This message indicates that the system is running many large applications simultaneously, and has run out of swap space (virtual memory). It could also indicate that applications failed without freeing pages from the swap area. Swap space is an area of disk set aside to store portions of applications and data not immediately required in memory. Any data written during this condition will probably be lost.
Reinstall or reconfigure the system to have more swap space. A general rule of thumb is that swap space should be two to three times as large as physical memory. Alternatively, use mkfile(1M) and swap(1M) to add more swap area. This example shows how to add 16 MB of virtual memory in the /usr/swap file (any filesystem with enough free space would work):
# mkfile 16m /usr/swap # swap -a /usr/swap |
/usr/swap - - swap - no - |
In calling the fork(2), exec(2), sbrk(2), or malloc(3C) routine, a program asked for more memory than the system could supply. This is not a temporary condition; swap space is a system parameter.
The symbolic name for this error is ENOMEM, errno=12.