[Andreas Lindström]

My specific problem is that my system wont boot because i get a
kmem_malloc error during startup sequence (loading of the kernel
device drivers and modules). The previous errors reported concerning
kmem_malloc problems have gotten a "increase kernel virtual memory
size (VM_KMEM setting) and it should be fixed" response... actually,
theres one that hasnt gotten an answer at all except "upgrade the size
of your memory" and thats the one i had referenced in my earlier
message.

And you have totally misunderstood my issue... my system doesnt boot,
and thus i cant run any commands. And the kmem_malloc error randomly
occurs during bootup time and never during the time its in usage.

And so far i dont run ANY services on the server... and the only
things there will be is MySQL, PHP, Apache, mail, X11 libraries and
some other random things. So far only the X11 libraries are installed,
however, i dont see what this has to do with anything since the error
occurs during startup time.

And the question i had is why ANY kernel would need 320 MB+ of memory
on a system like this? Something in the kernel has to be a resource
hog and i want to know which module it is and what i can do to limit
the memory usage (or remove it completely). FreeBSD 4.X runs prefectly
on the server however i do not like using the previous generation
since you never know when support will be killed.

What i want to do is limit the kernels resources so i can securely
boot it on a system with 128MB physical RAM and 256 MB swap, how can i
do this in FreeBSD 5.3? (i find it strange that FreeBSD 5.3 cannot do
this from start, but perhaps i am placing too high demands on a first
release after "new technology" status)

Greets
  Andreas


On Wed, 9 Mar 2005 01:41:35 -0500, Charles Swiger <cswiger at mac.com> wrote:
> On Mar 8, 2005, at 11:02 PM, Andreas Lindström wrote:
> > It seems i have the same kmem_malloc problem as some others has had in
> > their SMP computers that is running FreeBSD 5.3, however, it is also
> > different... my problem doesnt occur after an extended period of
> > running the server, it occurs randomly at bootup. Another difference
> > is that it is not a 2GB memory machine, it runs at 128MB.
> 
> Could you be more specific about the problem you have?
> 
> > Now, since the previous fixes all said to increase the VM_KMEM
> > settings im guessing this wont work for me since i have 128MB physical
> > memory and 256MB swap (actually, ive tested it as well, doesnt work).
> [ ... ] say "this module is using one hell of
> > alot of memory so remove it and decrease the VM_KMEM and it should
> > work"... seriously, why does the kernel use 320MB+ of memory?
> > Something to do with the SMP code?
> 
> Which module?
> 
> I am almost certain that your kernel is not trying to use 320+ MB of 
> RAM on a machine with 128 MB of physical memory available, so it is 
> likely that you are misunderstanding something.  When you run top, the 
> size of the kernel is best reflected by the "wired" category.
> 
> Speaking of which, what does top or "vmstat -s" say?
> 
> > And, if i have to get more memory... how much more should i get? Would
> > 256MB be enough, or does FreeBSD 5.3 only run on 2GB+ machines now?
> 
> What tasks are you running on the machine?  FreeBSD will quite happily 
> work as a mail server, router, firewall, stuff like that in 128MB, but 
> if you are running X11 and a bunch of graphical apps, more RAM would 
> certainly help.
> 
> [ If you avoid running a dozen or so virus scanner/antispam perl 
> thingies like SpamAssassin or amavisd with 30MB RSS each, you can run a 
> lightweight mail server fine in 32MB, although FreeBSD 4.x or NetBSD 
> would be better suited for a low-memory environment than FreeBSD 5.x 
> is... ]
> 
> -- 
> -Chuck
> 
>