linux-kernel - Re: kernel 2.6.22: what IS the VM doing?

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Message-ID: <46DED83A.8070104@redhat.com>
Date:	Wed, 05 Sep 2007 12:24:26 -0400
From:	Rik van Riel <riel@...hat.com>
To:	Linux kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: kernel 2.6.22: what IS the VM doing?

Sami Farin wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 04, 2007 at 21:37:35 -0400, Rik van Riel wrote:
>> Is the system trying to evict pages like crazy when your
>> system becomes unusable?
> 
> I think so..
> 
>> If so, I wonder if kswapd is simply doing the wrong thing
>> and trying to evict data from all zones, simply because the
>> highmem zone is low on free pages...
> 
> *shrug*

The attached patch should make sure kswapd does not free an
excessive number of pages in zone_normal just because the
pages in zone_highmem are difficult to free.

It does give kswapd a large margin to continue putting equal
pressure on all zones in normal situations.

Sami, could you try out this patch to see if it helps your
situation?

Signed-off-by: Rik van Riel <riel@...hat.com>

View attachment "linux-2.6-excessive-pageout.patch" of type "text/x-patch" (715 bytes)