X is eating RAM

soaliar · 2010-09-20 02:25:40

Hi. I've noticed that after some hours using KDE 4.5.1 the process X uses a lot of ram (now is on 400 MB).

I don't know exactly what information do you need to help me, so I will post the KDE's Monitor (ksysguard) detailed memory information about X. If you need anything else, please tell me.

Process 20722 - X

Summary

The process X (with pid 20722) is using approximately 411.1 MB of memory.
It is using 409.2 MB privately, and a further 3.9 MB that is, or could be, shared with other programs.
Dividing up the shared memory between all the processes sharing that memory we get a reduced shared memory usage of 1878.0 KB. Adding that to the private usage, we get the above mentioned total memory footprint of 411.1 MB.
Library Usage

The memory usage of a process is found by adding up the memory usage of each of its libraries, plus the process's own heap, stack and any other mappings.
Private
more
400520 KB [heap]
15328 KB /usr/lib/libnvidia-glcore.so.256.53
824 KB /usr/bin/Xorg
708 KB /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/nvidia_drv.so
620 KB /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libglx.so.256.53
Shared
more
3692 KB /SYSV00000000 (deleted)
164 KB /lib/libc-2.12.1.so
64 KB /usr/lib/libpixman-1.so.0.18.4
36 KB /usr/lib/libz.so.1.2.5
28 KB /lib/libm-2.12.1.so
Totals

Private 419060 KB (= 1780 KB clean + 417280 KB dirty)
Shared 4028 KB (= 4016 KB clean + 12 KB dirty)
Rss 423088 KB (= Private + Shared)
Pss 420938 KB (= Private + Shared/Number of Processes)
Swap 0 KB
Full Details

Information about the complete virtual space for the process is available, with sortable columns. An empty filename means that it is an anonymous mapping.
Both the MMU page size and the kernel page size are 4 KB.

lagagnon · 2010-09-20 04:47:17

Please post a snapshot of your processes using "ps aux" and also the output of the command "free".

soaliar · 2010-09-20 22:49:49

Ok.

ps aux:

