Why is ArchLinux consuming so much RAM?

wrycatcher · 2007-09-05 04:39:34

I really don't know where to start with this thread. Hoping a few of you veterans will be able to help pinpoint my memory consumption by ArchLinux. I have read lots of places where ArchLinux runs with a very small memory footprint, but that hasn't been my experience, which is tragic becuase I really like ArchLinux the most of all the distros I've tried.

I don't have anything that usual installed, I don't think. If I go from a fresh boot up, my experience is that I end up using about 400MB out of the 768 MB total physical memory (eventually my system will slow to a crawl with about 95% of RAM used). And I'm not really doing much. A little Audacious, a little file mgmt with Thunar, a little web browsing...that's it really. I expected some rogue application to be to blame but that doesn't seem to be the case. It appears to be XFCE stuff mostly (and Thunar). Here's what my system shows right now if I do

$ps -aux

USER       PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
root         1  0.0  0.0   1592   536 ?        Ss   Sep03   0:00 init [3]                        
root         2  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep03   0:00 [kthreadd]
root         3  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep03   0:00 [migration/0]
root         4  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        SN   Sep03   0:00 [ksoftirqd/0]
root         5  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep03   0:00 [watchdog/0]
root         6  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep03   0:00 [events/0]
root         7  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep03   0:00 [khelper]
root        31  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep03   0:00 [kblockd/0]
root        32  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep03   0:00 [kacpid]
root        33  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep03   0:00 [kacpi_notify]
root       113  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep03   0:00 [kseriod]
root       135  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep03   0:00 [pdflush]
root       136  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep03   0:00 [pdflush]
root       137  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep03   0:00 [kswapd0]
root       138  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep03   0:00 [aio/0]
root       273  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep03   0:08 [ata/0]
root       274  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep03   0:00 [ata_aux]
root       278  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep03   0:00 [scsi_eh_0]
root       280  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep03   0:18 [scsi_eh_1]
root       614  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep03   0:00 [ksuspend_usbd]
root       617  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep03   0:00 [khubd]
root      1186  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep03   0:00 [kjournald]
root      1231  0.0  0.0   1772   636 ?        S<s  Sep03   0:01 /sbin/udevd --daemon
root      1781  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep03   0:00 [kgameportd]
root      3980  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep03   0:00 [kpsmoused]
root      4368  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep03   0:00 [scsi_eh_2]
root      4369  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep03   0:00 [usb-storage]
root      4993  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep03   0:00 [kjournald]
root      4994  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep03   0:00 [kjournald]
root      4995  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   Sep03   0:00 [kjournald]
root      5151  0.0  0.1   2220   792 ?        Ss   Sep03   0:00 /usr/sbin/syslog-ng
root      5165  0.0  0.0   1740   504 ?        Ss   Sep03   0:00 /sbin/dhcpcd -t 30 -h TuxTixi eth
root      5177  0.0  0.0   1620   544 ?        S    Sep03   0:00 /usr/sbin/crond
root      5189  0.0  0.1  14404  1252 ?        Ss   Sep03   0:00 ./hpiod
root      5193  0.0  0.6  11608  4996 ?        S    Sep03   0:00 python ./hpssd.py
root      5202  0.0  0.3   5316  2364 ?        Ss   Sep03   0:08 /usr/sbin/cupsd
