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Revision 1.23 - (show annotations) (download)
Mon Oct 21 18:38:27 2002 UTC (21 years, 7 months ago) by walles
Branch: MAIN
CVS Tags: version_2_0_6, version_2_0_4, version_2_0_5, version_2_0_2, version_2_0_3, version_2_0_0, version_2_0_1, version_1_2_9, version_2_0_2_pre2, version_1_2_10, version_2_0_10, version_2_0_11, version_2_0_12, version_2_0_13, version_2_0_14
Branch point for: gnome1, branch_2_0
Changes since 1.22: +2 -1 lines
Add "info locals" to the suggested GDB commands.

1 To Emacs: This is a -*-text-*- file.
2
3 1. How do I start the applet from the command line?
4
5 Change to the bubblemon directory and do the following:
6
7 $ ./configure
8 $ make
9 $ src/bubblemon-gnome1
10
11
12 2. Can you add this feature to the applet?
13
14 Perhaps. If you want to improve your odds, here are my suggestions
15 though:
16 * Your best bet is to do it yourself and send me a patch. If you run
17 into problems I'll gladly answer your questions. Also, the TODO file
18 may very well contain some information to help you get started.
19 * If you can't do it yourself (or get someone else to do it for you
20 :-), see if it is in the TODO file. If it is, I will probably
21 implement it sooner or later anyway.
22 * If you can't do it yourself and it's not in the TODO file, send a
23 mail to the mailing list (bubblemon-list@nongnu.org) and I'll add it.
24
25
26 3. I'm running a background process on my system that should be using
27 all of my CPU, but the Bubblemon shows very few or no bubbles at
28 all. Why is that?
29
30 Because the applet ignores nice (do 'man nice') processes. The
31 reasoning behind this is that I use the applet for keeping track of
32 how much processing power I have at my disposal. As 'nice' processes
33 will yield as soon as another process starts, I have all of my CPU
34 power at my disposal, even with a 'nice' background job running.
35 Therefore: 'nice' processes don't bubble.
36
37
38 4. The program doesn't do anything; it doesn't even crash!
39
40 Try running it from the command line, and see if you get an error
41 message. Do the follwing from the bubblemon directory:
42
43 $ ./configure
44 $ make
45 $ src/bubblemon-gnome1
46
47
48 5. The program crashes. What should I do?
49
50 Either fix it yourself and send a patch to the mailing list
51 (bubblemon-list@nongnu.org), or send a bug report to the list. The
52 bug report should contain the result of changing directory into the
53 bubblemon src directory and doing the following:
54
55 $ ./configure
56 $ make
57 $ cd src
58 $ gdb ./bubblemon-gnome1
59 (gdb) run
60 <SEGFAULT>
61 (gdb) info stack
62 (gdb) info locals
63
64 Note that the build stage is essential, because it puts debug metadata
65 in the binary.
66
67
68 6. The amount of memory used reported by the applet is different from
69 what [other program] says. How come?
70
71 Free memory measuring on Linux (at least) is somewhat complicated.
72 What my applet shows is what most people would think of as free
73 memory. Therefore, what my applet reports may not correspond to what
74 other programs say, but the numbers you get from my applet is what you
75 really want.
76
77 A more precise explanation follows. If it's wrong in some way, or if
78 you know somewhere else where this is documented in some
79 comprehensible way, I'd appreciate it if you send a mail to the
80 mailing list (bubblemon-list@nongnu.org).
81
82 Anyway, if we forget about swap for a while, here are the different
83 kinds of memory, and whether I treat them as "air" or "water":
84
85 * Free memory. Just what you'd expect. This adds to the "air".
86 * Used memory. Just what you'd expect. This adds to the "water".
87 * Shared memory. Memory shared between two or more processes. This
88 adds to the "water".
89 * Buffers and cache. Free memory that Linux uses for disk cache.
90 When someone allocates more memory, buffers and cache are nuked, so
91 this adds to the "air".
92
93 If we add swap space into the picture, what I show as the water level
94 is how much memory is "air" (as defined above) relative to the total
95 amount of electronic memory. What I show as color changes is how much
96 "air" memory above the amount of electronic memory is being used.
97 Thus, when Linux starts swapping stuff out even though there's
98 electronic memory left, people watching my meter won't be confused by
99 this (I know I was before I changed it :-).
100
101 If you want to know more than this, have a look at the
102 get_censored_memory_and_swap() function in bubblemon.c.
103
104
105 7. Performance sucks. What should I do?
106
107 To give you some frame of reference of what kind of performance to
108 expect; on my 400MHz PII system I have never seen the bubblemon go
109 over 1.5% CPU utilization (according to 'top').
110
111 See the file PROFILING for instructions on finding out where your
112 cycles go.
113
114
115 8. The configure script reports no problems, but I still get errors
116 (or warnings) when doing 'make'. What's up?
117
118 The build process is broken. It shouldn't be. Send a mail to the
119 mailing list (bubblemon-list@nongnu.org) with the output from both
120 'configure' and 'make', and also tell me what kind of Unix you are
121 using and I'll try to fix it. To capture the output from those
122 commands, do:
123
124 ./configure &> log-configure
125 make &> log-make
126
127 Then send a copy of both log files to (bubblemon-list@nongnu.org).
128
129
130 9. How do I translate everything into my favourite language?
131
132 Instructions for doing this is in the TRANSLATIONS file.
133
134
135 10. I'm running Mandrake Linux and the configure script fails. What's
136 up?
137
138 You haven't installed the `devel' RPMs from the second Mandrake CD.
139 Install them and then run configure again.
140
141
142 11. I'm running SuSE Linux and the configure script fails. What's up?
143
144 You haven't installed the GNOME development RPMs. Make sure you have
145 installed all RPMs that have names ending in 'd' (for 'development')
146 from the GNOME category. Then try running configure again.
147
148
149 12. I have another question/problem or there's an error in this FAQ.
150 What should I do?
151
152 Send a mail to the mailing list (bubblemon-list@nongnu.org) and ask
153 ahead.

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