USER       PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
root         1  0.0  0.0   1756   556 ?        Ss   18:52   0:00 init [3]  
root         2  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [kthreadd]
root         3  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [ksoftirqd/0]
root         4  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [migration/0]
root         5  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [watchdog/0]
root         6  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [migration/1]
root         7  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [ksoftirqd/1]
root         8  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [watchdog/1]
root         9  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [events/0]
root        10  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [events/1]
root        11  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [cpuset]
root        12  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [khelper]
root        13  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [netns]
root        14  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [async/mgr]
root        15  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [pm]
root        16  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [sync_supers]
root        17  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [bdi-default]
root        18  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [kblockd/0]
root        19  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [kblockd/1]
root        20  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [kacpid]
root        21  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [kacpi_notify]
root        22  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [kacpi_hotplug]
root        23  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [kseriod]
root        24  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [khungtaskd]
root        25  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [kswapd0]
root        26  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        SN   18:52   0:00 [ksmd]
root        27  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [aio/0]
root        28  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [aio/1]
root        29  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [crypto/0]
root        30  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [crypto/1]
root       466  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [ata_aux]
root       475  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [ata_sff/0]
root       506  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [ata_sff/1]
root       545  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [scsi_eh_0]
root       552  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [scsi_eh_1]
root       562  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [scsi_eh_2]
root       568  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [scsi_eh_3]
root       640  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [jbd2/sda1-8]
root       641  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [ext4-dio-unwrit]
root       642  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [ext4-dio-unwrit]
root       665  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [flush-8:0]
root       676  0.0  0.0   2164   964 ?        S<s  18:52   0:00 /sbin/udevd --daemon
root       954  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [kpsmoused]
root      1001  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [khubd]
root      1055  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [scsi_eh_4]
root      1056  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [usb-storage]
root      1065  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [i915]
root      1067  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   18:52   0:00 [kslowd000]
root      1068  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S<   18:52   0:00 [kslowd001]
root      1070  2.9  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   1:33 [hd-audio0]
root      1193  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:52   0:00 [usbhid_resumer]
root      1361  0.0  0.0   5092   424 ?        S    18:52   0:00 supervising syslog-ng
root      1362  0.0  0.1   5272  1724 ?        Ss   18:52   0:00 /usr/sbin/syslog-ng
root      1387  0.0  0.0   1804   596 ?        Ss   18:52   0:00 /usr/sbin/crond -S -l info
dbus      1402  0.0  0.1   2620  1308 ?        Ss   18:52   0:00 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --system
hal       1410  0.0  0.3  14976  3172 ?        Ssl  18:52   0:00 /usr/sbin/hald
root      1411  0.0  0.1   3520  1164 ?        S    18:52   0:00 hald-runner