dbus      5216  0.0  0.1   2232  1000 ?        Ss   Sep03   0:00 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --system
hal       5219  0.0  0.4   4936  3144 ?        Ss   Sep03   0:00 /usr/sbin/hald
root      5220  0.0  0.1   3136  1152 ?        S    Sep03   0:00 hald-runner
hal       5227  0.0  0.1   2000   880 ?        S    Sep03   0:00 hald-addon-keyboard: listening on
hal       5228  0.0  0.1   2000   876 ?        S    Sep03   0:00 hald-addon-keyboard: listening on
hal       5229  0.0  0.1   1996   872 ?        S    Sep03   0:00 hald-addon-keyboard: listening on
hal       5232  0.0  0.1   1996   868 ?        S    Sep03   0:00 hald-addon-acpi: listening on acp
root      5246  0.0  0.1   3188  1088 ?        S    Sep03   0:01 hald-addon-storage: polling /dev/
root      5248  0.0  0.1   3184  1084 ?        S    Sep03   0:08 hald-addon-storage: polling /dev/
root      5250  0.0  0.1   3184  1088 ?        S    Sep03   0:08 hald-addon-storage: polling /dev/
root      5253  0.0  0.1   2340  1136 tty1     Ss   Sep03   0:00 /bin/login --    
root      5254  0.0  0.0   1588   496 tty2     Ss+  Sep03   0:00 /sbin/agetty 38400 vc/2 linux
root      5255  0.0  0.0   1588   492 tty3     Ss+  Sep03   0:00 /sbin/agetty 38400 vc/3 linux
root      5256  0.0  0.0   1592   500 tty4     Ss+  Sep03   0:00 /sbin/agetty 38400 vc/4 linux
root      5257  0.0  0.0   1592   500 tty5     Ss+  Sep03   0:00 /sbin/agetty 38400 vc/5 linux
root      5258  0.0  0.0   1588   496 tty6     Ss+  Sep03   0:00 /sbin/agetty 38400 vc/6 linux
tom       5269  0.0  0.2   4532  1736 tty1     S    Sep03   0:00 -bash
tom       5273  0.0  0.1   4484  1396 tty1     S+   Sep03   0:00 /bin/sh /usr/bin/startx
tom       5289  0.0  0.0   2572   720 tty1     S+   Sep03   0:00 xinit /home/tom/.xinitrc -- -auth
root      5290  4.3  3.0   28088 23512 tty7     S<s+ Sep03  74:03 X :0 -auth /home/tom/.serverauth.
tom       5308  0.0  0.1   4220  1376 tty1     S    Sep03   0:00 /bin/sh /etc/xdg/xfce4/xinitrc
tom       5311  0.0  0.0   4480   760 tty1     S    Sep03   0:00 /bin/sh /etc/xdg/xfce4/xinitrc
tom       5313  0.0  0.3   4484  2584 tty1     S    Sep03   0:00 xscreensaver -no-splash
tom       5318  0.0  0.0   2708   632 tty1     S    Sep03   0:00 /usr/bin/dbus-launch --sh-syntax
tom       5319  0.0  0.1   2236  1020 ?        Ss   Sep03   0:00 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --fork --pri
tom       5321  0.0  1.6  26060 13048 tty1     S    Sep03   0:01 /usr/bin/xfce4-session
tom       5325  0.0  1.3  29588 10324 ?        Ss   Sep03   0:01 xfce-mcs-manager
tom       5326  0.0  0.8  14264  6832 tty1     S    Sep03   0:01 xfwm4 --sm-client-id 11c0a8126400
tom       5327  0.0  2.1  62196 16964 tty1     S    Sep03   0:01 Thunar --sm-client-id 11c0a812640
tom       5328  0.0  2.3  41252 18336 tty1     S    Sep03   0:17 xfdesktop --sm-client-id 11c0a812
tom       5330  0.0  1.8  28088 14436 tty1     S    Sep03   0:02 xfce4-panel --sm-client-id 11c0a8
tom       5332  0.0  3.7  59400 28948 ?        Ssl  Sep03   0:04 mono /usr/lib/tomboy/Tomboy.exe
tom       5335  0.0  0.7  12988  5732 tty1     S    Sep03   0:08 /usr/lib/xfce4/xfce4/panel-plugin
tom       5336  0.0  1.7  28264 13956 tty1     S    Sep03   0:01 /usr/lib/xfce4/xfce4/panel-plugin
tom       5337  0.0  1.6  26544 13140 tty1     S    Sep03   0:13 /usr/lib/xfce4/xfce4/panel-plugin
tom       5339  0.0  0.2   5048  2216 ?        S    Sep03   0:00 /usr/lib/GConf/gconfd-2 21
tom       7011  0.0  2.3  32168 18612 ?        Ss   17:35   0:01 Terminal
tom       7012  0.0  0.0   2420   652 ?        S    17:35   0:00 gnome-pty-helper
tom       7013  0.0  0.2   4532  1668 pts/0    Ss   17:35   0:00 bash
tom       7183  0.0  0.1   4228  1428 ?        S    21:04   0:00 /bin/sh /opt/mozilla/bin/firefox
tom       7187  0.0  0.1   4224  1432 ?        S    21:04   0:00 /bin/sh /opt/mozilla/lib/firefox-
tom       7192  5.3  7.8 158728 61260 ?        Sl   21:04   1:21 /opt/mozilla/lib/firefox-2.0.0.6/
root      7205  0.0  0.1   3600   924 pts/0    S    21:04   0:00 su
root      7206  0.0  0.2   4264  1672 pts/0    S    21:04   0:00 bash
root      7211  0.0  0.5  10708  4024 pts/0    S+   21:07   0:00 vi /etc/rc.conf
tom       7258  0.0  0.2   4532  1668 pts/1    Ss   21:28   0:00 bash
tom       7260  0.0  0.1   3552   996 pts/1    R+   21:29   0:00 ps -aux

