Hi,

I've been running linux for a while now. And with good results.
However, i've noticed recently, strange things are going on with
the RAM. I'm using Gkrellm, great app, nice to be able to glance
over and see what my system is up to. My system has 512 MB of
pc 2100 ram, and is running kernel 2.6.5. When i first boot, i have
about 414 MB of RAM left, cool, not a problem, the system is swift,
and does it's job well. It's mainly a server only, does my file sharing,
internet sharing, proxy, email, the lot. I mainly leave it in X when not
used, like i say there's ample memmory left, but i've started to notice,
when left overnight memmory drops permanently to about 126 MB. It's
making me wonder, if maybee memmory is being used and not freed up
correctly. A reboot sorts it out, but again by morning it's dropped. Are
there any memmory monitoring tools out there that could help me find out
what is going on? Or is there somthing that maybee i have'nt come across
yet, a patch? vulnerability? Nothing unusual in the logs, nothing that stands
out as odd anyway. And i'm still unsure when this started to happen, i mainly
just use the server as a gateway, so i'm not on it directly a lot of the time,
unless i'm upgrading it. It has started acting up a little lately, somtimes loosing the net completely. I put this down now to lack of memmory.

Any help appreciated...

Cheers

"but i've started to notice,
when left overnight memmory drops permanently to about 126 MB. It's
making me wonder, if maybee memmory is being used and not freed up
correctly. "

"It has started acting up a little lately, somtimes loosing the net completely. I put this down now to lack of memmory."

The way that Linux reports memory usage is different than you would intuitively think. The way that your memory usage is being reported is normal. Here is a thread which explains how memory usage is reported in Linux:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...threadid=91829

Which is not to deny that you are having problems but your memory usage statistics probably do not indicate that your problems are caused by misuse of memory.

I suggest that you post your question in Linux-Networking and see if one of the networking guys can tell you what could possibly cause your problem.

___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeB....home.page.html

Steve Stites

as jailbait suggested, linux uses memory differently than you're probably used to in windows. unused memory is wasted memory, so linux uses it, keeping libraries and stuff cached so if they're needed again, they're ready. you might have noticed that the first time you start up a big program like mozilla, evolution, etc. it takes noticeably longer than subsequent times. that's because a lot of things are still in the memory cache so they can be used again if needed. if you start something else and need more memory than is free, linux dynamically just starts using what's in the cache, starting from the oldest stuff in there.

you can use the free command (or free -m) to see the status of your memory. that will show what's used, what's free, what's buffered, what's in swap, etc. here's a shot of mine:
take note especially of what your swap space is doing. under normal use, it shouldn't be accessed hardly at all, esp. if you have 512MB of ram. as you can see, mine is still at 0, and my box has been up for 4 or 5 days. if it is being used a lot, that could mean something's wrong.

whoops, read free wrong. Post is irrelevant.

I'm suspecting memory holes in perhaps gtk-gnutella. Try upgrading. I had similar problems with it a while back,