mke2fs + 8MB + 2.2.5 = hangs

mke2fs + 8MB + 2.2.5 = hangs

[Javi Roman]

Hi:

Any weeks ago I asked about problem with
program mke2fs. I asked why mke2fs hanged
the system (2.2.5-15) from install program
in a 4 MB machine (with 16 MB swap memory).

Alan Cox answered "its a VM 2.5.5 problem". Well ,I
have increased the RAM memory (up to 8 MB) but I
obtain the same problem: mke2fs hangs the system
with big partitions (no very bigs partitions: 10,
20 MB ...) with 3 MB partiton mke2fs works correctly
(I am using a execl function to run mke2fs).

With 8 MB memory mke2fs uses swap, so I obtain the
same problem?

Really is it a 2.2.5 kernel problem?

With 2.2.14 kernel (for instance) my installation
program would work?

I have not probed a higer kernel because I have any
compiled drivers (I have not sources) for 2.2.5-15 kernel.
I don't know if it's a kernel problem or a install program problem.
(I have a 4MB machine with RedHat 6.2 with 2.2.5-15
kernel and mk2efs work fine with partition over 100MB???)
I don't understand.

Any idea?

Re: mke2fs + 8MB + 2.2.5 = hangs

[Alan Cox]

> I have not probed a higer kernel because I have any
> compiled drivers (I have not sources) for 2.2.5-15 kernel.
> I don't know if it's a kernel problem or a install program problem.
> (I have a 4MB machine with RedHat 6.2 with 2.2.5-15
> kernel and mk2efs work fine with partition over 100MB???)
> I don't understand.

The RH installer probably still had the workarounds in it that it had for
the 6.0 release. Early 2.2 tended to stop if it was totally idle, had a lot
in ram (or very little ram) and did a lot of writes mkfs style. It almost
only happens on install tools.

That was fixed during mid 2.2 I forget exactly where. There are still 2.2 
open questions with currnet 2.2 but only when creating _very_ large file
systems with little memory, where the write throttling may still need a bit
of work.

Alan

Re: mke2fs + 8MB + 2.2.5 = hangs

[Andrea Arcangeli]

On Wed, Feb 21, 2001 at 11:28:39PM +0000, Alan Cox wrote:
> [..] only when creating _very_ large file
> systems with little memory, where the write throttling may still need a bit
> of work.

I posted here a few days ago a little patch that is meant to address that. I
didn't got any feedback on it from the people experiencing those troubles but I
am optimistic it will help ;).

Andrea