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    SubjectRe: %u-order allocation failed
    > > After simple bash fork bombing (about 200 forks) on my UP Celeron/96MB
    > > I get quite a lot %u-allocations failed, but only when swap is turned
    > > off.
    >
    > > I'm not familiar with LinuxVM.. so... is it normal behaviour ? or (if not)
    > > what's happening when such messages are printed my kernel ?
    >
    > This is perfectly normal behaviour:
    >
    > 1) on your system, you have no process limit configured for
    > yourself so you can start processes until all resources
    > (memory, file descriptors, ...) are used
    >
    > 2) when all processes are used, there really is no way the
    > kernel can buy you more hardware on ebay and install it
    > on the fly ... all it can do is start failing allocations
    >
    > On production systems, good admins setup per-user limits for
    > the various resources so no single user is able to run the
    > system into the ground.

    No, it's not normal. It is long-standing bug - I think from 2.2 kernels.
    You know that without swap and with certain memory allocation strategy
    (when process in a loop allocates one anonymous page, one file cache page
    and again...) this bug can be triggered even when there is half memory
    free.

    Buddy allocator is broken - kill it. Or at least do not misuse it for
    anything except kernel or driver initialization.

    Mikulas

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