# Problems with kern.ipc.maxpipekva



## douglasfim (Sep 1, 2010)

I'm with FreeBSD 8.1 and problems with "kern.ipc.maxpipekva" is constant

and is no application that is causing the problem, since I started the PC and not used, after a while the error began appearing

I have 4GB of memory in dual-channel DDR2 memory, but the onboard VGA is taking 512MB

I have to do?


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## JimW (Sep 1, 2010)

You could try setting a different value for it other than the default.

The tuning(7) man page has a section regarding this sysctl value.


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## douglasfim (Sep 1, 2010)

I set in /boot/loader.conf

but I think the number we put must be wrong.

Is there any calculation to arrive at the exact value?


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## JimW (Sep 1, 2010)

douglasfim said:
			
		

> Is there any calculation to arrive at the exact value?



Of that I am not sure. There probably is some standard increments of which you should increase the value. Did you try the value in the *tuning* man page?

Paste a copy of your /boot/loader.conf file.

Maybe also paste the output of your current value from the command line....


```
sysctl -a kern.ipc.maxpipekva
```


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## JimW (Sep 1, 2010)

By the way..... Are these errors with a clean install of 8.1 or have you gone through some upgrades?

If you have upgraded, have you also upgraded all your ports?


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## douglasfim (Sep 1, 2010)

I just edited the /etc/make.conf and I always update

kernel update but I have not done

[CMD=""]$ sysctl -a kern.ipc.maxpipekva[/CMD]

```
kern.ipc.maxpipekva: 60108800
```


/boot/loader.conf

```
fuse_load="YES"
cd9660_load="YES"                # ISO 9660 filesystem
linprocfs_load="YES"             # Linux compatibility process filesystem
linsysfs_load="YES"              # Linux compatibility system filesystem
msdosfs_load="YES"               # FAT-12/16/32
ntfs_load="YES"                  # NTFS
procfs_load="YES"                # Process filesystem
sound_load="YES"                 # Digital sound subsystem
snd_driver_load="YES"            # All sound drivers
usb_load="YES"                   # USB subsystem
amdtemp_load="YES"               # AMD K8/K10/K11 temperature monitor
sem_load="YES"
linux_load="YES"
linprocfs_load="YES"
linsysfs_load="YES"
kern.ipc.maxpipekva=60108800
```


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## JimW (Sep 1, 2010)

Are you sure you get the errors when the machine is idle and doing nothing? You are not compiling anything?

Do you have a lot of users logging into the machine?

Something is creating a lot of pipes. When you get this problem try running the following from the command line...


```
fstat | grep pipe
```

Maybe that will narrow down the culprit.


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## douglasfim (Sep 1, 2010)

I boot FreeBSD and I was napping when I woke up was already giving error

has only one user logged in

`$ fstat | grep pipe`

the conky is dominating almost everything, I must stop using conky?

I recompile the conky?


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## JimW (Sep 1, 2010)

douglasfim said:
			
		

> the conky is dominating almost everything, I must stop using conky?
> 
> I recompile the conky?



Update all your ports before you remove something and then recompile.

You could stop using conky for a while and see what is going on.

If you are the adventurous type, you could add/adjust the following in your /boot/loader.conf file and reboot...


```
kern.ipc.maxsockets=131072
kern.ipc.maxpipekva=104857600
```

Remember... if those values give you a problem.... we never had this conversation. :e


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## douglasfim (Sep 1, 2010)

ok, I'll edit /boot/loader.conf

but these values change in that?

what they do to the system?


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## JimW (Sep 1, 2010)

Did it work?


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## douglasfim (Sep 3, 2010)

the error stopped appearing, I believe it was the same conky

is there any calculation to choose the value of the variable kern.ipc.maxsockets and kern.ipc.maxpipekva at boot?


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## phoenix (Sep 3, 2010)

What software do you have installed that uses that much pipekva?

In 10 years of using FreeBSD on firewalls, servers, and desktops, I've never seen that error.  Thus, it's probably safe to say it's not an issue with FreeBSD itself, but with the ports you have installed.

I've also never used (or even heard of) conky.  Most likely, if the problem goes away when you stop using it, that conky on FreeBSD has issues, and should be avoided.


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## douglasfim (Sep 3, 2010)

I never had problems with conky, this is the first time

could be a bug in conky or was my optimizations

how is this pipe?

As I mark the topic as solved?


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## DutchDaemon (Sep 3, 2010)

@douglasfim, you wrote:



> no application that is causing the problem, since I started the PC



But it appears that you boot i*nto an X environment*, which doesn't mean 'no application' is running. In fact, dozens of applications are running to facilitate X, and applications like Conky are not default in X, so that's yet another addition. You should have mentioned that when you started this thread, really. An 'idle PC' in FreeBSD terms means: no X, just the console/terminal.


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## bihi (Sep 6, 2010)

Hi!

I had the same problem with conky (Conky 1.8.0) on FreeBSD 8.1-RELEASE (i386). 
I solved the problem with not useing exec object in conkyrc, just useing the builtin objects. I hope it's useful for you!

Sorry for my bad english!


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## douglasfim (Sep 6, 2010)

maybe this, I use the very "exec" on my "conky"

I'll modify the conky and see if that resolves

thanks


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