very large ram disk problems -- swapping, caching, and why tmpfs and not ext2 or reiserfs

[James Wilkinson]

Matthew Kirk wrote:
> About a year ago a gent named Brandon posted a note to this list stating
> that, with kernel 2.6.9, when he created a very large ram disk using ext2 or
> reiserfs and filled it up his system hung.  Here's his note...
> http://lists.linuxcoding.com/rhl/2005/msg58000.html
> 
> The recommendation was to switch to using tmpfs.
> 
> I'm having the same problem.  I'm using 2.6.12.3, and I'm attempting to
> mount a 2 GB ram disk.  As recommended in the original note series, tmpfs
> does work, where ext2 and reiserfs don't, but I'm not sure it's actually
> what we want, and I'd like to understand a bit more about why tmpfs works
> (and haven't been able to find explanations).

I suppose switching to x86-64 isn't an option? It sounds very much as
though you're running into 32 bit limits.

As has been said, a post to the LKML might help, as would a check that a
newer kernel has the same problems.

James.

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