Subject: Re: 'free' and 'top' show the wrong amount of RAM
From: Robert Fout (rfout@mahi.damien.edu)
Date: Thu Mar 02 2000 - 22:39:51 MST
I just remembered something...another wrench into the works... running RHL
6.1 on a PC with 64 MB of RAM, free showed ‰62 MB free (so the kernel
[2.2.12-20] was using ‰2 MB of RAM)..running YDL 1.1 on my G3 with 128 MB of
RAM, free shows ‰ 124 MB free, so the kernel [2.2.6] is using ‰4 MB of RAM..
is it just coincidence that for every 64 MB of RAM the kernel uses 2 MB?
Bob
---------------------------------------
"The knack to flying is learning how to
throw yourself at the ground and miss."
>From "Life the Universe and Everything"
by Douglas Adams
Robert Fout
MacOS Guru and MkLinux/Yellowdog Linux User
rfout@damien.edu
http://osx.damien.edu/rfout/
ICQ# 48433406
> From: Jim Cole <greyleaf@yggdrasill.net>
> Reply-To: yellowdog-general@lists.yellowdoglinux.com
> Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2000 22:20:45 -0700 (MST)
> To: yellowdog-general@lists.yellowdoglinux.com
> Subject: Re: 'free' and 'top' show the wrong amount of RAM
>
> Jason P. Stanford's bits of Fri, 3 Mar 2000 translated to:
>
>> Disk : 1,000 * 1024 bytes = 1,024,000 bytes =~ 1MB
>> Memory : 2^20 bytes = 1,048,576 bytes =~ 1MB RAM
>>
>> One megabyte of disk storage is comprised of 1,000 units of 1,024 bytes,
>> whereas one megabyte of memory (RAM) is comprised of 2^20 bytes.
>
> I would have to disagree. 1000 units of 1024 bytes is just 1000 1KB blocks,
> not 1 MB. A MB is always 1024^2 bytes. If you check the man pages for du
> and df, they at least agree with me ;) Both equate the -m (--megabytes)
> option with --blocksize=1048576.
>
> I am 99.9% certain that *missing memory* issue that started all of this
> is due to the fact that free and top on a monolithic Linux kernel report
> the remaining memory available for daemons, user programs, etc. after
> the kernel has been loaded up.
>
>
> Jim
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2a24 : Sun Apr 02 2000 - 21:09:29 MDT