What's Eating My FC5 Memory?

[salvatore]

Please forgive what Im sure is a rudimentary question, but Im not certain how to begin the diagnosis of what's causing the slowness on a new FC5 install.

The system is a PIV 1.4 with a little more than 600mb of RAM. Ive included top's output below, and not sure how to interpret it enough to know exactly what's wrong.

***top begin***
top - 21:05:54 up 21:19, 4 users, load average: 0.49, 0.68, 0.63
Tasks: 106 total, 4 running, 102 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 2.8% us, 2.3% sy, 3.5% ni, 86.3% id, 5.0% wa, 0.1% hi, 0.0% si
Mem: 645792k total, 606264k used, 39528k free, 68040k buffers
Swap: 1310712k total, 116k used, 1310596k free, 375160k cached

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
3229 root 15 0 100m 14m 7748 S 7.7 2.3 8:21.37 X
13573 salvator 15 0 95688 15m 9828 R 1.9 2.4 0:10.73 gnome-terminal
1 root 16 0 1988 628 540 S 0.0 0.1 0:01.69 init
2 root 34 19 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:04.60 ksoftirqd/0
3 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 watchdog/0
4 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.10 events/0
5 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.02 khelper
6 root 11 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kthread
8 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.46 kblockd/0
9 root 20 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kacpid
81 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 khubd
134 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.08 pdflush
135 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.64 pdflush
137 root 13 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 aio/0
136 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:01.87 kswapd0
224 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.01 kseriod
300 root 11 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kpsmoused
318 root 11 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kmirrord
330 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:10.42 kjournald
397 root 12 -4 2208 736 384 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.90 udevd
534 root 11 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kgameportd
1164 root 11 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 scsi_eh_0
1165 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:07.12 usb-storage
1260 root 11 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kmpathd/0
1287 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kjournald
1710 root 16 0 2228 524 228 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 dhclient
1744 root 13 -3 12012 656 464 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.64 auditd
1746 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.06 kauditd
1758 root 16 0 1656 608 504 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.18 syslogd
1761 root 15 0 1600 400 332 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 klogd
1785 rpc 15 0 1728 560 464 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 portmap
1804 rpcuser 16 0 1740 712 620 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.01 rpc.statd
1832 root 16 0 4728 592 308 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 rpc.idmapd
1846 dbus 16 0 13432 1552 1192 S 0.0 0.2 0:21.68 dbus-daemon
1859 root 15 0 1660 484 420 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 sdpd
1871 root 10 -10 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 krfcommd
1904 root 15 0 1820 472 396 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.06 hidd
1991 root 16 0 1872 728 600 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.02 automount
2005 root 16 0 1900 500 292 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.01 smartd
2014 root 16 0 1596 544 460 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.01 acpid
2023 root 16 0 25444 1184 920 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.00 hpiod
2028 root 15 0 11840 5132 1140 S 0.0 0.8 0:00.09 python
2040 root 16 0 9008 2672 1708 S 0.0 0.4 0:00.24 cupsd
2084 root 16 0 4972 1112 788 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.01 sshd
2100 root 16 0 2228 820 676 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.02 xinetd
2137 root 16 0 1820 468 392 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.04 gpm
2146 root 16 0 5176 1212 656 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.50 crond
2177 xfs 16 0 3640 1676 800 S 0.0 0.3 0:00.04 xfs
2195 root 16 0 2156 452 328 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 atd
2219 avahi 16 0 2796 1476 1288 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.08 avahi-daemon