root      1443  0.0  0.0   3584  1000 ?        S    18:52   0:00 hald-addon-input: Listening on /dev/input/event0 /dev/input/even
root      1457  0.0  0.0   3584   992 ?        S    18:52   0:00 hald-addon-storage: polling /dev/sdc (every 2 sec)
root      1462  0.0  0.0   3584   996 ?        S    18:52   0:00 hald-addon-storage: no polling on /dev/fd0 because it is explici
hal       1464  0.0  0.0   3248  1008 ?        S    18:52   0:00 hald-addon-acpi: listening on acpi kernel interface /proc/acpi/e
root      1466  0.0  0.1   3584  1216 ?        S    18:52   0:00 hald-addon-storage: polling /dev/sr0 (every 2 sec)
root      1475  0.0  0.0   3772   636 ?        Ss   18:52   0:00 /usr/bin/kdm
root      1479  0.0  0.0   1756   560 tty1     Ss+  18:52   0:00 /sbin/agetty -8 38400 tty1 linux
root      1480  0.0  0.0   1756   568 tty2     Ss+  18:52   0:00 /sbin/agetty -8 38400 tty2 linux
root      1481  0.0  0.0   1756   560 tty3     Ss+  18:52   0:00 /sbin/agetty -8 38400 tty3 linux
root      1482  0.0  0.0   1756   564 tty4     Ss+  18:52   0:00 /sbin/agetty -8 38400 tty4 linux
root      1483  0.0  0.0   1756   564 tty5     Ss+  18:52   0:00 /sbin/agetty -8 38400 tty5 linux
root      1484  0.0  0.0   1756   568 tty6     Ss+  18:52   0:00 /sbin/agetty -8 38400 tty6 linux
root      1485  8.2 33.7 359228 347180 tty7    Ss+  18:52   4:21 /usr/bin/X :0 vt7 -nolisten tcp -auth /var/run/xauth/A:0-vsCcfb
root      1500  0.0  0.0   1948   544 ?        Ss   18:53   0:00 /sbin/dhcpcd -t 30 -h arch-live eth0
root      1502  0.0  0.0   2184   916 ?        S<   18:53   0:00 /sbin/udevd --daemon
root      1506  0.0  0.1   4116  1656 ?        S    18:53   0:00 -:0         
root      1514  0.0  0.0   3176   504 ?        S    18:53   0:00 dbus-launch --autolaunch 101e08cc1c3aaf54927f3a504a3b4f56 --bina
root      1515  0.0  0.0   2356   856 ?        Ss   18:53   0:00 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --fork --print-pid 5 --print-address 7 --se
root      1544  0.0  0.2  18344  2448 ?        Sl   18:53   0:00 /usr/sbin/console-kit-daemon --no-daemon
arch      1616  0.0  0.1   4740  1452 ?        Ss   18:53   0:00 /bin/sh /usr/bin/startkde
arch      1645  0.0  0.0   4464   480 ?        Ss   18:53   0:00 /usr/bin/gpg-agent --daemon --pinentry-program /usr/bin/pinentry
arch      1648  0.0  0.0   3544   420 ?        Ss   18:53   0:00 /usr/bin/ssh-agent -s
arch      1659  0.0  0.0   3176   500 ?        S    18:53   0:00 dbus-launch --sh-syntax --exit-with-session
arch      1660  0.0  0.1   2856  1648 ?        Ss   18:53   0:01 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --fork --print-pid 5 --print-address 7 --se
root      1667  0.0  0.0   1600    56 ?        S    18:53   0:00 /usr/lib/kde4/libexec/start_kdeinit +kcminit_startup
arch      1668  0.0  3.1  93304 32704 ?        Ss   18:53   0:00 kdeinit4: kdeinit4 Running...                  
arch      1669  0.0  2.6  96204 27580 ?        S    18:53   0:00 kdeinit4: klauncher [kdeinit] --fd=9           
arch      1671  0.0  3.6 153128 37472 ?        Sl   18:53   0:01 kdeinit4: kded4 [kdeinit]                      
arch      1678  0.0  3.2 130088 33180 ?        S    18:53   0:00 kdeinit4: kglobalaccel [kdeinit]               
root      1686  0.0  0.0   2160   784 ?        S<   18:53   0:00 /sbin/udevd --daemon
arch      1688  0.0  0.0   1736   232 ?        S    18:53   0:00 kwrapper4 ksmserver
arch      1689  0.0  3.2 139260 33212 ?        Sl   18:53   0:00 kdeinit4: ksmserver [kdeinit]                  
arch      1691 23.6  7.8 274128 80732 ?        Rl   18:53  12:26 kwin -session 10f3deccde000127156781200000017050000_1284967326_3
root      1693  0.0  0.0   2796   732 ?        Ss   18:53   0:00 /sbin/mount.ntfs-3g /dev/sdb1 /media/disk -o rw,nosuid,nodev,uhe
root      1695  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:53   0:00 [jbd2/sda2-8]
root      1696  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:53   0:00 [ext4-dio-unwrit]
root      1697  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    18:53   0:00 [ext4-dio-unwrit]
arch      1702  1.8  4.1 160300 42236 ?        SLl  18:53   0:59 /usr/bin/knotify4
arch      1706  0.0  1.1  75084 11960 ?        S    18:53   0:00 /usr/bin/kuiserver
arch      1711  0.0  0.3  36488  4044 ?        Sl   18:53   0:00 /usr/bin/akonadi_control
arch      1713  0.0  0.6 136752  6504 ?        Sl   18:53   0:00 akonadiserver
arch      1715  0.0  1.8 193724 18792 ?        Sl   18:53   0:01 /usr/sbin/mysqld --defaults-file=/home/arch/.local/share/akonadi
arch      1750  0.0  1.5  78724 15720 ?        S    18:53   0:00 /usr/bin/akonadi_contacts_resource --identifier akonadi_contacts
arch      1751  0.0  1.4  78288 15092 ?        S    18:53   0:00 /usr/bin/akonadi_contacts_resource --identifier akonadi_contacts
arch      1752  0.0  1.5  80292 15828 ?        S    18:53   0:00 /usr/bin/akonadi_ical_resource --identifier akonadi_ical_resourc
