Arch Linux

gcb

Member

Registered: 2014-02-12

Posts: 212

remove sddm from memory after login?

I have one surface tablet i want to use for the tablet feature... but it is limited with 4g of ram.

It works fine unless i open firefox

I noticed  sddm and an X session remain. I know most of it will be swapped pretty soon and not impact much, but why keep it if i will never go back to it after login?

$ ps auxw | grep -v firefox | cut -c 27- | sort -n

    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
  35232  7248 ?        Ss   16:10   0:00 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-udevd
  72176 14188 ?        Ss   16:10   0:00 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-journald
  77436  9492 ?        S    16:10   0:00 /usr/lib/sddm/sddm-helper --socket ...
  78884 41360 ?        Ss   16:23   0:04 /usr/bin/xterm
  89144  5780 ?        Ssl  16:10   0:00 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-timesyncd
 108808 11060 ?        S<sl 16:10   0:00 /usr/bin/pipewire-pulse
 147668  8748 ?        Ssl  16:10   0:00 /usr/bin/kwin_wayland_wrapper --xwayland
 153992 12020 ?        Ssl  16:10   0:00 /usr/bin/sddm
 219368 13624 tty1     Ssl+ 16:10   0:00 /usr/bin/startplasma-wayland
 229144  4692 ?        Sl   16:10   0:00 /usr/bin/xdg-dbus-proxy --fd=4 --args=5
 229200  4828 ?        Ssl  16:10   0:00 /usr/lib/dconf-service
 232508  5640 ?        Ssl  16:10   0:00 /usr/lib/at-spi2-registryd --use-gnome-session
 255944 10328 ?        S<sl 16:10   0:00 /usr/bin/pipewire
 305648  5168 ?        Ssl  16:10   0:00 /usr/lib/xdg-permission-store
 307716  5616 ?        Ssl  16:10   0:00 /usr/lib/power-profiles-daemon
 309628  5948 ?        Ssl  16:10   0:00 /usr/lib/geoclue-2.0/demos/agent
 319800 11436 ?        Ssl  16:10   0:00 /usr/lib/upowerd
 379252  6072 ?        Ssl  16:10   0:00 /usr/lib/at-spi-bus-launcher
 381836  7220 ?        Ssl  16:10   0:00 /usr/lib/polkit-1/polkitd --no-debug --log-level=err
 412644 15908 ?        Ssl  16:10   0:03 /usr/bin/NetworkManager --no-daemon
 468304  9548 ?        Ssl  16:10   0:00 /usr/lib/udisks2/udisksd
 469684 22832 ?        Ssl  16:10   0:33 /usr/bin/ksystemstats
 530452  5472 ?        Ssl  16:10   0:00 /usr/lib/xdg-document-portal
 567448 15352 ?        S<sl 16:10   0:00 /usr/bin/wireplumber
 643436 25864 ?        Sl   16:10   0:11 /usr/bin/Xwayland :1 ...
 693384 11340 ?        Ssl  16:10   0:00 /usr/lib/xdg-desktop-portal
 698856 16084 ?        Ssl  16:10   0:00 /usr/bin/xembedsniproxy
 699464 16156 ?        Ssl  16:10   0:00 /usr/bin/gmenudbusmenuproxy
 701728 12996 tty2     Ssl+ 16:10   0:00 /usr/lib/Xorg -nolisten tcp -background none -seat seat0...
 779608 19436 ?        Ssl  16:10   0:00 /usr/bin/ksmserver
 976692 22728 ?        Ssl  16:10   0:00 /usr/lib/kactivitymanagerd
 1007988 22032 ?       Ssl  16:10   0:00 /usr/bin/kclockd
 1058764 28204 ?       Ssl  16:10   0:00 /usr/bin/kaccess
 1146208 18116 ?       Ssl  16:10   0:00 /usr/lib/polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1
 1203008 18904 ?       Sl   16:10   0:00 /usr/bin/kwalletd6 --pam-login 12 13
 1208164 22680 ?       Ssl  16:10   0:00 /usr/lib/DiscoverNotifier
 1274292 26488 ?       Ssl  16:10   0:00 /usr/lib/xdg-desktop-portal-kde
 1291864 26268 ?       Ssl  16:10   0:01 /usr/lib/org_kde_powerdevil
 1539244 37388 ?       Ssl  16:10   0:02 /usr/bin/kded6
 2814976 239956 ?      Sl   16:10   5:14 /usr/bin/kwin_wayland ...
 3449284 231236 ?      Ssl  16:10   1:14 /usr/bin/plasmashell --no-respawn

$ free -m
               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:            3839        1503        2036         349         868        2335
Swap:           8191           0        8191

$ firefox & free -m
               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:            3839        2966         325         594        1367         872
Swap:           8191          36        8155

Any way to unload sddm?

any other suggestions from the list?

Last edited by gcb (2024-11-15 17:03:57)

cryptearth

Member

Registered: 2024-02-03

Posts: 2,165

Re: remove sddm from memory after login?

just for fun: open Konsole and type

sudo systemctl stop sddm

and see what happens when you unload sddm from an active kde session
hint: sddm is short for simple desktop display manager - what do you think will happen when you unload the display manager?

also: if firefox causes issues how about chromium?

Last edited by cryptearth (2024-11-15 17:49:14)

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 75,725

Re: remove sddm from memory after login?

1. simply skip the DM, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/KDE#From_the_console

2. since SDDM likely isn't active, the memory will swapped out and file caches dropped if you're coming under memory pressure
You can also try https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/SDDM#Wayland

3. "It works fine unless i open firefox",
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XY_problem ? Are you sure "firefox" is related to memory issues that would go away if you had more?

4. "any other suggestions from the list?"
Drop KDE, opt for something lighter. Possibly not even wayland.

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