2220 avahi 15 0 2796 448 300 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 avahi-daemon
2229 root 16 0 3128 1192 1072 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.00 cups-config-dae
2239 haldaemo 17 0 4972 3328 1752 S 0.0 0.5 0:03.35 hald
2240 root 16 0 3132 1140 1004 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.04 hald-runner
2246 haldaemo 16 0 2228 896 796 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 hald-addon-acpi
2253 haldaemo 16 0 2228 896 792 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.22 hald-addon-keyb
2260 root 16 0 2188 764 676 S 0.0 0.1 0:09.26 hald-addon-stor
2262 root 16 0 2188 764 676 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.78 hald-addon-stor
2264 root 16 0 2188 764 676 S 0.0 0.1 0:15.92 hald-addon-stor
2276 root 16 0 1588 452 384 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 mingetty
2279 root 17 0 2736 1340 1056 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.17 login
2282 root 21 0 1584 448 384 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 mingetty
2285 root 21 0 1588 452 384 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 mingetty
2310 root 17 0 1584 448 384 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 mingetty
2313 root 21 0 4440 1236 1068 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.01 prefdm
2341 root 16 0 12708 2580 2072 S 0.0 0.4 0:00.15 gdm-binary
2665 root 16 0 13328 2788 2164 S 0.0 0.4 0:00.03 gdm-binary
2892 root 16 0 1584 448 384 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 mingetty
2894 salvator 15 0 4444 1444 1208 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.08 bash
3212 salvator 16 0 4392 1140 1008 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.01 startx
3228 salvator 16 0 2648 708 596 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 xinit
3233 salvator 15 0 22436 9452 7620 S 0.0 1.5 0:00.88 gnome-session
3250 salvator 16 0 13304 1352 1120 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.13 dbus-daemon
3252 salvator 16 0 2892 680 548 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 dbus-launch
3258 salvator 16 0 7012 3548 1768 S 0.0 0.5 0:01.34 gconfd-2
3261 salvator 16 0 2312 680 584 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 gnome-keyring-d
3263 salvator 15 0 7300 2880 2224 S 0.0 0.4 0:00.26 bonobo-activati
3266 salvator 16 0 17276 9328 7224 S 0.0 1.4 0:27.37 metacity
3269 salvator 15 0 32120 7720 6276 S 0.0 1.2 0:03.25 gnome-settings-
3271 salvator 15 0 80228 16m 12m R 0.0 2.5 0:12.42 gnome-panel
3273 salvator 15 0 111m 19m 14m R 0.0 3.1 0:08.05 nautilus
3279 salvator 15 0 42088 8180 6836 S 0.0 1.3 0:00.80 eggcups
3287 salvator 15 0 76608 10m 9076 S 0.0 1.7 0:01.17 nm-applet
3289 salvator 16 0 14404 4900 4200 S 0.0 0.8 0:00.40 pam-panel-icon
3290 root 16 0 1776 644 532 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.30 pam_timestamp_c
3293 salvator 15 0 21108 5588 4444 S 0.0 0.9 0:00.58 gnome-volume-ma
3301 salvator 16 0 77872 10m 8616 S 0.0 1.7 0:14.09 wnck-applet
3309 salvator 15 0 11540 4064 3356 S 0.0 0.6 0:00.29 gnome-vfs-daemo
3314 salvator 15 0 21628 5004 3696 S 0.0 0.8 0:00.80 gnome-power-man
3325 salvator 15 0 2572 1308 908 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.58 gam_server
3329 salvator 15 0 21544 7704 6464 S 0.0 1.2 0:00.56 notification-ar
3333 salvator 16 0 25496 9732 8032 S 0.0 1.5 0:07.06 clock-applet
3337 salvator 16 0 2220 784 696 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.02 mapping-daemon
3345 salvator 25 0 4392 1168 1020 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.04 firefox
3367 salvator 25 0 4396 1176 1004 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.01 run-mozilla.sh
3372 salvator 15 0 173m 47m 18m S 0.0 7.6 4:22.67 firefox-bin
3380 salvator 16 0 14276 4984 3908 S 0.0 0.8 0:02.40 gnome-screensav
13575 salvator 16 0 2224 620 540 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 gnome-pty-helpe
13642 salvator 16 0 4448 1452 1224 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.05 bash
13663 root 18 0 4740 1196 956 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.02 su
13666 root 16 0 4448 1464 1232 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.24 bash
13749 root 16 0 8288 1916 920 S 0.0 0.3 0:00.02 sendmail
13758 smmsp 21 0 7332 1708 864 S 0.0 0.3 0:00.00 sendmail
14335 root 15 0 6504 1464 1248 S 0.0 0.2 0:02.83 wget
14365 salvator 16 0 4448 1452 1224 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.06 bash
14397 salvator 15 0 2120 932 720 R 0.0 0.1 0:00.02 top
***top end***

Is this saying I have ~39mb of RAM free? Are all of these processes really necessary?
Again, these are obviously novice questions, but that doesnt mean I wont be grateful for your assistance.

Thanks.

