Overpushing the buffer while booting...

[Steve Trever <trev@vermithrax.sch.symbolics.com>]

    Date: Sat, 21 Nov 87 19:05:01 EST
    From: John T. Nelson <jtn@potomac>


    Every other boot on our Symbolics 3670 generates either an "Overpushed
    buffer", or "FEP memory full" error and prevents us from booting our
    machine.  I suspect that either the "Find IDS Files" command or the
    flods we scan are causing FEP memory to fill up.  I've tried "Clear
    Command Tree" which clears the flod information out, but this doesn't
    help.  I've found that the only way to boot the machine after receiving
    this error is to do a reset FEP which is not a satisfactory solution
    since this spins the disks down and back up again.

The Eagle drives are painfully slow, but it's still only a small
fraction of the total time needed to re-boot, login, load files etc.

    Question is why are we filling up memory so fast and what can be done
    to solve the problem other than reseting the FEP?

There isn't that much memory available in the FEP.  The only other
way to cut corners is to load fewer .flod files (the ones you need
in order to boot), and scan others manually as needed.

    Yes, I have removed all the version numbers from load microcode and world
    load commands which supposedly uses up less memory, but this doesn't help.

How often do you need to re-boot the average system there?  Is it
due mostly to full memory, or to dirty worlds?

    John T. Nelson			UUCP: seismo!{sundc,dolqci}!potomac!jtn
    Advanced Decision Systems	Internet:  jtn@ads.arpa
    1500 Wilson Blvd #512; Arlington, VA 22209-2401		(703) 243-1611