Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!lll-winken!uunet!lupine!djm
From: djm@lupine.UUCP (Dave Mackie)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: xperfmon on SUN 4 under 4.0 OS
Summary: MAXFREE workaround
Message-ID: <346@lupine.UUCP>
Date: 4 May 89 02:54:34 GMT
References: <227@isctsse.UUCP>
Distribution: usa
Organization: Network Computing Devices
Lines: 25


	Your problem with xperfmon on SUNOS 4.X is due to the fact that
	xperfmon expects to find the symbol 'maxfree', the largest possible
	amount of free physical memory, in the kernel. This existed in 
	SUNOS 3.X, but went away in 4.X. The workaround is trivial, just 
	initialize the variable maxfree in system.c to be a reasonable large
	value (in KB) for your site. These days I would guess that's 8-32 MB.

	When xperfmon compresses the displayed data after running out of room
	for the strip charts, it will rescale the graphs to a range appropriate
	for the collected data. This is a very nice feature, and makes the
	initial choice for the maximum of small concern. In general, the
	problem with xperfmon is that it needs to know all sorts of incestuous
	information about the kernel that change from version to version,
	never mind machine to machine.

						Dave Mackie
						Network Computing Devices
						djm@ncd.com

	P.S. I asked SUN about how to find out from a user level application
	running on SUNOS 4.X, how much physical memory is installed. 
	They couldn't imagine why anyone would ever want to know. I guess 
	virtual memory has caused some people to have under-active
	imaginations :-)