Wow thats alot of memory!

[paradox]

As you guys know, I just bought a new external modem and a stick of ram. I am now up to 384 meg of Ram. Well I installed Mandrake because my Redhat install flopped! Soooo, I was running mandrake for a bit and I decided to run tux racer, wow was it slow! Then I tried to do the ping pong game, can't remember the name right now, and it was just as if not more slow. I then decided to see what the problem was. Out of 384 meg of ram without anything else running except KDE I only hand .5 meg free all the rest was being used! ERRR, that shouldn't be. So I rebooted the system, started up KDE again and checked it out, WOOHOOO .75 meg free! That did it for me, I started to download slack. I get about halfway done using gftp so I could resume and stall and crash. GRRR Linux isn't supposed to do this. I had to hard reboot and what happened my entire download is gone! So I reinstall Mandrake completely to see if the install was bad, memory was still being used completely and it was still crashing around every 4 to 5 hours(still better than Windows). Well I gave up on it, went to the bookstore and by pure chance found a copy of Redhat 6.0(yes I know it is old, but I can fix that! ) and it was priced at 3.99 for the whole thing. Half Price Books is a great store. Not only that, it was the first place I have seen up here in Seattle that sells Linux games, so I bought a few, since all of them were priced at 5.99 a peice. I got soldier of fortune, railroad tycoon II, and sim city 3000. They said they would be getting a new shipment of them in next week, so I will be heading back. I could make a mint buying from them and reselling! LOL

Aragorn

[JimH]

Well I installed Mandrake because my Redhat install flopped!

What was the problem?

I get about halfway done using gftp so I could resume and stall and crash. GRRR Linux isn't supposed to do this.

gftp isn't the most stable program in the world.

Out of 384 meg of ram without anything else running except KDE I only hand .5 meg free all the rest was being used!

Linus says "unused memory is wasted memory."

I had to hard reboot

WOW, I haven't had a hard reboot, since I first started using Linux when I used too screw it up all the time.

crashing around every 4 to 5 hours

Did you have this problem before you installed the new memory? Maybe incompatible with you old memory?

This is from the Linux box I haven't upgraded to RH 7.2 yet.

uptime: 12:23am up 52 days, 13 min, 3 users, load average: 0.17, 0.05, 0.04

found a copy of Redhat 6.0(yes I know it is old,

That's definitely old.

first place I have seen up here in Seattle that sells Linux games

Thats a miracle to find someone who sells Linux games.

Jim H

[paradox]

Well I installed Mandrake because my Redhat install flopped!

What was the problem?

My gf was frequently deciding to stop the download and do her thing on the computer then resume it. A few times is fine, but enough stopping and restarting will corrupt the file eventually.

I get about halfway done using gftp so I could resume and stall and crash. GRRR Linux isn't supposed to do this.

gftp isn't the most stable program in the world.

Yes, but it wasn't gftp that screwed up, it was KDE. GRR

Out of 384 meg of ram without anything else running except KDE I only hand .5 meg free all the rest was being used!

Linus says "unused memory is wasted memory."

Fine, but geez it doesn't let me run a somewhat graphically intensive game without chop chop chop....hmmm

I had to hard reboot

WOW, I haven't had a hard reboot, since I first started using Linux when I used too screw it up all the time.

Yeah, tell me about it! I don't think I am screwing it up, cuz I only had a fresh install. Plus, I know enough not to screw it up that bad!

crashing around every 4 to 5 hours

Did you have this problem before you installed the new memory? Maybe incompatible with you old memory?

Actually I did. KDE was really locking up on me, I thought it was a memory issue then, and when I got the new memory it still did it, so...hmmm. I even tried taking out the old stick and just leaving in the new and got the same results. I am not impressed with Dell anyways. I put it more on their system than I do Linux. Actually I put it ALL on their system. GRR.

This is from the Linux box I haven't upgraded to RH 7.2 yet.

uptime: 12:23am up 52 days, 13 min, 3 users, load average: 0.17, 0.05, 0.04

Hehe, I'll have that soon, don't you worry! Just give me time to tweak and prod my way around these problems! :P

found a copy of Redhat 6.0(yes I know it is old,

That's definitely old.

