What is hammering my memory?

07-02-2010, 02:00 PM

On my daily driver Dell Inspiron laptop I have been testing Kubuntu
10.10. Both alphas hammer the memory terribly:
merkat1@dcl:~$ free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 2011 1927 83 0 0 1228
-/+ buffers/cache: 699 1312
Swap: 2863 0 2862
merkat1@dcl:~$

However, I see nothing really heavy in use:

top - 16:57:03 up 1:50, 2 users, load average: 0.72, 0.70, 0.54
Tasks: 179 total, 1 running, 176 sleeping, 0 stopped, 2 zombie
Cpu(s): 2.1%us, 1.9%sy, 0.0%ni, 95.9%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 2059656k total, 1972528k used, 87128k free, 220k buffers
Swap: 2931856k total, 328k used, 2931528k free, 1258032k cached

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
894 root 20 0 154m 43m 3432 S 3 2.2 8:59.43 Xorg
14627 merkat1 20 0 125m 25m 15m S 2 1.3 1:53.45 kpackagekitsmar
26773 merkat1 20 0 85464 18m 11m S 2 0.9 0:00.81 plugin-containe
26718 merkat1 20 0 122m 20m 15m S 1 1.0 0:01.03 konsole
5118 merkat1 20 0 243m 34m 22m S 1 1.7 7:52.16 kwin
26747 merkat1 20 0 253m 80m 26m S 1 4.0 0:10.06 firefox-bin
1469 root 20 0 3708 1052 896 S 0 0.1 0:03.69 hald-addon-inpu
1624 merkat1 20 0 297m 67m 29m S 0 3.3 1:59.53 plasma-desktop
1696 merkat1 20 0 2400 1040 728 S 0 0.1 0:07.65 ksysguardd
26737 merkat1 20 0 2620 1132 836 R 0 0.1 0:00.45 top
1 root 20 0 2872 1572 1192 S 0 0.1 0:00.58 init
2 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kthreadd
3 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.34 ksoftirqd/0
4 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.02 migration/0
5 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 watchdog/0

