> >Well, it doesn't always seem to matter what the end-users think.  There are
> >a few annoying misfeatures in NetBSD that (IMHO) should have been fixed on
> >day #1, but haven't.  This VM thing may not be fixed for another 3 years, I
> >guess.  I would also appreciate it if my machines didn't come to a complete
> >halt when I run out of RAM.
> 
> 
> I don't understand. 
> 
> There is a fix for that in -current, and has been, I beleive, since
> before 1.2 was released. I hope it goes in as an official patch for
> 1.2.  The relevant change was from 1.23 to 1.24 of
> sys/vm/vm_pageout.c. pr #2755 explains the problem.
> 
> Here's the diff:

That might help when you're running low on physical memory.  it
doesn't do jack for the fact that the system wedges when you run out
of RAM + swap.

The fix that you quote -- though it is useful -- is a performance
fix.  it fixes the crappy performance seen when the system is running
out of physical memory and has to page things out.  It doesn't do
anything for the stability of the system (or, if other things are
properly written, it shouldn't 8-), and doesn't solve the problem
i mention above (which is _not_ clearly elucidated in the message you
quote).


cgd