X using over 1 gig RAM after viewing images

Xiong Chiamiov · 2010-09-09 07:01:50

I open a folder with 5,630 images in it in Dolphin, with thumbnails on. X spikes up to 1200M virt, 900 real. Close dolphin, X's memory usage is unaffected. Reopen folder, and now those figures are roughly doubled:

I just -Syu-ed about an hour ago. I first noticed this problem a week or two ago, but it had been some time since I opened this folder, so it could potentially have been latent for quite some time.

I'm not quite sure where I should be investigating (X? slim? dolphin?), so any hints of that sort would be much appreciated. Of course, any information about the problem itself is, too.

Ogion · 2010-09-09 07:07:50

Neither being a solution nor an idea about what exactly is the problem. But, maybe you can turn off thumbnails or something for the time being to keep this from happening.

Ogion

Xiong Chiamiov · 2010-09-09 07:21:47

Ogion wrote:

Neither being a solution nor an idea about what exactly is the problem. But, maybe you can turn off thumbnails or something for the time being to keep this from happening.

Well, yes, that will solve the immediate problem. I would like to be able to use them, though, since it's difficult enough to find something in a folder that size *with* thumbs.

o1911 · 2010-09-09 09:43:49

Out of interest, what graphics card and drivers are you using? I could be wrong, but I've only even seen Xorg stay sensible with open source drivers. Both my proprietary nvidia and ati drivers make Xorg bloat significantly over time.

gorky · 2010-09-09 11:42:42

For me it's almost certainly a bug in Dolphin. I suggest filing a bug report.

Xiong Chiamiov wrote:

I would like to be able to use them, though, since it's difficult enough to find something in a folder that size *with* thumbs.

Well, this seems to be rather a file management problem Have you ever considered splitting this catalog or using a photo management application?

Xiong Chiamiov · 2010-09-10 10:04:41

o1911 wrote:

Out of interest, what graphics card and drivers are you using? I could be wrong, but I've only even seen Xorg stay sensible with open source drivers. Both my proprietary nvidia and ati drivers make Xorg bloat significantly over time.

I'm using the proprietary nvidia drivers.

gorky wrote:

For me it's almost certainly a bug in Dolphin. I suggest filing a bug report.

I have done so.

Xiong Chiamiov wrote:
I would like to be able to use them, though, since it's difficult enough to find something in a folder that size *with* thumbs.
Well, this seems to be rather a file management problem Have you ever considered splitting this catalog or using a photo management application?

They are all images from an imageboard, and don't gracefully fit into directories (would a picture of Azunyan go under "twin tails" or "K-On!"?). What I need is a way of attaching lots of metadeta tags to the images and browsing by them. I'm considering writing a FUSE driver that does so, along with perhaps some syncing with the site and other miscellanous stuff, but if you have any suggestions, I'm glad to take them.

gorky · 2010-09-10 12:27:16

Xiong Chiamiov wrote:

What I need is a way of attaching lots of metadeta tags to the images and browsing by them.

So it sounds exactly like you should try a photo management application with good tag support
Finding one is is not so easy, though: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=103846

However if you already use KDE, you should be very happy with DigiKam - it has certainly the best tag support I've seen in opensource applications.

Last edited by gorky (2010-09-10 12:28:12)

Xiong Chiamiov · 2010-09-11 22:43:40

gorky wrote:

However if you already use KDE, you should be very happy with DigiKam - it has certainly the best tag support I've seen in opensource applications.

I'm an awesome user, but I use quite a few KDE applications, so I suppose I'm a KDE user who just doesn't use kwin. Digikam looks quite awesome, thanks!

gorky · 2010-09-11 23:47:32

no problem

In fact currently there is no application that comes even close to Digikam when it comes to tagging (I was said that KPhotoAlbum can manage to do it, but I feel lost in its UI).

But if one day you'll come into idea of getting rid of kdelibs - take a look at shotwell.
By now it has a little fraction of digikam's features - especially it cannot search by more than one tag - but it is being developed quite fast and looks very promising.

JGC · 2010-09-12 01:16:52

Download a tool called "xrestop" and run it to see where X resources are allocated. Some process must be allocating these resources and doesn't free them after use.

Xiong Chiamiov · 2010-09-14 02:13:54

(Apologies for the Fooly Cooly in the background - I didn't think to turn off terminal transparency until too late.)

After just starting up dolphin.

After enabling thumbnail previews and waiting for memory use to stabilize.

xrestop's batch mode, at the same time.

xrestop after closing dolphin

free after closing dolphin.

It appears to me that xrestop definitely attributes the memory usage to dolphin, and shows nothing using that memory afterwards (but it's not available to the system). This is my first encounter with xrestop, however, so I may be interpreting this miscorrectly.

I'm cross-posting this to the issue.

MadCat_X · 2010-09-14 13:45:21

If you're using Oxygen as the theme for KDE apps, you might find this of help.

jdarnold · 2010-09-14 14:17:48

You also have to be real careful about reading too much into what various tools report as memory usage. Linux is real good about letting apps have memory if it is there and taking it back when necessary. The main thing would be to avoid "thrashing" by making sure swap isn't being used. You "only" have 2gb, so it might get used a bit, but just because something is reporting a high memory usage, as long as the disk isn't thrashing because everything is swapping to disk, you should be okay.

Xiong Chiamiov · 2010-09-14 18:31:37

As you can see by my last screenshot, no swap was being used. I generally run at about 1 GB real used, with firefox being mostly responsible for that.

The issue is not with high memory usage; I expect that. Rather, the memory used never gets reclaimed (and I ended up thrashing the disk continuously, which isn't fun).

Looking into those test builds of Oxygen now.

Edit:

Well, the 4.5.2 build of Oxygen didn't screw anything up, and it does seem to increase scrolling performance. No luck on the memory-leaking front, though. I also tried changing themes, and that didn't seem to help, either.

Last edited by Xiong Chiamiov (2010-09-14 19:21:18)

Arch Linux

#1 2010-09-09 07:01:50

X using over 1 gig RAM after viewing images

#2 2010-09-09 07:07:50

Re: X using over 1 gig RAM after viewing images

#3 2010-09-09 07:21:47

Re: X using over 1 gig RAM after viewing images

#4 2010-09-09 09:43:49

Re: X using over 1 gig RAM after viewing images

#5 2010-09-09 11:42:42

Re: X using over 1 gig RAM after viewing images

#6 2010-09-10 10:04:41

Re: X using over 1 gig RAM after viewing images

#7 2010-09-10 12:27:16

Re: X using over 1 gig RAM after viewing images

#8 2010-09-11 22:43:40

Re: X using over 1 gig RAM after viewing images

#9 2010-09-11 23:47:32

Re: X using over 1 gig RAM after viewing images

#10 2010-09-12 01:16:52

Re: X using over 1 gig RAM after viewing images

#11 2010-09-14 02:13:54

Re: X using over 1 gig RAM after viewing images

#12 2010-09-14 13:45:21

Re: X using over 1 gig RAM after viewing images

#13 2010-09-14 14:17:48

Re: X using over 1 gig RAM after viewing images

#14 2010-09-14 18:31:37

Re: X using over 1 gig RAM after viewing images

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