merkat1@dcl:~$ ps aux
USER PID %CPU %MEM VSZ RSS TTY STAT START TIME COMMAND
root 1 0.0 0.0 2872 1572 ? Ss 15:06 0:00 /sbin/init
root 2 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [kthreadd]
root 3 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [ksoftirqd/0]
root 4 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [migration/0]
root 5 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [watchdog/0]
root 6 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [migration/1]
root 7 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [ksoftirqd/1]
root 8 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [watchdog/1]
root 9 0.1 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:12 [events/0]
root 10 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:03 [events/1]
root 11 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [cpuset]
root 12 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [khelper]
root 13 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [netns]
root 14 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [async/mgr]
root 15 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [pm]
root 17 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [sync_supers]
root 18 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [bdi-default]
root 19 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [kintegrityd/0]
root 20 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [kintegrityd/1]
root 21 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:01 [kblockd/0]
root 22 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [kblockd/1]
root 23 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [kacpid]
root 24 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [kacpi_notify]
root 25 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [kacpi_hotplug]
root 26 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [ata_aux]
root 27 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:02 [ata_sff/0]
root 28 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:02 [ata_sff/1]
root 29 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [khubd]
root 30 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [kseriod]
root 31 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [kmmcd]
root 32 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [khungtaskd]
root 33 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [kswapd0]
root 34 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? SN 15:06 0:00 [ksmd]
root 35 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [aio/0]
root 36 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [aio/1]
root 37 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [ecryptfs-kthr]
root 38 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [crypto/0]
root 39 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [crypto/1]
root 44 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [scsi_eh_0]
root 45 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:02 [scsi_eh_1]
root 46 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [kstriped]
root 47 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [kmpathd/0]
root 48 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [kmpathd/1]
root 49 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [kmpath_handle]
root 50 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [ksnapd]
root 51 0.1 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:12 [kondemand/0]
root 52 0.1 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:10 [kondemand/1]
root 53 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [kconservative]
root 54 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [kconservative]
root 295 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:02 [jfsIO]
root 296 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:01 [jfsCommit]
root 297 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:01 [jfsCommit]
root 298 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [jfsSync]
root 314 0.1 0.6 22824 12576 ? S 15:06 0:09 /sbin/plymouthd
root 358 0.0 0.0 2516 956 ? S 15:06 0:00 upstart-udev-br
