Arch Linux

Bombombom

Member

Registered: 2014-09-01

Posts: 13

[SOLVED]nm-applet taking too much memory (sometimes all the processes)

Hello,

One of the reason i chose Archlinux (archbang) was to keep the system small to fit in my little 512MB of ram and i've been happy so far but for some reason i noticed that nm-applet is now taking a *lot* of memory, around 40mb while it didn't use that much.

Here is my ps_mem after a fresh boot:

 Private  +   Shared  =  RAM used	Program

108.0 KiB +  59.0 KiB = 167.0 KiB	gnome-pty-helper
252.0 KiB + 112.0 KiB = 364.0 KiB	dbus-launch
268.0 KiB + 109.5 KiB = 377.5 KiB	rtkit-daemon
360.0 KiB +  57.0 KiB = 417.0 KiB	dhcpcd
364.0 KiB + 146.5 KiB = 510.5 KiB	lxdm-binary
644.0 KiB +  86.5 KiB = 730.5 KiB	systemd-logind
412.0 KiB + 387.0 KiB = 799.0 KiB	gconfd-2
740.0 KiB + 142.5 KiB = 882.5 KiB	gnome-keyring-daemon
588.0 KiB + 456.0 KiB =   1.0 MiB	(sd-pam)
516.0 KiB + 529.5 KiB =   1.0 MiB	gconf-helper
588.0 KiB + 461.5 KiB =   1.0 MiB	at-spi-bus-launcher
676.0 KiB + 505.5 KiB =   1.2 MiB	at-spi2-registryd
848.0 KiB + 370.5 KiB =   1.2 MiB	lxdm-session
  1.1 MiB + 127.0 KiB =   1.3 MiB	systemd-udevd
  1.2 MiB +  88.5 KiB =   1.3 MiB	systemd-journald
  1.4 MiB + 174.0 KiB =   1.6 MiB	bash
992.0 KiB + 711.0 KiB =   1.7 MiB	dbus-daemon (3)
  1.2 MiB + 538.0 KiB =   1.8 MiB	sudo
840.0 KiB +   1.3 MiB =   2.1 MiB	systemd (2)
  1.7 MiB + 876.5 KiB =   2.5 MiB	conky
  2.0 MiB + 667.0 KiB =   2.6 MiB	wpa_supplicant
  3.8 MiB + 985.5 KiB =   4.8 MiB	pulseaudio
  3.6 MiB +   1.4 MiB =   5.0 MiB	NetworkManager
  6.1 MiB + 613.5 KiB =   6.7 MiB	polkitd
 22.2 MiB +   2.0 MiB =  24.2 MiB	dunst
 22.6 MiB +   2.0 MiB =  24.6 MiB	tint2
 23.7 MiB +   2.1 MiB =  25.8 MiB	openbox
 27.5 MiB +   2.7 MiB =  30.2 MiB	lxterminal
 26.4 MiB +   4.9 MiB =  31.2 MiB	volumeicon
 29.4 MiB +   5.7 MiB =  35.0 MiB	nm-applet
 42.7 MiB +   1.2 MiB =  43.9 MiB	Xorg.bin
---------------------------------
                        255.8 MiB
=================================

I used to have 75mb used in the same situation.

Here is ps_mem after some use, things looks like something normal except for nm-applet.

