0

I am working on an embedded system with limited memory. Here is the dump from my vmstat:

procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ------cpu-----
 r  b   swpd   free   buff  cache   si   so    bi    bo   in   cs us sy id wa st
 1  0      0   2392  64392  46568    0    0     0     3   53   22 27  9 64  0  0

When I run tcpdump in this situation, the whole system crashes and the OOM killer goes crazy. Given the large amount of memory still sitting in the cache, what could be causing this? What does tcpdump do that uses up so much memory, and why does the kernel let this happen?

nrcrast
  • 1
  • What version of tcpdump are you using? What's your kernel? – austinian Aug 11 '15 at 17:08
  • tcpdump v4.6.2, kernel 3.18. This is running on an embedded NIOS processor, and some of the code in the /arch/nios area has been known to be questionable at best. :) – nrcrast Aug 11 '15 at 20:23

0 Answers0