Re: [linux-tr] out of memory -Reply

[Adrian Bridgett <bridgett@hursley.ibm.com>]

On Mike Phillips <phillim@amtrak.com>, you wrote:
> Technical reason:

> The driver cannot allocate memory to create a new buffer for either the
current network packet or the next packet, depending upon whether the driver
just swaps buffers (fast) or copies the packet to a new buffer (slower).
The copy usually happens when a packet is received that is bigger than the
mtu size.  (Each card will need 16 * (mtu + token ring header), so for 2
cards and 8000 byte mtu = 256K, but this is all allocated when the card
starts up or mtu size is changed.)

Hmm - the card had been up for ages and the MTU certainly hadn't changed. Of
the two cards, one is busy (~ 6000 hosts) the other wasn't (3 hosts).
"rmmod -a" gets run occasionally, but I'd be suprised^H^H^H staggered  if it
had managed to remove the module because 6000 hosts is alot of background
noise.

> Real reason:

> Something is eating all the kernel memory, and I don't think it's the
driver.

Nope it's the TCP memleak in 2.2.11, just booting into a patched kernel.

Thanks for the quick response.

Adrian

Adrian Bridgett <bridgett@hursley.ibm.com>
Internal: 7-245528  External: 01962-815528
DM2E8, Hursley Park, UK    (Mailpoint 206)