Re: [PLUG] Linux upgrade issues

["Eric at Lucii.org" <eric@lucii.org>]

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On 07/12/2012 09:39 AM, Rich Freeman wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 12, 2012 at 9:29 AM, Eric at Lucii.org <eric@lucii.org> wrote:
>> Memory test is fine - as far as I can tell. The BIOS POST screen shows:  3072MB OK (Installed Memory Size: 4096MB) Mem test shows:  Memory   :  3071M  1471  MB/s
> 
> What did you do to test it?  Did you run memtest86 or something similar for an extended period of time?  Definitely don't trust the BIOS - that does minimal checking.

I ran memtest86 for about 5 minutes.  I'd let it run for an hour or three
but I have work to do.  Tonight I'll let it do an extended test.

I'm worried that it only sees 3GB - I have 4 in the box so that's one
reason I think that something may be wrong. [1]

>> I'm beginning to think that a new mobo+processor+RAM infusion will solve this.
> 
> That's a definite maybe.  You might want to at least post the content of a ps -eal or a cat /proc/meminfo before you go buying new hardware. Hardware issues can lead to some really glitchy behavior, but I'm not convinced that is what you have going on.
> 
> If you just had some process with a massive memory leak that would explain this whole thing, and fixing that is as simple as a kill command, and then figuring out where it came from to fix it.
> 
> Rich

If the system is freshly booted and no applications are running it's using
about 50% of the 3GB RAM and no swap.  That includes the CrashPlan backup
software using 272 MB RAM (Java)

Thunderbird uses almost a quarter of
a GIG of RAM(!) and Chrome uses maybe 80 to 150 MB per tab.
Right now I have:
  Thunderbird ... main window + this email
  Chrome (1 tab - homepage)
  2 x XTerms (yeah - getting work done!) [2]

It's using 73% of RAM and no swap.

Starting Firefox - oops - system froze for about 10 seconds :-(
Now FF is using 272 MB and I'm at 80% and no swap.

This is annoying because I'll open up 5 or 6 Chrome browsers with
multiple tabs, half a dozen xterms, and I'll be swapping just to
change focus from one window to another.

In essence, it's okay if I don't DO anything.

Thanks for the help.

Eric

[1] I plan to power down the box and remove/re-seat the RAM just to
    make sure it's "connected."  I remember from my work at GE that
    90% of our test equipment problems were related to connectors
    and/or cables.
[2] "Back in the day" (tm) we used to grumble because XTerm used a whole
    megabyte of RAM for each terminal.  That was back when 64 Meg was
    more expensive than the entire rest of the server :-)
- -- 
#  Eric Lucas
#
#                "Oh, I have slipped the surly bond of earth
#                 And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings...
#                                        -- John Gillespie Magee Jr

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