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Date: Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:57:02 -0600 (CST)
From: Christoph Lameter <cl@linux-foundation.org>
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To: Jonathan Miles <jon@cybus.co.uk>
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Subject: Re: OOM kernel behaviour
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On Mon, 30 Nov 2009, Jonathan Miles wrote:

> I'm running kernel 2.6.31.

Are you using a 32 bit kernel?

Disabling swap means that the kernel cannot swap out anonymous pages. Thus
the chance of OOMs conditions is increased.

In order to find the reason for the OOM (which has not much to do with
memory, the kernel has been unable to reclaim memmory for some reason)
you need to look at the debug output that the kernel generates.