root 362 0.0 0.0 2936 1208 ? S<s 15:06 0:00 udevd --daemon
root 641 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [hci0]
root 657 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [usbhid_resume]
root 672 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [kpsmoused]
root 673 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [cfg80211]
root 676 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [r852]
root 691 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [radeon/0]
root 692 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [radeon/1]
root 693 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [ttm_swap]
root 711 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [iwl3945]
root 712 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:02 [phy0]
root 733 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [hd-audio0]
root 785 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 15:06 0:01 [kslowd000]
root 786 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 15:06 0:01 [kslowd001]
syslog 855 0.0 0.0 35620 1420 ? Sl 15:06 0:00 rsyslogd -c4
102 858 0.0 0.0 3504 1972 ? Ss 15:06 0:03 dbus-daemon --s
root 869 0.0 0.0 3908 1004 ? Ss 15:06 0:00 kdm
root 894 8.1 2.1 51304 44476 tty7 Ss+ 15:06 9:10 /usr/bin/X :0 v
avahi 898 0.0 0.0 3000 1268 ? S 15:06 0:00 avahi-daemon: r
avahi 899 0.0 0.0 3000 436 ? Ss 15:06 0:00 avahi-daemon: c
root 902 0.0 0.2 20160 4792 ? Ssl 15:06 0:01 NetworkManager
root 904 0.0 0.1 4276 2156 ? S 15:06 0:00 /usr/sbin/modem
root 925 0.0 0.1 4900 2276 ? S 15:06 0:00 /sbin/wpa_suppl
root 944 0.0 0.0 1856 556 tty4 Ss+ 15:06 0:00 /sbin/getty -8
root 948 0.0 0.0 3188 1740 tty5 Ss 15:06 0:00 /bin/login --
root 954 0.0 0.0 1856 560 tty2 Ss+ 15:06 0:00 /sbin/getty -8
root 955 0.0 0.0 1856 560 tty3 Ss+ 15:06 0:00 /sbin/getty -8
root 957 0.0 0.0 1856 564 tty6 Ss+ 15:06 0:00 /sbin/getty -8
root 958 0.0 0.0 2112 920 ? Ss 15:06 0:00 acpid -c /etc/a
daemon 961 0.0 0.0 2316 352 ? Ss 15:06 0:00 atd
root 962 0.0 0.0 2456 880 ? Ss 15:06 0:00 cron
kernoops 985 0.0 0.0 3640 880 ? Ss 15:06 0:00 /usr/sbin/kerne
root 999 0.0 0.0 4136 1752 ? S<s 15:06 0:00 /usr/sbin/bluet
root 1004 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:06 0:00 [l2cap]
root 1036 0.0 0.1 6776 2308 ? Ss 15:06 0:00 /usr/sbin/cupsd
root 1039 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 15:06 0:00 [krfcommd]
root 1124 0.0 0.0 1856 560 tty1 Ss+ 15:07 0:00 /sbin/getty -8
root 1125 0.0 0.0 4440 1808 ? S 15:07 0:00 -:0
root 1128 0.0 0.1 21164 3144 ? Sl 15:07 0:00 /usr/sbin/conso
merkat1 1199 0.0 0.0 1896 584 ? Ss 15:07 0:00 /bin/sh /usr/bi
merkat1 1241 0.0 0.0 3360 200 ? Ss 15:07 0:00 /usr/bin/ssh-ag
merkat1 1244 0.0 0.0 3456 580 ? S 15:07 0:00 /usr/bin/dbus-l
merkat1 1245 0.1 0.1 4916 3112 ? Ss 15:07 0:12 /bin/dbus-daemo
merkat1 1303 0.0 0.0 1684 60 ? S 15:07 0:00 /usr/lib/kde4/l
merkat1 1304 0.0 0.5 72160 12180 ? Ss 15:07 0:00 kdeinit4: kdein
merkat1 1305 0.0 0.5 42448 10792 ? S 15:07 0:00 klauncher --fd=
merkat1 1307 0.1 1.2 153940 25500 ? Sl 15:07 0:08 kdeinit4: kded4
merkat1 1433 0.0 0.6 75496 12452 ? S 15:07 0:00 /usr/bin/kuiser
merkat1 1436 0.0 0.5 76368 11992 ? S 15:07 0:00 /usr/bin/kgloba
106 1441 0.0 0.1 17180 2716 ? Ssl 15:07 0:02 /usr/sbin/hald
root 1442 0.0 0.0 3636 1312 ? S 15:07 0:00 hald-runner
merkat1 1444 0.0 0.0 1820 236 ? S 15:07 0:00 kwrapper4 ksmse
merkat1 1466 0.0 1.2 201540 24972 ? Sl 15:07 0:01 ksmserver
merkat1 1468 0.2 1.0 287140 22444 ? Sl 15:07 0:14 /usr/bin/knotif
root 1469 0.0 0.0 3708 1052 ? S 15:07 0:03 hald-addon-inpu
root 1475 0.0 0.0 3708 1044 ? S 15:07 0:00 /usr/lib/hal/ha
root 1483 0.0 0.0 3704 1228 ? S 15:07 0:00 /usr/lib/hal/ha
root 1489 0.0 0.0 3720 1036 ? S 15:07 0:00 /usr/lib/hal/ha
106 1490 0.0 0.0 3512 1168 ? S 15:07 0:00 hald-addon-acpi
root 1491 0.0 0.0 3712 1048 ? S 15:07 0:02 hald-addon-stor
merkat1 1556 0.0 0.1 6376 3076 tty5 S+ 15:07 0:00 -bash
merkat1 1624 1.7 3.3 304732 68688 ? Sl 15:07 2:00 /usr/bin/plasma
merkat1 1685 0.0 0.1 43956 3944 ? Sl 15:07 0:00 /usr/bin/akonad
merkat1 1687 0.0 0.2 124900 5928 ? Sl 15:07 0:00 akonadiserver
merkat1 1689 0.0 0.9 193948 20128 ? Sl 15:07 0:02 /usr/sbin/mysql