I'm astounded that xfce-related items would consume so much memory. Also, Tomboy and Firefox really eat up memory in a hurry. Thunar, too. Is this normal? Doesn't seem like it should be...

Oh, fyi, the daemons loaded at startup are:

DAEMONS=(syslog-ng network netfs crond alsa hplip cups hal)

Any help would be appreciated here. I can send over any specifics about my system or outputs of a command as needed for remote troubleshooting. Thanks!

Last edited by wrycatcher (2007-09-05 05:01:07)

twiistedkaos · 2007-09-05 05:18:25

tom 5332 0.0 3.7 59400 28948 ? Ssl Sep03 0:04 mono /usr/lib/tomboy/Tomboy.exe caught my eye instantly, I suppose you're using wine for that, which can eat muh ram.

firefox is eating ram, but thats normal ,

the rest seems like xfce panel related, which if I remember has always ate a lot of ram. If you're truely concerned about ram, why not use a smaller DM, like one of the many *box's

also linux doesn't handel ram like windows, it keeps programs in cache for faster opening on later use, which is why your ram usage is going up. Eventrully, after running different programs, the cache will clear down some.

Last edited by twiistedkaos (2007-09-05 05:19:52)

Eliteforce · 2007-09-05 09:10:33

twiistedkaos wrote:

mono /usr/lib/tomboy/Tomboy.exe caught my eye instantly, I suppose you're using wine for that, which can eat muh ram

no, as far as i can read he uses mono.
i don't know much about .net apps running on mono but i guess they also consume much ram (just like java apps do).

shining · 2007-09-05 10:34:06

wrycatcher wrote:

I don't have anything that usual installed, I don't think. If I go from a fresh boot up, my experience is that I end up using about 400MB out of the 768 MB total physical memory (eventually my system will slow to a crawl with about 95% of RAM used).

If it never exceeds 95% , I don't see why there should be any slow downs.
Does it swap ? Thats much more important to check than the memory usage (even if its obviously linked).
If a lot of swap is used, then it's very bad indeed, and you're left with the two obvious choices :
1) get more memory
2) use less memory hungry apps

Recently, I set up Ubuntu (which is more bloated than Arch, with a ton of unneeded crap by default) on a box with 256 MB.
Just booting into an empty gnome session filled up all ram. Then trying to start OpenOffice made the system swap badly,
and it was very slow.
I upgraded it to 512 mb, and everything is fine now.

So I find it strange that 768 mb can't handle arch + xfce.

byte · 2007-09-05 11:21:52

I'm running Arch with Xfce fine with 256 MB, no problems.
For you, it's either more ram or no tomboy/firefox.

My other machine with 768 MB even runs KDE and Xorg with Composite and almost never exceeds 300 MB.

Last edited by byte (2007-09-05 11:24:16)

pelle.k · 2007-09-05 12:15:20

You have got to understand the meaning of cache.
Sure, there could be a rouge app (i have had problems with tomboy acctually so i don't use it any more), but it is more likely just memory being assigned, but not used. Linux likes to assign memory, and if you have little of it it often assign 95% to the cache.
Also, i noticed you run firefox, and i hope you realize that 1. its a memory hog, and 2. it stores pictures in memory as raw bitmaps so that can have a impact. (at least it used too...)

Last edited by pelle.k (2007-09-05 12:17:12)

wrycatcher · 2007-09-05 16:18:39

OK - what would I use if *not* firefox? Less memory use but still capable of displaying flash? Recommendations?

Tomboy might have to go, yes. I can live without that. No big deal.

@shining said:

If it never exceeds 95% , I don't see why there should be any slow downs.

Correct. I was mistaken about the RAM slowing it down (btw, never have I seen my swap get used, but it is ON). In this case where my system ground to a crawl, I remember that for some reason Tomboy was in the background consuming 95% of my CPU cycles, un addition to all the RAM Now that's a badly behaving application!