 Private  +   Shared  =  RAM used	Program

  4.0 KiB +  31.0 KiB =  35.0 KiB	gnome-pty-helper
  4.0 KiB +  48.0 KiB =  52.0 KiB	dbus-launch
  4.0 KiB +  57.5 KiB =  61.5 KiB	lxdm-binary
  4.0 KiB +  71.0 KiB =  75.0 KiB	(sd-pam)
 24.0 KiB +  59.5 KiB =  83.5 KiB	rtkit-daemon
  8.0 KiB +  87.0 KiB =  95.0 KiB	cat (2)
  4.0 KiB +  95.5 KiB =  99.5 KiB	lxdm-session
  4.0 KiB +  99.0 KiB = 103.0 KiB	at-spi-bus-launcher
 20.0 KiB +  87.0 KiB = 107.0 KiB	chrome-sandbox (2)
  4.0 KiB + 130.0 KiB = 134.0 KiB	gconf-helper
160.0 KiB +  51.0 KiB = 211.0 KiB	dhcpcd
140.0 KiB + 103.5 KiB = 243.5 KiB	gconfd-2
260.0 KiB + 131.5 KiB = 391.5 KiB	at-spi2-registryd
452.0 KiB +  51.0 KiB = 503.0 KiB	systemd-udevd
492.0 KiB +  40.5 KiB = 532.5 KiB	systemd-logind
444.0 KiB + 170.5 KiB = 614.5 KiB	pulseaudio
500.0 KiB + 196.5 KiB = 696.5 KiB	conky
620.0 KiB + 115.0 KiB = 735.0 KiB	wpa_supplicant
932.0 KiB +  48.5 KiB = 980.5 KiB	systemd-journald
628.0 KiB + 362.0 KiB = 990.0 KiB	tint2
612.0 KiB + 534.5 KiB =   1.1 MiB	dbus-daemon (3)
492.0 KiB + 659.0 KiB =   1.1 MiB	bash (2)
  1.0 MiB + 275.5 KiB =   1.2 MiB	systemd (2)
  1.3 MiB + 330.0 KiB =   1.6 MiB	openbox
  1.5 MiB + 370.0 KiB =   1.9 MiB	sudo
  1.2 MiB + 737.5 KiB =   1.9 MiB	dunst
816.0 KiB +   1.4 MiB =   2.2 MiB	volumeicon
  1.8 MiB + 766.5 KiB =   2.5 MiB	NetworkManager
  2.2 MiB + 866.0 KiB =   3.1 MiB	lxterminal
  2.7 MiB + 447.0 KiB =   3.1 MiB	polkitd
 13.8 MiB + 267.5 KiB =  14.1 MiB	Xorg.bin
 20.4 MiB + 357.0 KiB =  20.7 MiB	nacl_helper
 38.2 MiB +   3.1 MiB =  41.3 MiB	nm-applet
171.4 MiB +  77.6 MiB = 249.1 MiB	chrome (10)
---------------------------------
                        351.5 MiB
=================================

I could live with an applet taking 40mb on a more beefy machine but being just behind chrome looks wrong. So i'm not sure what has changed, at the moment i just kill the process but i considered switching to wicd if it's ever better but it appears that it's not well maintained.

Any hint?

Last edited by Bombombom (2014-09-05 10:47:42)

ooo

Member

Registered: 2013-04-10

Posts: 1,638

Re: [SOLVED]nm-applet taking too much memory (sometimes all the processes)

I believe you aren't supposed to ask support for archbang here, they have their own forum.
You could try replacing networkmanager with netctl though, which is in-house solution from arch.

I'd also recommend enabling zswap on any low-RAM system.

mar04

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2010-02-08

Posts: 117

Re: [SOLVED]nm-applet taking too much memory (sometimes all the processes)

Maybe a memory leak. nm-applet's memory usage is way lower here - 17MiB. Uptime 18 hours. Arch x86_64.
Another option is to use nmcli and nmtui.

Bombombom

Member

Registered: 2014-09-01

Posts: 13

Re: [SOLVED]nm-applet taking too much memory (sometimes all the processes)

Thanks for your answers.

I needed to use my computer and it wasn't usable so i just reinstalled my distro and went back to normal, while tweaking the OS i made various reboots to check if it happened again and how...

And the problem of my system taking 240ish MB at boot vs 75MB is actually the nvidia drivers, after installing nvidia-304xx the memory went up a lot, but removing the driver and switching back to nouveau actually make the system way less greedy memory-wise, there is still a bit of mystery in one of the case where everything was fine but nm-applet but i think it's half solved here.

PS : I gave shot at zswap but it made my computer unusable and freeze a lot