Comment 28 for bug 1098961

Following a suggestion in
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=695182#513
I tested older kernels: seems that PAE was always (or at least back to
karmic 2.6.31) prone to OOM under the "sleep test".
Curiously I found that non-PAE kernels of that vintage might also OOM,
maybe depending on the value of /proc/sys/fs/file-max .

Cheers, Paul

Paul Szabo <email address hidden> http://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/u/psz/
School of Mathematics and Statistics University of Sydney Australia

---

Machine: Dell Optiplex 760, 4GB RAM

Results:

Version Name kernel
4.10 Warty 2.6.8 (could not install from CD)
5.04 Hoary 2.6.10
5.10 Breezy 2.6.12
6.06 Dapper 2.6.15
6.10 Edgy 2.6.17
7.04 Feisty 2.6.20 (could not install from CD)
7.10 Gutsy 2.6.22 (could not install from CD)
8.04 Hardy 2.6.24
8.10 Intrepid 2.6.27-7 (no PAE) non-PAE(file-max=330344,default)=OK (about 19000 to file limit)
                                          non-PAE(file-max=555000)=OOM (after about 31000)
9.04 Jaunty 2.6.28
9.10 Karmic 2.6.31-14 PAE=OOM non-PAE(file-max=327956,default)=OK (about 18500 to file limit)
                                          non-PAE(file-max=444000)=OK (about 26000 to file limit)
                                          non-PAE(file-max=555000)=OK (to PID limit)
                                          non-PAE(file-max=888000)=OK (to PID limit)
                                          non-PAE(file-max=999999)=OOM (after about 32500)
10.04 Lucid 2.6.32-65 PAE=OOM non-PAE(file-max=330827,default)=OK (about 19000 to file limit)
                                          non-PAE(file-max=377000)=OK (about 21500 to file limit)
                                          non-PAE(file-max=444000)=OK (about 25500 to file limit)
                                          non-PAE(file-max=555000)=OOM (after about 31500)
10.10 Maverick 2.6.35-22 (PAE=?) non-PAE(file-max=330677,default)=OK (to PID limit)
11.04 Natty 2.6.38-8 PAE=OOM non-PAE(file-max=330426,default)=OK (to PID limit)
11.10 Oneiric 3.0.0 PAE=OOM non-PAE=OK
12.04 Precise 3.2
12.10 Quantal 3.5
13.04 Raring 3.8
13.10 Saucy 3.11
14.04 Trusty 3.13 PAE=OOM (no non-PAE kernel)
14.10 Utopic 3.16

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ubuntu_releases
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/releases/

http://bugs.debian.org/695182
http://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1098961

Commands used:

sudo sh -c 'echo 999999 > /proc/sys/fs/file-max'
bash -c 'n=0; while [ $n -lt 33000 ]; do sleep 600 & ((n=n+1)); ((m=n%500)); if [ $m -lt 1 ]; then echo -n "$n - "; date; free -l; sleep 1; fi; done'