[SOLVED] "Essentially, unused RAM is wasted RAM."

smsware · 2013-06-01 08:19:23

I went through Arch's FAQ to maybe find out something that I don't know and this question about Arch using all the available RAM took my attention. I remember when I was setting up my tmpfs but later I've read that systemctl takes that responsibility from me. And that's correct - I can see more mounts to tmpfs than I've ever made by myself, when it was fstab's job. Still, I've got 8GB RAM and ~1,3GB is active, ~2,5GB is used so ~1,2GB for cache... I've got >5GB free RAM. Can I somehow use it to speed some things up? It's not like my Arch is running slow but it's never too fast, right?

Last edited by smsware (2013-06-01 15:40:45)

graysky · 2013-06-01 08:25:58

You can make a /scratch and mount it to tmpfs to use for compiling and the like... that is more about less IO than speed though. In your case with 8 GB of RAM, select something <8 like 7 or 6:

% grep scratch /etc/fstab
tmpfs  /scratch  tmpfs  nodev,size=14G  0 0

Tools like profile-sync-daemon (for browsers) can reduce IO and potentially speed things up. Look for it in the AUR.

rebootl · 2013-06-01 11:51:17

Probably see:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ma … erformance
and there
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ma … Preloading
respectively
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Preload

Don't use it myself but it looks quite interesting as well as profile-sync-daemon does, I'll give it a try.
Thanks Regards

Edit: profile-sync-daemon --> Great! Firefox feels so much lighter...

Last edited by rebootl (2013-06-01 12:41:29)

Trilby · 2013-06-01 12:00:41

Do you use a preloader? I prefer e4rat to systemd's build in one (readahead?), but conceptually they're similar: they preload a bunch of commonly uses stuff into buffers/cache so it loads quicker/smoother.

Mr.Elendig · 2013-06-01 14:59:50

Trilby wrote:

Do you use a preloader? I prefer e4rat to systemd's build in one (readahead?), but conceptually they're similar: they preload a bunch of commonly uses stuff into buffers/cache so it loads quicker/smoother.

e4rat is vastly inferior to read-ahead in systemd when it comes to boot and service load speed.

Trilby · 2013-06-01 15:31:45

Perhaps for you - it's vastly superior in my experience. Though I don't know about those conditions you place, perhaps it is better there - but for overall performance, e4rat has performed better on my systems.

e4rat isn't limited to boot and services. I have *very* few services running, so that is less relevant. e4rat preloads my shell configs, window manager, browser, etc.

Last edited by Trilby (2013-06-01 15:33:39)

smsware · 2013-06-01 15:39:12

Your answers were really helpful, especially the one about preload but I will check out whole wiki article... Arch Wiki is so big and great, there is everything there but sometimes hard to find if you don't know what to look for. I have much too many applications installed via AUR to keep them all up-to-date so I will leave my browser alone though... ;c

Last edited by smsware (2013-06-01 15:40:03)

Arch Linux

#1 2013-06-01 08:19:23

[SOLVED] "Essentially, unused RAM is wasted RAM."

#2 2013-06-01 08:25:58

Re: [SOLVED] "Essentially, unused RAM is wasted RAM."

#3 2013-06-01 11:51:17

Re: [SOLVED] "Essentially, unused RAM is wasted RAM."

#4 2013-06-01 12:00:41

Re: [SOLVED] "Essentially, unused RAM is wasted RAM."

#5 2013-06-01 14:59:50

Re: [SOLVED] "Essentially, unused RAM is wasted RAM."

#6 2013-06-01 15:31:45

Re: [SOLVED] "Essentially, unused RAM is wasted RAM."

#7 2013-06-01 15:39:12

Re: [SOLVED] "Essentially, unused RAM is wasted RAM."

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