Arch Linux

pogeymanz

Member

Registered: 2008-03-11

Posts: 1,020

[SOLVED]Why does X's RAM use increase over time?

I have 1GB RAM and my system has been up for close to a week now and X is using about 25% of my memory according to top. It usually start at around 5% and over a few days it climbs slowly to 10%, then 15% and now it's 25%.

I watch Firefox do the same thing, but I just assume it's doing something with the 150MB it's using. But why in the world does X need 250MB?

Last edited by pogeymanz (2008-07-05 03:26:21)

moljac024

Member

From: Serbia

Registered: 2008-01-29

Posts: 2,676

Re: [SOLVED]Why does X's RAM use increase over time?

Memory leak ?

Last edited by moljac024 (2008-06-23 20:16:01)

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pogeymanz

Member

Registered: 2008-03-11

Posts: 1,020

Re: [SOLVED]Why does X's RAM use increase over time?

Wouldn't everyone using the latest version of X11 be experiencing the same thing then?

Is there any way to fix this, or do I just have to reboot every day or two?

buttons

Member

From: NJ, USA

Registered: 2007-08-04

Posts: 620

Re: [SOLVED]Why does X's RAM use increase over time?

It isn't a memory leak.  X's RAM use corresponds to a lot of things, including all pixmem in use by all programs.  Adobe flash, for example, used to (still does?) leak pixmem all over the place, so you can see X's RAM use go up as you watch youtube videos.

If you want to know what's in there, use the command "xrestop"

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pogeymanz

Member

Registered: 2008-03-11

Posts: 1,020

Re: [SOLVED]Why does X's RAM use increase over time?

That command was not found. Do you have to install something to use that command?

So, I guess that means other programs are making X use more RAM. So, I will have to reboot occasionally?

Ramses de Norre

Member

From: Leuven - Belgium

Registered: 2007-03-27

Posts: 1,289

Re: [SOLVED]Why does X's RAM use increase over time?

pacman -S xrestop

And restarting X will do too.

Last edited by Ramses de Norre (2008-06-24 18:02:47)

freakcode

Member

From: São Paulo - Brazil

Registered: 2007-11-03

Posts: 410

Website

Re: [SOLVED]Why does X's RAM use increase over time?

I have 1GB RAM and my system has been up for close to a week now and X is using about 25% of my memory according to top. It usually start at around 5% and over a few days it climbs slowly to 10%, then 15% and now it's 25%.

I watch Firefox do the same thing, but I just assume it's doing something with the 150MB it's using. But why in the world does X need 250MB?

You could be looking up memory usage including cache. Look for real mem usage.

Last edited by freakcode (2008-06-24 19:05:47)

maschino

Member

From: Vienna

Registered: 2008-01-01

Posts: 19

Website

Re: [SOLVED]Why does X's RAM use increase over time?

Do you use Compiz or so? I played around a bit with it for a while and could see, that the ram usage of X increased constantly. The same with firefox and flash.

iBertus

Member

From: Greenville, NC

Registered: 2004-11-04

Posts: 2,228

Re: [SOLVED]Why does X's RAM use increase over time?

You can also use pmap to see how much memory is really being used and how much is being double reported by various processes for shared libraries that are being used by multiple apps.

pogeymanz

Member

Registered: 2008-03-11

Posts: 1,020

Re: [SOLVED]Why does X's RAM use increase over time?

I'm 90% sure the increase comes from VLC. I was downloading a lot of movie clips and so I was constantly veiwing different files. Probably near 100 in a few days.

Is this a pixmem leak like with Flash movies? Is this RAM then unusable until it gets cleared out (restart X)?

Is there anyway to fix this, or should I find a new movie-player?

freakcode

Member

From: São Paulo - Brazil

Registered: 2007-11-03

Posts: 410

Website

Re: [SOLVED]Why does X's RAM use increase over time?

I'm 90% sure the increase comes from VLC. I was downloading a lot of movie clips and so I was constantly veiwing different files. Probably near 100 in a few days.

Is this a pixmem leak like with Flash movies? Is this RAM then unusable until it gets cleared out (restart X)?

Is there anyway to fix this, or should I find a new movie-player?

You should only care with memory usage when you feel it affects your computer performance (it gets sluggish to open programs and things like that). Other than that, the memory used remains there for caching purposes, when that memory is needed the system will reclaim it again.

Don't buy that memory leak story until you have profiled the program. Real memory leak problems opening 100 vids would make the system hit the swap and performance go to a crawl very easily.

pogeymanz

Member

Registered: 2008-03-11

Posts: 1,020

Re: [SOLVED]Why does X's RAM use increase over time?

Thank you.

I was guessing that was the case because I got up to 80% used and it performed totally normally.