Running a custom command in mainmenu cannot allocate memory

[jms@…]

I'm trying to run a command 'free' from frontend's mainmenu, this worked fine in 0.23.1. In 0.24 problem occurs after I have watched a livetv channel (no matter what channel). There is no problem if I run command from menu before I start livetv.

Error message (full frontend's log attached):

2010-09-26 19:36:44.311 Launching: /usr/bin/free >/tmp/loki
2010-09-26 19:36:44.314 myth_system('/usr/bin/free >/tmp/loki'): Error: fork() failed because Cannot allocate memory

[jms@…]

mediacentermenu's mainmenu.xml

[jms@…]

Memory usage before and after livetv launch

[beirdo]

If fork is failing with this error, this means the system is telling you you do not have enough memory to do the fork, which creates a complete copy of the current process. Your best bet is to create a swapfile, and activate swap. Running with no swap is not a very wise choice, especially with 1.5G (it seems). MythTV is a memory-hungry application, and the in-memory footprint may well be larger than your available memory.

I suggest also that you read the manpage for fork. At the bottom, it indicates the error returns. If you are running with resource limits, you may need to tweak.

[jms@…]

Ok, I'll add a swap as a first thing. I have tried to avoid all disk writing until now because this frontend's hardware is quite low-end (dedicated htpc without a hard disk, just a usb key).

[jms@…]

You are right, after utilizing a swap the problem went away. Thank you.