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Re: [LUG] user runlevel services - is there a help file on configuration



Paul Sutton wrote:
> 
> Thanks for that, at the moment I am using tksysv

Unless the Mandrake version of these tools is radically better than the
Redhat version, just set these things up using "vi", and "ln" - life
will be better - honest.
 
> Whats odd is that I have 96 mb ram of which 2mb is free, 250 mb swap
> space unused and about 5mb buffer (whatever that is),  and I thought
> windoze took up memory, whats nice is that the system is still useable
> and quite responsive.

Buffer - presumably disk buffer cache. The Linux 2.2 kernel will fill up
most of your remaining memory with buffer cache (Copies of files you've
read from (written to) disk) so that your access is slightly faster. It
leaves a little memory free so processes that request small amounts of
memory don't have to reclaim it from the buffer cache.

This is typical of almost all modern Unix based systems. The details
vary which is why I've been slightly vague - look it up for your kernel
version in the kernel documentation if your interested in details.

As for Windoze taking up memory - well the minimal practical install for
Windows NT 4 was 24Mbytes of RAM - many Linux installs STILL run in a
few megabytes.... As for the bloatware filling up your other 89Mbytes of
RAM ---- hmm mine has something like....

Star Office - when running - huge (31Mb+)
ld-linux.so - shared library stuff - used by Netscape? - hugh (18Mb+)
X windows and KDE stuff - huge (Remember X was designed for 16Mb
desktops - people laughed at them back in the mid eighties for designing
for such a ridiculously large desktop system).

Most of the other stuff you get on start up is small beer.... The best
reason for stopping it is security (some of it listens for incoming
connections - try netstat -a). 

I tend to stop anything I don't need and wonder afterwards if it was a
security problem ;-). Some things are plain silly - and not in the
start-up scripts. For instance do you really need all those 'mingetty'
processes on functions keys 1 to 6 - no one is usually enough - two
gives you an easy 'kill the other one'. But the mingettys start in
/etc/inittab......be careful if editting this file - you don't want to
make a mistake. If you do kill the mingetty processes be warned that the
X windows will move to the end of the used function keys.

Try 'top' with the sort by memory option 'M' (capital). 

Remember whilst some processes (KDE file manager) look huge they are
mostly shared, the important thing is to compare the difference between
the size and the shared size, as this is a rough idea how much extra
that app cost you. Of course if it is the only one of it's type it might
not be sharing it's memory with anyone else.

Hope that helps - if all else fails 'top' has a batch mode - so you
could post relevant bits to the list for discussion.

NOW RUN THE QNX 1 FLOPPY CHALLENGE - www.qnx.com - IF IT IS STILL GOING.
 
-- 
Business http://www.eighth-layer.com/
Personal http://www.wretched.demon.co.uk/

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