merkat1 1696 0.1 0.0 2400 1040 ? S 15:07 0:07 ksysguardd
merkat1 1706 0.0 0.9 107224 20008 ? Sl 15:07 0:03 /usr/bin/kwalle
merkat1 1736 0.0 0.7 78796 14620 ? S 15:07 0:00 /usr/bin/akonad
merkat1 1737 0.0 0.7 81036 15488 ? S 15:07 0:00 /usr/bin/akonad
merkat1 1738 0.0 0.7 78904 14752 ? S 15:07 0:00 /usr/bin/akonad
merkat1 1739 0.0 0.7 79228 15000 ? S 15:07 0:00 /usr/bin/akonad
merkat1 1740 0.0 0.7 87148 15368 ? Sl 15:07 0:02 /usr/bin/akonad
merkat1 1742 0.0 0.7 79096 15108 ? S 15:07 0:00 /usr/bin/akonad
merkat1 1744 0.0 0.7 81336 16040 ? S 15:07 0:00 /usr/bin/akonad
merkat1 1756 0.0 0.4 59468 8336 ? Sl 15:07 0:00 /usr/bin/nepomu
merkat1 1761 0.1 0.8 209312 17732 ? Sl 15:07 0:07 /usr/bin/nepomu
merkat1 1766 0.2 1.9 48784 41036 ? Sl 15:07 0:19 /usr/lib/virtuo
merkat1 1796 0.0 0.6 79104 12752 ? S 15:07 0:00 /usr/bin/kacces
merkat1 1806 0.0 0.3 33256 7140 ? S 15:07 0:00 /usr/bin/kwrite
merkat1 1808 0.1 1.8 283048 37104 ? Sl 15:07 0:13 /usr/bin/krunne
merkat1 1814 0.0 0.6 77612 13424 ? S 15:07 0:00 /usr/lib/kde4/l
merkat1 1820 0.0 0.7 78976 14744 ? S 15:07 0:00 /usr/bin/kbluet
merkat1 1823 0.0 1.7 114812 36040 ? S 15:07 0:00 python /usr/bin
merkat1 1826 0.0 0.2 95528 4500 ? S<sl 15:07 0:00 /usr/bin/pulsea
rtkit 1828 0.0 0.0 22980 1152 ? SNl 15:07 0:00 /usr/lib/rtkit/
root 1832 0.0 0.1 6700 3544 ? S 15:07 0:00 /usr/lib/policy
merkat1 1838 0.0 0.1 12844 2548 ? S 15:07 0:00 /usr/bin/obex-d
merkat1 1844 0.0 1.0 204132 21584 ? Sl 15:07 0:00 /usr/bin/kmix
merkat1 1926 0.0 0.7 76020 15628 ? S 15:07 0:02 /usr/bin/nepomu
merkat1 1929 0.4 0.9 94644 20596 ? Sl 15:07 0:28 /usr/bin/nepomu
merkat1 1930 0.0 0.7 93688 16468 ? Sl 15:07 0:05 /usr/bin/nepomu
merkat1 1931 0.0 0.7 84420 14964 ? S 15:07 0:00 /usr/bin/nepomu
merkat1 1932 0.0 1.0 94536 22568 ? SNl 15:07 0:02 /usr/bin/nepomu
merkat1 1933 0.0 0.7 75884 14896 ? S 15:07 0:01 /usr/bin/nepomu
merkat1 1934 0.0 0.7 76180 15204 ? S 15:07 0:01 /usr/bin/nepomu
root 2299 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:12 0:00 [scsi_eh_2]
root 2300 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 15:12 0:00 [usb-storage]
root 2317 0.0 0.0 3712 1048 ? S 15:12 0:00 hald-addon-stor
root 2521 0.0 0.0 2296 736 ? S 15:22 0:00 /sbin/dhclient
merkat1 2677 0.0 0.4 40980 10124 ? S 15:29 0:00 /usr/lib/kde4/l
merkat1 5118 10.3 1.7 245960 35812 ? Sl 15:41 7:57 /usr/bin/kwin -
merkat1 14602 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Z 15:46 0:00 [kde] <defunct>
merkat1 14605 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Z 15:46 0:00 [kde] <defunct>
merkat1 14627 2.8 1.2 128916 25768 ? Sl 15:50 1:56 /usr/lib/kde4/l
root 15475 0.0 0.0 2548 892 ? S< 16:30 0:00 udevd --daemon
root 15476 0.0 0.0 2548 600 ? S< 16:30 0:00 udevd --daemon
root 15477 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 16:30 0:00 [xfs_mru_cache]
root 15478 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 16:30 0:00 [xfslogd/0]
root 15479 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 16:30 0:00 [xfslogd/1]
root 15480 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 16:30 0:00 [xfsdatad/0]
root 15481 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 16:30 0:00 [xfsdatad/1]
root 15482 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 16:30 0:00 [xfsconvertd/0]
root 15483 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 16:30 0:00 [xfsconvertd/1]
root 26712 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 16:48 0:00 [flush-8:0]
merkat1 26714 7.3 1.4 124084 30516 ? Sl 16:50 0:38 /usr/bin/system
merkat1 26718 0.7 1.0 125680 20680 ? Sl 16:54 0:02 /usr/bin/konsol
merkat1 26720 0.0 0.1 6464 3152 pts/1 Ss 16:54 0:00 /bin/bash
merkat1 26738 0.0 0.0 1896 512 ? S 16:55 0:00 /bin/sh /usr/li
merkat1 26743 0.0 0.0 1896 508 ? S 16:55 0:00 /bin/sh /usr/li
merkat1 26747 9.0 4.0 259484 83136 ? Sl 16:55 0:18 /usr/lib/firefo
merkat1 26749 0.0 0.1 7916 2800 ? S 16:55 0:00 /usr/lib/libgco
merkat1 26763 0.0 0.6 75008 13312 ? S 16:55 0:00 /usr/lib/mozill
merkat1 26773 1.8 0.9 85464 19188 ? Sl 16:56 0:02 /usr/lib/firefo
merkat1 26788 0.0 0.0 4588 1104 pts/1 R+ 16:59 0:00 ps aux

