Netscape is a biggie

[jwt@example.com (Jim Tittsler)]

In article <199605082254.HAA21006@example.com>,
schweiz@example.com (Jim Schweizer) wrote:

>guys a break. I downloaded Netscape (lynx works fine but ... ) and I've got
>another problem (I see you yawning) The first sign in xterm was
>
>Error: Cannot perform malloc
>
>Hmmm, there's 12 MBs RAM in wormhole, that should be enough. dig dig dig
>through the file system until /usr/adm/messages - oh no...

Netscape is HUGE.  12 MB may well not be enough, what with X
running.  Do you have some swap space?  Ideally a swap partition,
but a swap file will do if you only need to use it occasonally.
(See mkswap and swapon, the latter is typically invoked during the
intialization process, swapoff happening during shutdown.)

The 'top' and 'free' commands will give you an idea of how much
real and virtual memory you have available.

>----snip---
>May 8 21:42:56 wormhole kernal: Warning - bdflush not running
>May 8 21:42:56 wormhole kernel: mcdx: init() malloc failed
>----snip---

Newer kernels (um, I confess I've forgotten when... somewhere
in the 1.3.4x era?) have the "bdflush" functionality internally.
The ps command may show another "*flush" already running if you
have a late enough kernel.  If not, bdflush should be being 
started during your init file processing.  (/etc/rc.d typically)

-- 
Jim Tittsler, Tokyo  7j1ajh@example.com  <URL:http://shrine.cyber.ad.jp/~jwt/>