Kernel VM bug?

[Brian]

Hello list,

While doing massive memory allocation (I'm using GRASS to project NASA's BlueMarble maps) the
kernel apparently tries to kill grass but fails. When I try to access /proc/<grass_pid>/stat the
process hangs.

For example, an 'strace' of 'ps' ends like this:
open("/proc/1783/stat", O_RDONLY) = 6
read(6, <PS and strace hang here>

I am able to project a few files, but once the filesystem cache fills up, GRASS hangs or gives a
panic in vm_stat:381. The strange thing is, very little swap space is in use, and the filesystem
cache continues to use most of the RAM.

Is this a kernel bug, or do I need to use kernel 2.6.x (I am using kernel 2.4.26) and
/proc/sys/vm/overcommit_memory or similar hack?

Since I am a kernel-newbie, these links might help explain the problem better ;)
http://seclists.org/linux-kernel/2001/Dec/1604.html
http://www.mail-archive.com/debian-glibc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/msg10070.html

Brian G



		
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