rc.local creates /etc/issue it reports the processor speed, but not the memory size. SINCE LINUX IS OFTEN TOO STUPID TO RECOGNIZE MORE THAN 64M OF MEMORY ON IT'S OWN, IT IS A CRITICAL SANITY CHECK TO SHOW THE MEMORY SIZE ALONG WITH THE PROCESSOR TYPE (it's at least as important for guaging system performance, too). --- rc.local~ Thu Sep 30 08:40:33 1999 +++ rc.local Mon Nov 20 05:35:18 2000 @@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ # want to make to /etc/issue here or you will lose them when you reboot. echo "" > /etc/issue echo "$R" >> /etc/issue - echo "Kernel $(uname -r) on $a $SMP$(uname -m)" >> /etc/issue + echo "Kernel $(uname -r) on $a $SMP$(uname -m) with `sed -n 's/MemTotal: *//p'</proc/meminfo` of memory" >> /etc/issue cp -f /etc/issue /etc/issue.net echo >> /etc/issue
No, we're not going to change anything in rc.local without a really good reason. The new memory detection code in 2.4 should catch most of these cases anyway.