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#1 2005-04-22 16:11:04

Cotton
Member
From: Cornwall, UK
Registered: 2004-09-17
Posts: 568

Swapfile sluggishness

Frequently, when using up all available RAM (512 MB) and half the swapfile (1 GB), through opening many window tabs in Firefox (eg >80), other  apps frequently get very sluggish in responding.   Even after closing down many of the apps shown as using significant portions of memory by the "top" utility, the swap file is still showing as being half full.

Invariably, memory usage of X is shown at a relatively high percentage (eg 40%), even after Firefox has been closed down.

A simple action like transferring to another virtual window (in XFCE4), may take a few seconds due to intense disk activity, presumably swapfile, even when there aren't (m)any apps open.  The same thing happens when trying to open relatively light on memory apps such as Sylpheed.  Even after not touching the system for several hours, simple actions are abnormally slow.

The solution is to restart X and everything is fine again.

Sometimes turning the swapfile of and on cures the problem, but obviously this only works if there is enough available RAM.

Is there anything I can do to prevent this sluggish behaviour and reclaim "lost" memory without resetting X?

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#2 2005-04-22 16:19:55

phrakture
Arch Overlord
From: behind you
Registered: 2003-10-29
Posts: 7,879
Website

Re: Swapfile sluggishness

ummm don't open 80+ tabs in firefox?

seriously, though - sounds like a little mem leak somewhere....

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#3 2005-04-23 01:13:20

fetreney2000
Member
From: Malaysia
Registered: 2005-02-01
Posts: 81

Re: Swapfile sluggishness

Wow 80+ tab!!! The max I've ever open is +-70 tab when I view a lot of porn picture tongue
About your problem I think it is a bug in firefox (opening more than 80+ tab)?

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#4 2005-09-12 22:18:23

Shofs
Member
From: Central Illinois
Registered: 2004-12-15
Posts: 184

Re: Swapfile sluggishness

I have been having a swap problem recently too. My swap become full and renders the system unusable. I have to Ctrl-Alt-Backspace and restart X. I have no idea how to track down the culprit if it is a memory leak. I usually have firefox, gaim and amarok running, but I think firefox may be the problem.

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#5 2005-09-12 22:37:27

Gullible Jones
Member
Registered: 2004-12-29
Posts: 4,863

Re: Swapfile sluggishness

X never seems to go past 15% (of 384 megs) for me...

Are you using compositing or something?

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#6 2005-09-12 23:16:34

Dusty
Schwag Merchant
From: Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada
Registered: 2004-01-18
Posts: 5,986
Website

Re: Swapfile sluggishness

How do you count the number of firefox tabs you have open?

Dusty

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#7 2005-09-12 23:29:25

Kern
Member
From: UK
Registered: 2005-02-09
Posts: 464

Re: Swapfile sluggishness

lots of chat re firefox and alleged memory hogging here

maybe you need 80 tabs open to read all the replies tho smile

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#8 2005-09-18 23:48:45

Cotton
Member
From: Cornwall, UK
Registered: 2004-09-17
Posts: 568

Re: Swapfile sluggishness

Look, I just came back off holiday and there are 498 post since my last visit. 
80 tabs just doesn't cut the mustard  wink 
Come to think of it, 24 hours isn't enough either...

In answer to the previous queries, its 33 tabs per page, and no I'm not using compositing.

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#9 2005-09-18 23:55:09

Lowe
Member
Registered: 2005-07-11
Posts: 89

Re: Swapfile sluggishness

I also had this problem in firefox, I'd often open up 70+ tabs when viewing sites like 4chan not only did it use a hell of lot of memory, switching beetween tabs was horribly slow. However since I switched to galeon I don't have that problem anymore, perhaps you should try it. (I think it's better anyway)

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#10 2005-09-19 00:11:20

Gullible Jones
Member
Registered: 2004-12-29
Posts: 4,863

Re: Swapfile sluggishness

70 tabs? Not 7? :shock:

(I haven't found firefox to be slow even with 10 tabs open, but 70 is a bit much I'd say. :? )

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