Fraser, I believe that the number is between 6 and 7 Gb. When I get back from my vacation, I will try to remember to find out the exact number for you. Cheers, Doug On Tue, 2004-07-20 at 00:04, Fraser Farrell wrote: > Tom, > > First a question of my own. I've finally downloaded the ~1.8 GB of compressed > TASS data from crocus.physics.mcmaster.ca. From the quick look I've had at > their contents, it's all text files....which are going to expand greatly when > unpacked. How much room will I need for the decompressed files? > > > > Later it occurred to me that the computer may have "lost" some memory. It > > had been running a long time since a reboot. The computer that failed was > > my "Wall-Mart" Lindows special. > > From the little I've read about them, Wal-Mart seems to be a huge discount > variety store of some kind? If so then assume they're aggressively sourcing > the cheapest possible suppliers and squeezing them. And in the computer world > this can mean inadequately-tested low quality parts. > > Personally I would suspect faulty RAM or some other hardware problem rather > than Linux. The Ultimate Boot CD (www.ultimatebootcd.com) contains several > good memory and hardware testers - and unlike the computer factory, you have > the option of running a hardware test for many -hours-. > > Also check that you haven't put a live mobile phone (or other radio > transmitter) beside your computer or its cables. Can cause all sorts of > strange errors. I see this problem a lot in offices. > > Recently I discovered a customer's intermittent wierd computer problems were > being caused by his X-ray machine. There was a crack in the shielding, which > allowed a narrow beam of X-rays to escape and "illuminate" the keyboard in > the surgery! I was aware of this possibilty because of earlier experience in > trying to keep lab computers running near kilotons of uranium ore. > > You wouldn't happen to have a blob of some exotic isotope from your old > workplace, sitting on a nearby shelf? Glowing in the dark...? :-) > > > > It is common for linux computers to lose track of memory? > > Mine don't; but thanks to prolonged neighbourhood roadworks & construction > they often lose supply of electricity. Best uptime so far is a measly five > months, and that's with a UPS here that can supply for ~2 hours. Maybe I > haven't been able to run long enough for subtle memory leaks to have any > effect? > > But I've got customers in places wth more reliable electricity who are doing > much better than me. One of them has recently achieved 4 years of > uninterrupted service from his Linux mailserver / internet gateway. And this > is on a recycled computer. > > It -is- normal for Linux to fill up whatever memory is available, but this is > by design, because it's faster to grab frequently-used code & data from > memory instead of re-reading it from disc. > > > > Along the same lines, from time to time my linux machines will fail to > > respond in a Konsole window. There is a prompt but it does not see > > keyboard entry. > > Personally I try to avoid the x.0 releases of any Linux because that's > typically the version with the bugs. Usually because the distributor shovels > in tons of New And Exciting Stuff that's still a bit wobbly. So I wait for > the x.1 or x.2 releases before installing them on important computers. > > Check under KDE's Look N Feel for your windowing behaviour. In particular, the > "focus policy", which controls where your active keystrokes and mouseclicks > are going. Your problem might be that your "focus" is not on the foreground > Konsole until you mouse-click it - meanwhile your keystrokes are going unseen > to another application in the background? > > Incidentally Windows XP can have the same problem. But most people won't > experience it because the install default is "foreground window always grabs > focus". > > > > Is there a good way to clear out "dead" jobs? > > - KDE System Guard > > - the "kill" or "killall" commands (do a "ps" first to find the job's process > IDs) > > - restart KDE (after saving your work) > > - restart the computer :-) > > > > > > cheers, -- ================================================================== Douglas L Welch | Res office/voicemail (905) 525-9140 x23186 Physics & Astronomy | FAX (905) 546-1252 McMaster University | Hamilton, Ontario | Canada L8S 4M1 | E-mail welch@physics.mcmaster.ca ==================================================================
This is a digitally signed message part