From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Feb 27 06:44:10 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9237016A4D0 for ; Fri, 27 Feb 2004 06:44:10 -0800 (PST) Received: from tx0.oucs.ox.ac.uk (tx0.oucs.ox.ac.uk [129.67.1.163]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 20B2243D1F for ; Fri, 27 Feb 2004 06:44:10 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from colin.percival@wadham.ox.ac.uk) Received: from scan0.oucs.ox.ac.uk ([129.67.1.162] helo=localhost) by tx0.oucs.ox.ac.uk with esmtp (Exim 4.24) id 1AwjDl-0001XW-Da for freebsd-current@freebsd.org; Fri, 27 Feb 2004 14:44:09 +0000 Received: from rx0.oucs.ox.ac.uk ([129.67.1.161]) by localhost (scan0.oucs.ox.ac.uk [129.67.1.162]) (amavisd-new, port 25) with ESMTP id 05608-10 for ; Fri, 27 Feb 2004 14:44:09 +0000 (GMT) Received: from gateway.wadham.ox.ac.uk ([163.1.161.253]) by rx0.oucs.ox.ac.uk with smtp (Exim 4.24) id 1AwjDl-0001XH-00 for freebsd-current@freebsd.org; Fri, 27 Feb 2004 14:44:09 +0000 Received: (qmail 2800 invoked by uid 0); 27 Feb 2004 14:44:02 -0000 Received: from colin.percival@wadham.ox.ac.uk by gateway by uid 71 with qmail-scanner-1.16 (sweep: 2.14/3.71. spamassassin: 2.53. Clear:. Processed in 1.388385 secs); 27 Feb 2004 14:44:02 -0000 X-Qmail-Scanner-Mail-From: colin.percival@wadham.ox.ac.uk via gateway X-Qmail-Scanner: 1.16 (Clear:. Processed in 1.388385 secs) Received: from dhcp1131.wadham.ox.ac.uk (HELO piii600.wadham.ox.ac.uk) (163.1.161.131) by gateway.wadham.ox.ac.uk with SMTP; 27 Feb 2004 14:44:01 -0000 Message-Id: <6.0.1.1.1.20040227143620.03c72150@imap.sfu.ca> X-Sender: cperciva@imap.sfu.ca (Unverified) X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 6.0.1.1 Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2004 14:43:57 +0000 To: Chris Elsworth From: Colin Percival In-Reply-To: <20040227141717.GA53143@shagged.org> References: <20040227101410.GA45369@shagged.org> <20040227135836.GA52534@shagged.org> <6.0.1.1.1.20040227140137.03e01818@imap.sfu.ca> <20040227141717.GA53143@shagged.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: mdconfig unable to allocate memory X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2004 14:44:10 -0000 At 14:17 27/02/2004, Chris Elsworth wrote: > > The fact that running out of kernel address space can cause > > problems is quite well documented. > >Well, yes, but why would "vinum start" on a clean boot before any >tweaking (this is an out of the box 5.2.1-R) cause that? Surely the >kernel address space is sufficiently large just by self-tuning on a >machine with 4GB, for a vinum start to succeed? Sorry, I misread the order of events. Vinum is somewhat broken right now, but it shouldn't be that bad. >I think I'm just missing the point of having a swap backed memory >disk, really; I assumed that it would immediately start dumping >anything I put in it, into swap, causing disk access. Does it only put >stuff into swap once it runs out of address space? I believe that swap-backed memory disks are treated the same way as other pageable allocations: Kept in memory until / unless the amount of free memory drops below a given watermark. Colin Percival