> > and i could not understand it:
> > 
> > 67 processes:  66 sleeping, 1 on processor
> > 
> > Memory: 4212K Act, 2288K Inact, 184K Wired, 948K Free, 27M Swap, 501M Swap free
> > 
> > 
> > used and free memory does not sum up to 12332!!!!
> 
> Some parts of 12332 are used for buffer cache. This should be printed
isn't 12322 already free after buffer cache alloc?

with 128MB RAM i've got 116M free. it's impossible to kernel to take 12MB

> just next to the "avail memory" line.
> Still there seems to be some space lost ...

yes - and it's same amount even with 8MB RAM - so almost nothing is left
to processes.