[marko]

There's nothing really wrong, linux buffers and caches ram that you're not using
for applications. The 39Meg free is a window that Linux leaves *really* free, but
on top of that there's a big bunch in buffer and cache that it can instantly liberate for
application use if needed

You'll see if you run

free -t

how it really uses memory

This Page seems to have a good explanation and some experiments:

http://www.penguinsecurity.net/pense...rticle&sid=269


Mark

[salvatore]

Thanks for the quick reply Mark. Im glad to see there's nothing running away per se, but by process of elimination that means my system is painfully slow due to hardware, or FC5. Its been a while since Ive had a win32 OS on this box, but I definitely remember it being faster than this.
I'll keep tinkering, but suggestions are welcomed.

[marko]

The first thing I'd do is go to:
http://www.mjmwired.net/resources.php

and follow the suggestions on the top two links:
http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/mjm-fedora-fc5.html
http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/mjm-services-fc5.html

He covers how to strip out the unneeded services that most
home users don't need. That's the first thing I do after installing
Fedora, There's also a few annoying cron jobs I get rid of
but some of those are no longer on by default.
Mark

[salvatore]

Agaain, thanks. I'll do some reading.

[JWilliamCupp]

Originally Posted by marko

The first thing I'd do is go to:
http://www.mjmwired.net/resources.php

and follow the suggestions on the top two links:
http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/mjm-fedora-fc5.html
http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/mjm-services-fc5.html

He covers how to strip out the unneeded services that most
home users don't need.

I´ve done this more than once. Since installing FC 5, however, the boot up sequence takes intorerably long. Like ten minutes. Individual user logins take 2-3 minutes up to 5 minutes.

I strongly suspect there´s a problem in some service which is running but don´t know what to do next.

During boot up, if I sit and watch it go, the first problem arises at ¨ starting named ¨ ... this takes 3 minutes or more. Other trouble points are NFS daemons.

After boot up, when I log in I get an error message that states Power Manager cannot run unless messagebus is enabled, and the error message suggests I always leave messagebus enabled. However, according to the services menu, message bus is enabled (it even gives its PID).

mjmwired.net says that gpm should be disabled, or at least enabled for run level 3 but disabled for run level 5. According to the services menu, gpm is not running. However, when I ps -e from the console, I see several (at least three) processes that are gpm-xxx (e.g., gpm-binary). Should I see those processes if the service isn´t running?

Can someone give me a clue what to look at next ... I´ve got to figure out how to return to a normal boot up time. This is ridiculous as it is now.

- Bill

[marko]

my gpm is on for all these init levels and seems to work ok:

# chkconfig --list gpm
gpm 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off

If you didn't have gpm turned on for level 5, then you wouldn't have
console cut and paste when you're running KDE or gnome and
then go to a virtual console window by pressing Cntrl+Alt+F1,...,F6 ,
which wouldn't be very good. However, I never actually run in level 5,
I boot to level 3 and then run KDE manually via startx which
I like better.

About the NFS and named, do you need this box to do DNS serving?
Also, when the "Starting ..." message shows, does it say:

Starting NFS services:
or
Starting NFS daemon:
at the point when it hangs? Which one will give a clue to what's
holding it up (where it hangs in the /etc/init.d/nfs script)

Mark

[gavinw6662]

in FC5 firefox and beagle take up a lot of memory. Might be one of the culprits

[JWilliamCupp]

Originally Posted by marko

About the NFS and named, do you need this box to do DNS serving?
Also, when the "Starting ..." message shows, does it say:

Starting NFS services:
or
Starting NFS daemon:
at the point when it hangs? Which one will give a clue to what's
holding it up (where it hangs in the /etc/init.d/nfs script)
Mark

This Linux box run my home network, including the Samba server. I think I need to do DNS to provide for the other machines on my internal network. Is that not right?

I'm watching the boot up now. 'starting named' takes about 3-4 minutes; 'starting messagebus' takes about 3-4 minutes; 'starting NFS services is instant; 'starting NFS quotas' takes 5-6 minutes; 'starting NFS daemon' is instant; 'starting NFS mountd' takes 7-8 minutes; 'starting SMB services' takes 3-4 minutes; 'starting HAL daemon' takes 2-3 minutes. Everything else takes about the time you would expect.

- Bill

[wt6g]

There is something drastically wrong with eggcups. I've got a program that prints over 20,000 pages and although everything works fine, after the job is done eggcups keeps the cpu at 100% and seems to have sequestered most of my memory. Not sure at this point if its related to large print ques or what although the print que size is managed.

I'm working on the issue, and hope to have a follow on post soon, but one thing I'm sure of is that eggcups in FC6 is broken.

Len Umina
WT6G