Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

iang · Joined: 06 Jun 2006 Posts: 29 Location: Somerset, UK

Running as multi-session with no hard drive on a minimalist VIA EPIA5000. 768Mbyte RAM (512+256).

On first boot up, the free memory indicator in the task bar shows about 480Mbyte (Puppy's running completely in RAM).

But, saving settings back to the CD-R & rebooting now shows only 285Mbyte free - where did it go?!

With previous versions, I have normally had around 600MByte free.

Any thoughts?

Flash · Posted: Fri 24 Aug 2007, 16:26 Post subject:

I don't know the answer. The question of how Puppy uses RAM has come up frequently in the forum, but not the answer Laughing

. Possibly what you see is due to the way Linux, and therefore Puppy, uses swap and RAM, and doesn't really mean what it looks like. I think Barry upgraded to the latest kernel for 2.17, so maybe Puppy is arranging available memory different from the way it used to. I'd say don't worry about it, just keep an eye on it for now.

SirDuncan · Joined: 09 Dec 2006 Posts: 836 Location: Ohio, USA

Below is how I understand the RAM indicator to work and it may be wrong:

When you initially loaded Puppy there was no save file, and it was showing you the remaining RAM. When you shutdown and saved to the CD, it created a save file. When it loads again it is showing you the remaining free space in the save file, not RAM.

What Puppy does is show the remaining free space where it is being stored. Normally this is in RAM, but with a save file, it is the save file. On a full HD install it shows the remaining space on the partition.

Is this making any sense?

iang · Joined: 06 Jun 2006 Posts: 29 Location: Somerset, UK

Thanks for the replies. I'm not unduly concerned as it all seems to work normally. It's just different in 2.17.1 from all previous versions so something has changed. Maybe it is the kernal change that has done it.

I also notice that the red activity monitor now idles at about the half way point, whereas previously it always returned to zero if no programmes were running.

I wonder if it's connected to the memory display change?

mikeb · Joined: 23 Nov 2006 Posts: 4378

Try typing 'free' in a console...this may clarify especially for a multisession with no hard drive...the taskbar figure can be misleading but saying that even with 'free' this can be confusing...eg a program can be allocated memory but can give it up if needed elsewhere...
the figures you get when first booted should give you the best picture..

As for processr usage run 'top' to see whats hogging the processor...shouldn't be sat at 50%.
Check in /tmp/xerrs.log ...something could be writing lots of error messages to here ... worth examining anyway if things don't seem right

regards

mike