Understanding mounts/memory/RAM & filesystems/_save file
Posted: Sat 07 Mar 2009, 20:29
[Edit] please add any comments before i set about editing/transferring to wiki - link to other threads, fill in on gui issues + whatever [/edit]
How can i kick junk out of ram so seamonkey & all the pages i open can run as fast as possible? ie. manage memory to ensure no encroachment on seamonkey's ability to handle multiple (18+) flash heavy (business) pages.
I download lots of junk (articles, pdf files etc) and see no reason to hold it in memory so i save it to a 2nd flash drive - but there it is. Even though i unmount the 2nd flash drive, the free ram indicator on bottom right stays the same - so its still in memory?
Whole buncha questions come up.
I also think this info should be in puppy's manual or the wiki and if you can help me understand what's going on, i'll be glad to make a little effort to get that info edited & into the wiki or manual, whichever you think best (or i have permission for).
So......
Are all the files on the mounted drive put entirely in memory, or just the file system/structure/info or whatever you call it so it can be accessed? or
This windows refugee is confused by the same object being in two places/ two name at once:
sdb1 also exists as mnt/home,
sdc1 also exists as mnt/sdc1.
They all exist in memory. I'm getting confused as to which flash is which. Hard to tell even by watching their little lights. Can i relabel them to say whiteflash, blackflash, etc?
How can some files be removed from memory but still remain accessible?
What exactly is that little free ram meter reading?
Have a look at this film
http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=26614
About an hour in, a message flashed up to the effect that there is only 2mb left in ram, then 1 then 0. Crash. The ram meter never deviated from 443mb free. Can anybody detect the size of this film. PCU meter also rises to 6 or 7 lines at time of crash.
What exactly is the red graphical indicator beside it calibrated when various lines show up? (I used to worry at the third line, now only at the 5th on the Dell)
Why do the dates not change on the pup_save files? ie seems to remain at the created date and not the last modified date. Can this be fixed - its very confusing and hard to keep track of my changes (despite adding a suffix to the name). Now i have 2 files dated at the same instant! Help!!
Newbies note that a 1G flash drive will not hold a backup of your 512mB pup_save file!!! Mine got truncated & unusable. No warning.
Having put all my junk on the 2nd flash drive, can windows grab files and change them without risking puppy's ability to use them?
What is the purpose of swap files? How big should a swap file be/ what logic? My guess is that swap files are used to compensate for too little ram. While puppy seems to be able to run in 128mb ram, I really could not use seamonkey (heavily) until I went to 378mb. The Dell (256mb) is ok as long as i'm careful what/how many i load. CPU speed is also a factor.
Having installed Devx to get my printer working, can i now unload it to free up memory? How? How much memory does it consume? If i can only accomplish that by stepping back to an older pup_save file, how can i keep the changes that i want (plus all the info junk)?
ie. i keep adding bookmarks & don't want to lose them. Can i save bookmarks to a separate file? Ok, i see that under bookmark manager l tools l export - Wiki needs to record that!
Thanks ahead
How can i kick junk out of ram so seamonkey & all the pages i open can run as fast as possible? ie. manage memory to ensure no encroachment on seamonkey's ability to handle multiple (18+) flash heavy (business) pages.
I download lots of junk (articles, pdf files etc) and see no reason to hold it in memory so i save it to a 2nd flash drive - but there it is. Even though i unmount the 2nd flash drive, the free ram indicator on bottom right stays the same - so its still in memory?
Whole buncha questions come up.
I also think this info should be in puppy's manual or the wiki and if you can help me understand what's going on, i'll be glad to make a little effort to get that info edited & into the wiki or manual, whichever you think best (or i have permission for).
So......
Are all the files on the mounted drive put entirely in memory, or just the file system/structure/info or whatever you call it so it can be accessed? or
This windows refugee is confused by the same object being in two places/ two name at once:
sdb1 also exists as mnt/home,
sdc1 also exists as mnt/sdc1.
They all exist in memory. I'm getting confused as to which flash is which. Hard to tell even by watching their little lights. Can i relabel them to say whiteflash, blackflash, etc?
How can some files be removed from memory but still remain accessible?
What exactly is that little free ram meter reading?
Have a look at this film
http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=26614
About an hour in, a message flashed up to the effect that there is only 2mb left in ram, then 1 then 0. Crash. The ram meter never deviated from 443mb free. Can anybody detect the size of this film. PCU meter also rises to 6 or 7 lines at time of crash.
What exactly is the red graphical indicator beside it calibrated when various lines show up? (I used to worry at the third line, now only at the 5th on the Dell)
Why do the dates not change on the pup_save files? ie seems to remain at the created date and not the last modified date. Can this be fixed - its very confusing and hard to keep track of my changes (despite adding a suffix to the name). Now i have 2 files dated at the same instant! Help!!
Newbies note that a 1G flash drive will not hold a backup of your 512mB pup_save file!!! Mine got truncated & unusable. No warning.
Having put all my junk on the 2nd flash drive, can windows grab files and change them without risking puppy's ability to use them?
What is the purpose of swap files? How big should a swap file be/ what logic? My guess is that swap files are used to compensate for too little ram. While puppy seems to be able to run in 128mb ram, I really could not use seamonkey (heavily) until I went to 378mb. The Dell (256mb) is ok as long as i'm careful what/how many i load. CPU speed is also a factor.
Having installed Devx to get my printer working, can i now unload it to free up memory? How? How much memory does it consume? If i can only accomplish that by stepping back to an older pup_save file, how can i keep the changes that i want (plus all the info junk)?
ie. i keep adding bookmarks & don't want to lose them. Can i save bookmarks to a separate file? Ok, i see that under bookmark manager l tools l export - Wiki needs to record that!
Thanks ahead