What might be eating all that memory? Thanks.

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http://what-is-what.com

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07-02-2010, 02:07 PM

On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 10:00, Dotan Cohen <dotancohen@gmail.com> wrote:
> On my daily driver Dell Inspiron laptop I have been testing Kubuntu
> 10.10. Both alphas hammer the memory terribly:
> merkat1@dcl:~$ free -m
> * * * * * * total * * * used * * * free * * shared * *buffers * * cached
> Mem: * * * * *2011 * * * 1927 * * * * 83 * * * * *0 * * * * *0 * * * 1228
> -/+ buffers/cache: * * * *699 * * * 1312
> Swap: * * * * 2863 * * * * *0 * * * 2862
> merkat1@dcl:~$

Are you asking because of the numbers, or are you asking because your
system is doing something weird (like running slowly?)

You aren't using any swap, so you aren't using all the RAM. The free
output looks like it should look.

Linux tends to cache a lot of data in RAM until you either use that
data again, or a running application needs that RAM for some reason,
then the cached areas are flushed and the freed RAM is allocated to
whatever process uses it.

It's quite normal to see memory usage at near 100%. In fact, you
should learn a little about the output of FREE...

You have 2011 MB, with 1927 MB used. And 1228MB cached. So, that
means you are really only using 1927 - 1228 = 699MB...

Here, this is an old post, (2003) but it explains it fairly well:

http://aplawrence.com/Bofcusm/2118.html

Cheers,

Jeff

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07-02-2010, 02:11 PM

02.07.2010 16:00, Dotan Cohen:

> On my daily driver Dell Inspiron laptop I have been testing Kubuntu
> 10.10. Both alphas hammer the memory terribly:
> merkat1@dcl:~$ free -m
> total used free shared buffers cached
> Mem: 2011 1927 83 0 0 1228
> -/+ buffers/cache: 699 1312
> Swap: 2863 0 2862
> merkat1@dcl:~$

Hm, only roughy 1/3 of the RAM is actually used by "programs". The vast
majority is used as cache.

[...]

> What might be eating all that memory? Thanks.

I consider what you observe to be pretty normal.

Linux assumes that if you put all those nifty RAM modules into your
machine, you want them to be actually used ;-)

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07-02-2010, 02:11 PM

Dotan Cohen wrote:
> On my daily driver Dell Inspiron laptop I have been testing Kubuntu
> 10.10. Both alphas hammer the memory terribly:
> merkat1@dcl:~$ free -m
> total used free shared buffers cached
> Mem: 2011 1927 83 0 0 1228
> -/+ buffers/cache: 699 1312
> Swap: 2863 0 2862

>
> What might be eating all that memory? Thanks.
>

The Linux kernel. It's normal. Most of your chewed up memory is taken up
by the page cache. Nothing to worry about. The kernel will automatically
free up memory as needed. The page cache attempts to save you from
having to operate at hard disk speed (milliseconds) as opposed to RAM
speed (microseconds) so if you want a culprit, it is the kernel. If you
are really not happy about it using memory, set swappiness to zero.

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07-02-2010, 02:13 PM

J wrote:
--snip--
Dotan's question and J's answer.
--snip--
>

Bah, too many people reading the list at this time. No need to bother.
/me heads off to sleep.

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07-02-2010, 04:20 PM

On 2 July 2010 17:07, J <dreadpiratejeff@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 10:00, Dotan Cohen <dotancohen@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On my daily driver Dell Inspiron laptop I have been testing Kubuntu
>> 10.10. Both alphas hammer the memory terribly:
>> merkat1@dcl:~$ free -m
>> * * * * * * total * * * used * * * free * * shared * *buffers * * cached
>> Mem: * * * * *2011 * * * 1927 * * * * 83 * * * * *0 * * * * *0 * * * 1228
>> -/+ buffers/cache: * * * *699 * * * 1312
>> Swap: * * * * 2863 * * * * *0 * * * 2862
>> merkat1@dcl:~$
>
> Are you asking because of the numbers, or are you asking because your
> system is doing something weird (like running slowly?)
>

Sorry, I should have been clear. The system is very sluggish.
Switching windows and typing is very slow. There are no video
artefacts so I don't suspect the video drivers. The system runs great
in 9.10.

> Here, this is an old post, (2003) but it explains it fairly well:
>
> http://aplawrence.com/Bofcusm/2118.html
>

Thanks, that was informative. Well, actually, I already did know that,
but it was well said.

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http://gibberish.co.il
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07-02-2010, 04:21 PM

On 2 July 2010 17:11, Chan Chung Hang Christopher
<christopher.chan@bradbury.edu.hk> wrote:
> The Linux kernel. It's normal. Most of your chewed up memory is taken up
> by the page cache. Nothing to worry about. The kernel will automatically
> free up memory as needed. The page cache attempts to save you from
> having to operate at hard disk speed (milliseconds) as opposed to RAM
> speed (microseconds) so if you want a culprit, it is the kernel. If you
> are really not happy about it using memory, set swappiness to zero.
>

I'll ask a different question, then. What could be causing the system
to be so sluggish? I see nothing in top that looks to be a hog.

top - 16:57:03 up 1:50, 2 users, load average: 0.72, 0.70, 0.54
Tasks: 179 total, 1 running, 176 sleeping, 0 stopped, 2 zombie
Cpu(s): 2.1%us, 1.9%sy, 0.0%ni, 95.9%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 2059656k total, 1972528k used, 87128k free, 220k buffers
Swap: 2931856k total, 328k used, 2931528k free, 1258032k cached