Thanks for all the replies, especially the ones about linux apps not releasing RAM until another app needs it (for a caching effect).

wrycatcher · 2007-09-05 17:16:39

How do my daemons look? I guess I need to figure out what I really need and what I can eliminate/optimize. Thanks!

cactus · 2007-09-05 20:24:24

here is a command to run.
`free`

Look at the -/+ buffers line.
My bet is that most of your ram usage is actually disk io cache.

wrycatcher · 2007-09-05 20:28:27

I've run that before. I have noticed a pretty large -/+ value. What would that indicate?

twiistedkaos · 2007-09-05 20:31:12

cactus wrote:

here is a command to run.
`free`
Look at the -/+ buffers line.
My bet is that most of your ram usage is actually disk io cache.

Indeed, I forgot about that command or I would've mentioned it xD

shining · 2007-09-05 22:36:06

wrycatcher wrote:

I've run that before. I have noticed a pretty large -/+ value. What would that indicate?

What does pretty large mean ? If it means nearly all your mem (more than 80-90%), then it means that you are either
using broken apps that are mem leaking, or just too hungry memory applications compared to your mem size.
Not sure in which case tomboy and firefox fit, probably both

Otherwise, it means that a good part of your mem is used as cache, which is perfectly normal and the expected behavior.

Cogar · 2007-09-05 23:19:22

Although I cannot offer a fix or explanation, I run Arch with KDE and Firefox all the time on an old laptop with 192MB RAM. Then my wife gets on it to play Frozen Bubble. I have never noticed any slowdowns, even if run for a day or so at a time. At least I can confirm that it does indeed have a reasonably small memory footprint.

wrycatcher · 2007-09-05 23:23:30

@shining:

Whoops, sorry for the vague verbiage. Probably 60-70% of total memory shows up in +/-. I'm considering doing some memory/CPU usage profiling using simple scripts executing at regular intervals to capture output as I work. Then I can analyze what's happening even when the system is "idling". Of course, there is that Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle to consider (measurement itself causes changes in the system demands).

Thanks for the comments. I will certainly be on the lookout for inefficient apps and memory leaks. Tomboy has already been removed from my autostarted applications. Firefox will get replaced with something less resource-demanding as well. Audacious was pretty resource greedy, too, but I have yet to settle on a preferred music manager yet. It's all part of the process of establishing my optimal system setup.

lucke · 2007-09-05 23:36:33

exmap, hidden somewhere in the depths of AUR, is a nice way of determining apps' memory usage.

retsaw · 2007-09-06 07:05:48

wrycatcher wrote:

Probably 60-70% of total memory shows up in +/-.

You're still not clear what you mean. The +/- line has 2 columns, "free" and "used", if you mean you have 60-70% in the free column, then you shouldn't worry about it, if you are talking about the used column, that is more than I would expect, but not a level that should adversely affect system performance.

Arch Linux

#1 2007-09-05 04:39:34

Why is ArchLinux consuming so much RAM?

#2 2007-09-05 05:18:25

Re: Why is ArchLinux consuming so much RAM?

#3 2007-09-05 09:10:33

Re: Why is ArchLinux consuming so much RAM?

#4 2007-09-05 10:34:06

Re: Why is ArchLinux consuming so much RAM?

#5 2007-09-05 11:21:52

Re: Why is ArchLinux consuming so much RAM?

#6 2007-09-05 12:15:20

Re: Why is ArchLinux consuming so much RAM?

#7 2007-09-05 16:18:39

Re: Why is ArchLinux consuming so much RAM?

#8 2007-09-05 17:16:39

Re: Why is ArchLinux consuming so much RAM?

#9 2007-09-05 20:24:24

Re: Why is ArchLinux consuming so much RAM?

#10 2007-09-05 20:28:27

Re: Why is ArchLinux consuming so much RAM?

#11 2007-09-05 20:31:12

Re: Why is ArchLinux consuming so much RAM?

#12 2007-09-05 22:36:06

Re: Why is ArchLinux consuming so much RAM?

#13 2007-09-05 23:19:22

Re: Why is ArchLinux consuming so much RAM?

#14 2007-09-05 23:23:30

Re: Why is ArchLinux consuming so much RAM?

#15 2007-09-05 23:36:33

Re: Why is ArchLinux consuming so much RAM?

#16 2007-09-06 07:05:48

Re: Why is ArchLinux consuming so much RAM?

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