We have not seen the memory issue described here but have seen the one 
descibed by this bugzilla entry.

 https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=188141

In this case the systems claims to have lots of free memory that is not 
used for anything.  This can cause the system to start swapping.

I plan on making a "contrib" kernel rpm with just the "patch" for this 
issue soon.

-Connie Sieh

On Tue, 30 May 2006, Stephen John Smoogen 
wrote:

> On 5/29/06, Michael Malik <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I have installed SL 4.3 x86_64 on several different systems and I h=
> ave
> > noticed that the memory being used keeps growing each day.  I looke=
> d at
> > the system monitor applet in gnome (double-clicked the memory monit=
> or)
> > and noticed that there are a large number of programs taking up abo=
> ut
> > the same amount of memory (today this is around 135 MB each -- pyth=
> on
> > tops the list at 203 MB usage, followed by nautilus at 173 MB, and =
> then
> > gnome-terminal at 166 MB, then the rest at about 135 MB).  Looking =
> at
> > usage in "top" I see the same thing.  This memory usage is having a
> > serious impact on system performance and the only cure we have at t=
> he
> > moment is to reboot every day.
> >
> > The hardware we are using is: AMD Athlon 64 3200+, nVidia 6600 PCIE=
> ,
> > Seagate 250 MB 7200.8, MSI K8N Neo4 f, 1 GB DDR PC3200 Corsair Valu=
> eSelect.
> >
> 
> I have not seen any sort of memory problems with upstream 4.3. I thin=
> k
> that the following would need to be done.. what is exactly running on
> the system. Programs taking up the same memory size can be from forks=
> .
> Gnome terminal will grow depending on the fonts being used and the
> size of the scroll back buffer and the number of windows/tabs being
> used.
> 
> My list of other checks would be:
>   find out what is installed on the system that is outside of Scienti=
> fic Linux
>   find out the integrity of the RPM database (rpm -Va and look for no=
> n
> config files being changed) [just in case the box has an unwelcome
> visitor]
>   find out if a new user without any configuration changes has these
> issues. The user related issues I have seen have been where someone
> turned on all the bells and whistles in Gnome configuration and didnt
> realize the effects it might have (oooh I want UTF-32 fonts, 1,000,00=
> 0
> line scrollback, and 10 tabs in gnome-terminal).
> 
> 
> > So my question is: does anyone know if this is a memory leak or som=
> e
> > kind of bug in gnome, the kernel, or perhaps something else?  Thank=
> s!
> >
> 
> 
> --=20
> Stephen J Smoogen.
> CSIRT/Linux System Administrator
>