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
894 root 20 0 154m 43m 3432 S 3 2.2 8:59.43 Xorg
14627 merkat1 20 0 125m 25m 15m S 2 1.3 1:53.45 kpackagekitsmar
26773 merkat1 20 0 85464 18m 11m S 2 0.9 0:00.81 plugin-containe
26718 merkat1 20 0 122m 20m 15m S 1 1.0 0:01.03 konsole
5118 merkat1 20 0 243m 34m 22m S 1 1.7 7:52.16 kwin
26747 merkat1 20 0 253m 80m 26m S 1 4.0 0:10.06 firefox-bin
1469 root 20 0 3708 1052 896 S 0 0.1 0:03.69 hald-addon-inpu
1624 merkat1 20 0 297m 67m 29m S 0 3.3 1:59.53 plasma-desktop
1696 merkat1 20 0 2400 1040 728 S 0 0.1 0:07.65 ksysguardd
26737 merkat1 20 0 2620 1132 836 R 0 0.1 0:00.45 top
1 root 20 0 2872 1572 1192 S 0 0.1 0:00.58 init
2 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kthreadd
3 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.34 ksoftirqd/0
4 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.02 migration/0
5 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 watchdog/0

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07-02-2010, 04:22 PM

2010/7/2 Markus Schönhaber <ubuntu-users@list-post.mks-mail.de>:
> 02.07.2010 16:00, Dotan Cohen:
>
>> On my daily driver Dell Inspiron laptop I have been testing Kubuntu
>> 10.10. Both alphas hammer the memory terribly:
>> merkat1@dcl:~$ free -m
>> * * * * * * *total * * * used * * * free * * shared * *buffers * * cached
>> Mem: * * * * *2011 * * * 1927 * * * * 83 * * * * *0 * * * * *0 * * * 1228
>> -/+ buffers/cache: * * * *699 * * * 1312
>> Swap: * * * * 2863 * * * * *0 * * * 2862
>> merkat1@dcl:~$
>
> Hm, only roughy 1/3 of the RAM is actually used by "programs". The vast
> majority is used as cache.
>
> [...]
>
>> What might be eating all that memory? Thanks.
>
> I consider what you observe to be pretty normal.
>
> Linux assumes that if you put all those nifty RAM modules into your
> machine, you want them to be actually used ;-)
>

Then what should I check to see what is causing the system to be sluggish?

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07-02-2010, 04:41 PM

Dotan Cohen wrote:
> On 2 July 2010 17:11, Chan Chung Hang Christopher
> <christopher.chan@bradbury.edu.hk> wrote:
>> The Linux kernel. It's normal. Most of your chewed up memory is taken up
>> by the page cache. Nothing to worry about. The kernel will automatically
>> free up memory as needed. The page cache attempts to save you from
>> having to operate at hard disk speed (milliseconds) as opposed to RAM
>> speed (microseconds) so if you want a culprit, it is the kernel. If you
>> are really not happy about it using memory, set swappiness to zero.
>>
>
> I'll ask a different question, then. What could be causing the system
> to be so sluggish? I see nothing in top that looks to be a hog.
>

Now that one is a hard one to answer.

Is it GTK apps? KDE apps calling GTK apps/dialogs? Switching desktop
spaces or windows?

Those could be caused by dbus troubles or other stuff and they are hard
to track down. Right now, I have a problem with sudo. It works not too
long after start up but afterwards, it stops working. All I can say is,
all these random problems are making me more and more inclined to run
something else other than Ubuntu.

So, where and when do you encounter sluggishness again?

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07-02-2010, 04:47 PM

On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 12:20, Dotan Cohen <dotancohen@gmail.com> wrote:
> Sorry, I should have been clear. The system is very sluggish.
> Switching windows and typing is very slow. There are no video
> artefacts so I don't suspect the video drivers. The system runs great
> in 9.10.

Usually, sluggishness isn't memory. It's CPU or disk I/O. If your
system becomes sluggish because of RAM utilization, you'll know it
immediately because your hard disk light will stay lit up solid as the
kernel continuously swaps in and out...

However, thats not to be confused very heavy disk I/O which can also
cause sluggishness.

My guess, and always my first guess, is Firefox. When your system
starts acting like that, kill off firefox and see if it doesn't get
back to normal. Most of the time, when I experience this, it's
because of some page with either Flash or Java that just causes FF to
slowly suck the life out of everything around it. IN some cases, it
gets so bad I have to drop to a shell and pkill firefox...

Also, you said you are running 10.10, which is in alpha. It's a
development version... expect bugs, no?

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