memory cache fills and system locks

[katsushiro]

I'm running kernel 2.6.25.4-10.fc8 i686 on both my desktop and portable. my setup was a mix of both the guide at "the perfect fc8 desktop" and "the unofficial fedora faq" to help me get java, flash and a few other things working correctly. my issue is that on only my desktop, if it sits idle, slowly the memory cache is filled to 100%, at which time the system locks up. it happens faster if I try to run the yumex updater, or if I leave open a website with flash embedded. It usually takes about 3 days to completely fill, but if I have both yumex updater and flash going at the same time, it will lock up in less than 5 minutes.

As the cache goes "free" reports the size of the 'cached' rising, and 'system monitor' reports the same.System monitor and "top" don't report any programs specifically taking any larger than normal pieces of memory. My swap partition never seems to be touched. my fstab file has my swap file listed correctly and auto mounted (it's also listed in "free" but always as 0 used). This issue does not occur if I run a live version of FC8, on a previous install I had of openSUSE 11.3, or if I boot to puppy Linux. I have also tried updating my kernel version, to no avail.

I'd appreciate any assistance I could get on this.

[EnglandA]

Anything appearing in the logs?

[katsushiro]

ahh, forgot about that... (and forgot the exact times of crashes)
according to 'last' my last 'crash' was at 10:29 this morning, my /var/log had the following at that same time...

Jun 20 10:12:54 localhost smbd[9561]: Error writing 4 bytes to client. -1. (Connection reset by peer)
Jun 20 10:29:36 localhost gconfd (Brandon-9666): starting (version 2.20.1), pid 9666 user 'Brandon'
Jun 20 10:29:36 localhost gconfd (Brandon-9666): Resolved address "xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory" to a read-only configuration source at position 0
Jun 20 10:29:36 localhost gconfd (Brandon-9666): Resolved address "xml:readwrite:/home/Brandon/.gconf" to a writable configuration source at position 1
Jun 20 10:29:36 localhost gconfd (Brandon-9666): Resolved address "xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults" to a read-only configuration source at position 2
Jun 20 10:29:38 localhost pulseaudio[9674]: pid.c: Stale PID file, overwriting.
Jun 20 10:29:39 localhost gconfd (Brandon-9666): Resolved address "xml:readwrite:/home/Brandon/.gconf" to a writable configuration source at position 0
Jun 20 10:29:39 localhost hcid[2041]: Default passkey agent (:1.28, /org/bluez/passkey) registered
Jun 20 10:29:39 localhost hcid[2041]: Default authorization agent (:1.28, /org/bluez/auth) registered
Jun 20 10:30:41 localhost gconfd (root-10157): starting (version 2.20.1), pid 10157 user 'root'
Jun 20 10:30:41 localhost gconfd (root-10157): Resolved address "xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory" to a read-only configuration source at position 0
Jun 20 10:30:41 localhost gconfd (root-10157): Resolved address "xml:readwrite:/root/.gconf" to a writable configuration source at position 1
Jun 20 10:30:41 localhost gconfd (root-10157): Resolved address "xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults" to a read-only configuration source at position 2
Jun 20 10:31:11 localhost gconfd (root-10157): GConf server is not in use, shutting down.
Jun 20 10:31:11 localhost gconfd (root-10157): Exiting

[katsushiro]

I've found this through a google search, http://www.nabble.com/2.6.24.3-12.fc...d15950043.html, the outputs for each of the items I was able to test is the same. I do not have the hardware (serial port on portable) to be able to use the portable to pull information during a lockup.

[katsushiro]

alright, I know no one's had anything on this yet, but a strange break today. I had a USB key plugged in as the cache rose past 90%. I unmounted it in preparation to reboot, and the cache dropped back down to normal levels. it has not raised significantly (beyond running applications) in the 2 hours since then, even with yumex and flash websites...