason I asked this is I wanted to get a
Nintendo emulator going and it goes slow and sounds
crappy, maybe my computer is too slow to run it.?.?
Mike Hurley
--- Irv Mullins <irv at ELLIJAY.COM> wrote:
> On Mon, 27 Mar 2000, Nick wrote:
> > My advice is, dont worry! Linux manages it's
> memory very efficiently, and if
> > you are not running much, it fills the remainder
> up with kernel, libraries,
> > etc in it's spare time, to speed up loading if
> these are needed. But once
> > the memory is needed for something else, some of
> the contents of the memory
> > will be dumped or moved to the swap partition to
> make room. I have a 64mb
> > system, and the memory is full shortly after boot,
> but I can still load
> > x-windows, netscape and StarOffice comfortably
> side by side.
> >
> > Nick
>
> That's correct. No matter how few programs are
> running, you'll usually only
> have 200k to 500k free. However, even with that
> small amount of memory
> "available", you can still load a memory-hog such as
> the Gimp without problems,
> because Linux manages memory as Nick describes.
> Only when things grind to a halt, and you hear lots
> of disk activity
> (indicating lots of swapping) do you have to worry
> about low memory.
>
> Irv
>
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Mike Hurley <mike_hurley_2 at YAHOO.COM>
> > Subject: freeing up memory in Linux <OFFTOPIC>
> >
> >
> > > Anybody know how to free up memory in Linux? My
> > > machine has 20Mb RAM, and under 1Mb free at all
> > > times...usually around 600Kb. I'm using kernel
> > > 2.2.10. What daemons do what and would they
> help free
> > > up space? I tried limiting my consoles to just
> 2 in
> > > 'inittab', but that didn't help.
> > >
> > > Any help is appreciated:
> > > Mike Hurley
> > >
>
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8. Re: freeing up memory in Linux <OFFTOPIC>
I have similar problems on my two linux computers with 16 MB RAM.
Stoping daemons doesn't seem to help very much, and with some swap
space, I haven't had trouble running out of memory and performance is
pretty good for most things (though Netscape runs rather slowly).
Here's a list from Linux Firewalls by Robert L. Ziegler:
amd The NFS automount daemon.
arpwatch Logs and builds a database of Ethernet address/IP address
pairings it sees on a LAN interface
autofs Enables the automounter ( I believe this is seperate from the
kernel automounter - this is for NFS)
bootparamd Boot parameter server
dhcpd DHCP server
gated Gateway routing daemon
httpd Apache web server
inet Super server for several services - you probably want this
innd News server
linuxconf Lets you use Linuxconf - you probably want this if you have
Red Hat
lpd Print server
mars-nwe file/print server for Novell networks
mcserv Midnight Commander file server
named DNS server
netfs mounts NFS, samba, and netware networked file systems
network configures the network - you need this
nfs nfs services
nscd name switch cache daemon
portmap RPC portmap manager
postgresql SQL database server
routed Automatically updates kernel routing tables
rstatd Collect and provide info on other machines on the network
fuserd Remote user locator service
rwalld Lets you write messages to the terminals of everyone logged
onto the machine
rwhod provides info on who is logged on, what they're doing etc.
sendmail Local mail service
smb Samba file/print sharing
snmpd Simple Network Management Daemon
squid Squid Internet Object Cache
syslog You need this
xfs X Windows font server - you need this for X
xntpd Local network time server
ypbind runs on NIS clients
yppasswdd NIS password server
ypserv NIS master server
Jeff Fielding
Mike Hurley wrote:
> Anybody know how to free up memory in Linux? My
> machine has 20Mb RAM, and under 1Mb free at all
> times...usually around 600Kb. I'm using kernel
> 2.2.10. What daemons do what and would they help free
> up space? I tried limiting my consoles to just 2 in
> 'inittab', but that didn't help.
>
> Any help is appreciated:
> Mike Hurley
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger.
> http://im.yahoo.com
9. Re: freeing up memory in Linux <OFFTOPIC>
Oh yeah - Red Hat runs pcmcia for some reason, even if you don't have a
pcmcia bay. You can disable this.
Jeff Fielding
Mike Hurley wrote:
> Anybody know how to free up memory in Linux? My
> machine has 20Mb RAM, and under 1Mb free at all
> times...usually around 600Kb. I'm using kernel
> 2.2.10. What daemons do what and would they help free
> up space? I tried limiting my consoles to just 2 in
> 'inittab', but that didn't help.
>
> Any help is appreciated:
> Mike Hurley
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger.
> http://im.yahoo.com