Oh hush! I know, but what is old I can always upgrade, plus it is with a tried and true kernel, etc. All of this is upgradeable though, Linux is great that way!

first place I have seen up here in Seattle that sells Linux games

Thats a miracle to find someone who sells Linux games.

Jim H

I know, isn't it!?!?!

Aragorn

[x0xCRIZx0x]

Aaragorn, did you try to execute "top" command to see what was causing the mem. usage? This would give you a better idea of whats causing this. Also, I found that during shutdown/reboot, it's a good idea to NOT restore session when logging out. Processes from previous sessions will pop up again if you do this (unless you want to restore the session).

This happens to me occassionally, usually the kapm-idled process is the cause. But once i start up a kde app, it goes back to normal. Hope this helps ;D

[gaxprels]

Aragorn...
Hi. This is my first post here. I found your site because you posted a link to it in my topica discussion list. (Gax's Linux Discussion Group). Thanks for the link. I didn't even know the list was being used (because the email address I used to admin it doesn't exist any more.) I just transferred it to a new admin email account today, and maybe I will get to do tutorials and articles again.

Anyway, what video card are you using? This may have a lot to do with the performance problem. The games you mentioned are OpenGL compliant and if you don't have a graphics card that is hardware compliant with a good amount of Video RAM, those games will not run correctly (if at all.) Also, no matter how much RAM you put in your machine, Linux should use most of it. Just because you think you are only running a few applications, the OS has to do memory paging for the apps that are open as well as taking into consideration the many background programs that are running (especially with X). I couldn't help you with KDE problems. I use GNOME. Hope this helps, and thanks for a great site. Maybe I'll see you on my list some more.

gaxprels

[paradox]

Aragorn...
Hi. This is my first post here. I found your site because you posted a link to it in my topica discussion list. (Gax's Linux Discussion Group). Thanks for the link.

Anytime, I try to use the list whenever I see a question I can answer for someone.

I didn't even know the list was being used (because the email address I used to admin it doesn't exist any more.) I just transferred it to a new admin email account today, and maybe I will get to do tutorials and articles again.

Speaking of articles and tutorials, we can ALWAYS use an OMP and an article here and there! (extra winks for extra emphasis! )

Anyway, what video card are you using? This may have a lot to do with the performance problem. The games you mentioned are OpenGL compliant and if you don't have a graphics card that is hardware compliant with a good amount of Video RAM, those games will not run correctly (if at all.) Also, no matter how much RAM you put in your machine, Linux should use most of it. Just because you think you are only running a few applications, the OS has to do memory paging for the apps that are open as well as taking into consideration the many background programs that are running (especially with X). I couldn't help you with KDE problems. I use GNOME. Hope this helps, and thanks for a great site. Maybe I'll see you on my list some more.

gaxprels

Well I actually solved the problem, should have posted here. Here goes. The video card problem is with the default drivers that come with Mandrake or with Redhat, or actually with any distro that uses their own open source drivers. These drivers to don't properly access agp or the GL drivers. You have to goto the NVidia site and download the appropriate drivers and then install them, you can use the OMP that I authored to install them if you don't know how(for the newbies, I guess you prolly know how gaxprels! ). You then need to modify the XF86Config-4 file appropriately. This will fix the games going slow problem, I know average 55 - 60 fps on chromium versus the 4 fps I was getting without the NVidia drivers.

Now for the memory. What had me worried is that it didn't show that it was cached, but it showed that it was used. As this was not the case as I later found out. Running top I found out that it was cached of course, but it threw me for a loop when I thought it was all being used, that couldn't have been right, not with nothing running but X. Anyways, all is well now, although I am out of MDK and into Redhat!

Aragorn

P.S. Nice to see you on the board!

[gaxprels]

Hi all,
Better drivers is what I was going to suggest. I have an ATI Rage Fury Pro and got better drivers at linuxvideo.org. I got the driver from the GATOS project there. If I do an article or tutorial on my message list and you like it, I would be more than happy to submit it here as well. See you around

gaxprels

[trommaster]

weeeeeeeeeeeell, i have mandrake and kde, with 320 mb ram. and it runs SCHWEET!

i have about 100mb free. don't know what your moaning about......

Just my $0.2 worth

Alastair