-mmap size[mk]
     requests that a variable heap of at most size bytes be  
allocated. (The suffixes are as described for the '-memory' option.)  
squeak will initially allocate a heap that is large enough to hold  
the image, with a small amount of headroom. If at any time Squeak  
requires more memory for its image then additional space will be  
allocated dynamically. Likewise, when memory is no longer needed it  
will deallocated and returned to the system. The size argument places  
an upper limit on how big the heap can grow in this fashion. squeak  
uses a dynamic heap by default with the maximum size set to 75% of  
the available virtual memory or 1 gigabyte, whichever is smaller.
-------------

In my past experiences which certainly depends on the operating  
system/version viewpoint, I found that on os-x setting the mmap size  
to 1GB gave a much higher probability that the memory mapped would  
start at or cross the 2GB boundary.  Which is why out of the box the  
carbon VM is set to mmap at 512MB.

On 26-Sep-06, at 6:59 AM, Diego Gomez Deck wrote:

> Hi,
>
>> AFAIK it's not related to the Squeak binary at all but just depends
>> on the system. The problem started to pop up only recently (a year or
>> maybe two ago). Maybe it's kernel 2.6 related or something else that
>> changed in Linux recently - or simply that people have more than 2 GB
>> virtual memory nowadays.
>>
>> The problem always occurs when Squeak is loaded partially around the
>> 2 GB limit. The fix for the problem at hand would be a code audit in
>> the FloatArray plugin, converting ints to unsigned where necessary.
>
>
> I'm being working around this problem since months with the parrmeter:
>
>
>  -mmap 512M
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> -- Diego
>
>
>

--
======================================================================== 
===
John M. McIntosh <johnmci at smalltalkconsulting.com>
Corporate Smalltalk Consulting Ltd.  http://www.smalltalkconsulting.com
======================================================================== 
===