Re: shared_buffers/SHMMAX defaults?

On Monday 30 March 2009 17:34:36 Martin Pitt wrote:
> recently, I started to get quite a bunch of bug reports a la
> "PostgreSQL fails to start due to too little shared memory" [1]. I
> have never seen this before, neither in Debian, so I guess the
> SHMMAX defaults changed somewhat in Linux 2.6.27. It seems that with
> other components, such as X.org, using large amounts of shared memory
> as well, startup sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.

I think this calls for a distribution-specific policy.  E.g., why shouldn't X
be forced to use a "more conservative setting"?  How do we even know how much
memory X will use today or tomorrow, or whether X is installed or will be
installed?