Problem with virtually no buffer usage in 2.4.21mdk kernel

[Robert Creager]

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[Please CC me personally, as I'm not subscribed]

Hey folks,

I'm using a custom built 2.4.21 kernel from the Mandrake 9.1 distribution.  The hardware is dual AMD Athlon 2600+ system with 2Gb of registered DDR ECC memory, SCSI and ATA disks.

My apparent problem is I'm seeing virtually no buffer usage, as checked from /proc/meminfo.  The system has been up for 11 days, with heavy dB and file access activity (Gb's worth per day), yet the buffer usage never budges.  Am I missing something fundamental, have I boffed the kernel build, or is there a problem?  I would appreciate any pointers.

        total:    used:    free:  shared: buffers:  cached:
Mem:  2119151616 2068426752 50724864        0    90112 1888358400
Swap: 2089177088 70832128 2018344960
MemTotal:      2069484 kB
MemFree:         49536 kB
MemShared:           0 kB
Buffers:            88 kB
Cached:        1823808 kB
SwapCached:      20292 kB
Active:        1209640 kB
Inactive:       712324 kB
HighTotal:     1179136 kB
HighFree:         2044 kB
LowTotal:       890348 kB
LowFree:         47492 kB
SwapTotal:     2040212 kB
SwapFree:      1971040 kB

Thanks for your time,
Rob

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