Where did my memory go?

amca01 · 2009-04-18 03:32:31

Yesterday, my laptop (which only has 512 Mb RAM) was running like a dog - that is to say, slowly and painfully. Firefox would hardly work at all. A memory check ("free -t") indicated very little free physical memory. So I closed all running applications, and even shut down X. But there was still a vast amount of memory being used. I checked with top, and with ps, and couldn't see anything which was using memory. In the end I just did a reboot, and I'm going at a spanking pace now.

But - going back to my former position - how can I determine where the memory hole is, and how to plug it?

Thanks,

Al

BC · 2009-04-18 09:26:18

Are you looking at the "correct" line in free's output? The line that begins with "-/+ buffers/cache" is the one that you should give you the most accurate results. Depending on the situation the other lines in free can lead you to believe you have a lot less free memory, for example:

$ free -t -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          3950       3750        200          0        250       2614
-/+ buffers/cache:        885       3065
Swap:         1027          0       1027
Total:        4978       3750       1227

Other than that, I don't know what else to tell you other than that 512 just isn't a whole lot anymore

Xyne · 2009-04-18 09:52:50

This was my first thought when reading the subject title.

amca01 · 2009-04-18 10:00:25

BC wrote:

Other than that, I don't know what else to tell you other than that 512 just isn't a whole lot anymore

I know that, but it's all I've got, and I'm used to running a fairly lean machine (lxde desktop, for example). If it happens again I'll check the output of free more carefully. It did seem, though, that a lot of memory was being used, but I couldn't find any open process which could have been using it.

Thanks.

toad · 2009-04-18 11:51:59

I generally blame all loss of memory on beer.

dhave · 2009-04-18 13:17:01

Most likely this is to blame.

mooreted · 2009-04-18 15:52:13

amca01 wrote:

Yesterday, my laptop (which only has 512 Mb RAM) was running like a dog - that is to say, slowly and painfully. Firefox would hardly work at all. A memory check ("free -t") indicated very little free physical memory. So I closed all running applications, and even shut down X. But there was still a vast amount of memory being used. I checked with top, and with ps, and couldn't see anything which was using memory. In the end I just did a reboot, and I'm going at a spanking pace now.
But - going back to my former position - how can I determine where the memory hole is, and how to plug it?
Thanks,
Al

LInux, as it should, tries to use all your memory. Free memory is wasted memory. If there's no apps loaded, let's use it for disk cache.

Anyway, if you look at the output of free:

total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 3114096 794068 2320028 0 128500 391344
-/+ buffers/cache: 274224 2839872
Swap: 265064 0 265064

My "free" memory is -/+ buffers/cache: 2839872

If your system is running slow, I'd look at TOP. Maybe a process like FAM has gone nuts.

EmaRsk · 2009-04-18 16:57:31

amca01 wrote:

Where did my memory go?

I don't remember.

amca01 · 2009-04-19 01:28:40

Thanks all of you.

toad - I don't drink much now - but I do like Catweazle in your avatar.
dhave - I never thought of the neuroanalyzer.
Xyne - I'm still a bit young for that. (Stupid, though).

Now - what were we talking about?

Arch Linux

#1 2009-04-18 03:32:31

Where did my memory go?

#2 2009-04-18 09:26:18

Re: Where did my memory go?

#3 2009-04-18 09:52:50

Re: Where did my memory go?

#4 2009-04-18 10:00:25

Re: Where did my memory go?

#5 2009-04-18 11:51:59

Re: Where did my memory go?

#6 2009-04-18 13:17:01

Re: Where did my memory go?

#7 2009-04-18 15:52:13

Re: Where did my memory go?

#8 2009-04-18 16:57:31

Re: Where did my memory go?

#9 2009-04-19 01:28:40

Re: Where did my memory go?

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