arch      1753  0.0  1.5  80292 15832 ?        S    18:53   0:00 /usr/bin/akonadi_ical_resource --identifier akonadi_ical_resourc
arch      1754  0.0  1.5  78772 15764 ?        S    18:53   0:00 /usr/bin/akonadi_maildir_resource --identifier akonadi_maildir_r
arch      1755  0.0  1.5  79168 16148 ?        S    18:53   0:00 /usr/bin/akonadi_maildispatcher_agent --identifier akonadi_maild
arch      1756  0.0  1.4  85996 15084 ?        Sl   18:53   0:00 /usr/bin/akonadi_nepomuk_contact_feeder --identifier akonadi_nep
arch      1757  0.0  1.5  78644 15584 ?        S    18:53   0:00 /usr/bin/akonadi_vcard_resource --identifier akonadi_vcard_resou
arch      1770  0.0  0.6  34140  6756 ?        S    18:53   0:00 /usr/bin/nepomukserver
arch      1773  0.0  3.1 129240 31988 ?        S    18:53   0:00 kdeinit4: kaccess [kdeinit]                    
arch      1792  0.0  0.7  32800  7300 ?        S    18:53   0:00 /usr/bin/kwrited
arch      1795  0.0  4.9 239732 50600 ?        S    18:53   0:02 kdeinit4: krunner [kdeinit]                    
arch      1802  0.0  3.8 215960 39712 ?        S    18:53   0:00 kdeinit4: kmix [kdeinit] -session 10f3deccde00012715678170000001
arch      1804  0.3  2.0  92628 20912 ?        Sl   18:53   0:10 /usr/bin/yakuake -session 10f3deccde000128458099300000017460017_
arch      1805  0.0  3.6 127944 37880 ?        S    18:53   0:00 /usr/bin/colibri -session 10f3deccde000128466712900000017050014_
arch      1808  0.0  0.1   4928  1808 pts/1    Ss   18:53   0:00 /bin/bash
arch      1812  0.0  3.5 113820 36732 ?        S    18:53   0:00 python /usr/bin/printer-applet
arch      1816  0.0  3.2 129576 33088 ?        S    18:53   0:00 kdeinit4: klipper [kdeinit]                    
arch      1817  0.0  2.7  95416 27772 ?        S    18:53   0:00 kdeinit4: kio_http_cache_cleaner [kdeinit]     
arch      1846  0.0  0.1   4928  1808 pts/2    Ss+  18:56   0:00 /bin/bash
arch      2727  0.0  0.3   6472  3164 ?        S    18:57   0:00 /usr/lib/telepathy/mission-control-5
arch      2731  0.0  0.3  32484  3184 ?        SLl  18:57   0:00 /usr/bin/gnome-keyring-daemon --start --foreground --components=
arch      2737  0.0  0.2   6576  2088 ?        S    18:57   0:00 /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfsd
arch      2746  0.0  0.1  29996  1940 ?        Ssl  18:57   0:00 /usr/lib/gvfs//gvfs-fuse-daemon /home/arch/.gvfs
arch      3156 14.1  8.5 322720 87448 ?        Sl   19:32   1:52 kdeinit4: plasma-desktop [kdeinit] --nocrashhandler
arch      3160  0.0  0.0   2136   888 ?        S    19:32   0:00 ksysguardd
arch      3184  0.0  2.5  94044 26560 ?        S    19:40   0:00 kdeinit4: kio_file [kdeinit] file local:/tmp/ksocket-arch/klaunc
arch      3185  0.0  2.5  94044 26560 ?        S    19:40   0:00 kdeinit4: kio_file [kdeinit] file local:/tmp/ksocket-arch/klaunc
arch      3186  0.0  2.5  94044 26560 ?        S    19:40   0:00 kdeinit4: kio_file [kdeinit] file local:/tmp/ksocket-arch/klaunc
arch      3187  0.0  2.5  94044 26560 ?        S    19:40   0:00 kdeinit4: kio_file [kdeinit] file local:/tmp/ksocket-arch/klaunc
arch      3199  0.0  2.5  94044 26536 ?        S    19:42   0:00 kdeinit4: kio_file [kdeinit] file local:/tmp/ksocket-arch/klaunc
arch      3200  0.0  2.5  94044 26536 ?        S    19:42   0:00 kdeinit4: kio_file [kdeinit] file local:/tmp/ksocket-arch/klaunc
arch      3201  0.0  2.5  94044 26536 ?        S    19:42   0:00 kdeinit4: kio_file [kdeinit] file local:/tmp/ksocket-arch/klaunc
arch      3202  0.0  2.5  94044 26536 ?        S    19:42   0:00 kdeinit4: kio_file [kdeinit] file local:/tmp/ksocket-arch/klaunc
arch      3206  2.8  4.1 268456 42528 ?        Sl   19:42   0:05 /usr/lib/chromium/chromium
arch      3207  0.0  0.2  67976  2892 ?        S    19:42   0:00 /usr/lib/chromium/chromium
arch      3209  0.0  1.1  71920 11712 ?        S    19:42   0:00 /usr/lib/chromium/chromium --type=zygote
arch      3225  0.0  1.3 115504 13416 ?        Sl   19:42   0:00 /usr/lib/chromium/chromium --type=extension --lang=es --force-fi
arch      3233  0.1  1.6 118764 17440 ?        Sl   19:42   0:00 /usr/lib/chromium/chromium --type=extension --lang=es --force-fi
arch      3240  0.3  2.4 123816 24776 ?        Sl   19:42   0:00 /usr/lib/chromium/chromium --type=renderer --lang=es --force-fie
arch      3251  4.0  6.2 252972 64236 ?        Sl   19:43   0:07 /usr/bin/systemsettings -caption Preferencias del sistema -icon
arch      3264  4.3  5.3 413132 55176 ?        Sl   19:44   0:02 /usr/bin/firefox
arch      3266  0.0  0.3   7064  3356 ?        S    19:44   0:00 /usr/lib/GConf/gconfd-2
arch      3322  0.1  2.8  95596 29028 ?        S    19:45   0:00 kdeinit4: kio_http [kdeinit] http local:/tmp/ksocket-arch/klaunc
arch      3327  0.0  0.1   4108  1036 pts/1    R+   19:46   0:00 ps aux

