Messages in this thread | | | Date | Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:31:20 +1000 | From | Greg Ungerer <> | Subject | Re: [Bug #11342] Linux 2.6.27-rc3: kernel BUG at mm/vmalloc.c - bisected |
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Parag Warudkar wrote: > On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 8:53 PM, Greg Ungerer <gerg@snapgear.com> wrote: > >> I have some simple devices (network access/routers) with 8MB of RAM, >> at power up not really being configured to do anything running 25 >> processes. (Heck there is over 10 kernel processes running!). Configure >> some interfaces and services and that will easily push past 40. >> I'd be happy with a 160k saving :-) >> > > So you really need to run all 25 processes on that 8Mb box?
Yes, of course. Considerable effort has been put into running a minimal set of processes (that still for fills the required function set of this device).
> (For reference even the NGW100 development board comes with 16Mb RAM).
Lots of development boards are fitted with lots of RAM.
And the pressure will still be on in _real_ products to reduce the RAM footprint as much as possible. There are exceptions but generally less is cheaper. Simple economics really.
> Even if you do need those all 25 processes on the 8Mb box, fixing the > memory usage of those user space hogs is lot better than trying to > save 160Kb in kernel stacks.
Yep, been done too. You don't squeeze a lot into these smaller devices without looking at everything in it.
> Last I looked, user space wasn't particularly frugal with memory usage.
Then you haven't looked in the right places :-)
There are plenty of choices for making things small in user space. Simple stuff like using uClibc, busybox, etc.
In this specific example things like /bin/init is 10k, /bin/inetd is 10k, /bin/crond is 11k, etc. (Ofcourse it is a shared uClibc setup, uClibc is ~300k). And XIP can help out here too.
Regards Greg
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Greg Ungerer -- Chief Software Dude EMAIL: gerg@snapgear.com Secure Computing Corporation PHONE: +61 7 3435 2888 825 Stanley St, FAX: +61 7 3891 3630 Woolloongabba, QLD, 4102, Australia WEB: http://www.SnapGear.com
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