Comment 12 for bug 102498

I've compiled a vanilla 2.6.21.5 kernel using the config from edgy 2.6.17. It was compiled in edgy because it failed in gutsy because of this bug - I think.

I installed the new kernel and tried to do a aptitude install openoffice and other packages (just to not overload the system).

I got the following output:

Unpacking replacement python-uno ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/python-uno_2.2.1-2ubuntu1_i386.deb (--unpack):
 fork failed: Cannot allocate memory
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
 fork failed: Cannot allocate memory
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
 fork failed: Cannot allocate memory

Can this be related to this bug?

If dpkg is allocating huge amounts of memory, the system will start to swap and become unresponsive.

Since a kernel compile will bring the system down, there is potentially other memory leaks.