free:

             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:       1027228     992928      34300          0      48760     219004
-/+ buffers/cache:     725164     302064
Swap:            0          0          0

I had to wait until my X process reached 300 MB or more. It starts on 3x MB.

Last edited by soaliar (2010-09-20 23:41:49)

karol · 2010-09-20 22:53:40

Please edit your post and use [code ] tags for long code listings https://bbs.archlinux.org/help.php#bbcode

Last edited by karol (2010-09-20 22:54:20)

lagagnon · 2010-09-20 23:24:29

Well you are running KDE with plasma so I would expect X to consume lots of resources. I am not sure that with the intensive GUI experience of KDE and plasma that those numbers are not really out of wack. I do not use KDE for that reason - consumes too many resources. But each to their own. I suspect if you want KDE with all its facilities and eye candy that is what you get. Last time I tried KDE at the end of the boot without any apps running it had required 520MB just to get to a base desktop, so I think that is pretty normal for KDE with plasma and the applets you are running.

My system is a very basic wmii window manager - on it X consumes 182 MB of virtual RAM and just 29 MB of resident RAM.

Can anyone else confirm that KDE with Plasma does consume lots of RAM? - I suspect that is quite normal....

PS: try turning off Plasma and rebooting and see how it goes...

Last edited by lagagnon (2010-09-20 23:29:07)

soaliar · 2010-09-20 23:48:37

lagagnon wrote:

Well you are running KDE with plasma so I would expect X to consume lots of resources. I am not sure that with the intensive GUI experience of KDE and plasma that those numbers are not really out of wack. I do not use KDE for that reason - consumes too many resources. But each to their own. I suspect if you want KDE with all its facilities and eye candy that is what you get. Last time I tried KDE at the end of the boot without any apps running it had required 520MB just to get to a base desktop, so I think that is pretty normal for KDE with plasma and the applets you are running.
My system is a very basic wmii window manager - on it X consumes 182 MB of virtual RAM and just 29 MB of resident RAM.
Can anyone else confirm that KDE with Plasma does consume lots of RAM? - I suspect that is quite normal....
PS: try turning off Plasma and rebooting and see how it goes...

I've been using KDE since the firsts 4.x releases, and this is the first time it consumes THAT amount of RAM.

Last edited by soaliar (2010-09-20 23:48:59)

soaliar · 2010-09-20 23:53:03

Now is on 480 MB.

Vamp898 · 2010-09-21 09:15:02

Im using KDE and i can say for sure that it neever needed that much memory. For me its now in about 60mb

The Problem is. You can´t mesure the memory on Linux correctly. You´ll never see what is cached and in KDE everything is cached. KDE doesn´t consume mesurable more memory than GNOME (On my EeePC both GNOME and KDE uses both about 80-120mb of memory)

The problem is. The more Memory you have, the more KDE uses. Especially when you enable 3D Effects.

So the memory you see as "used" is not really used. If you start any applications that needs this memory, it will be freed.

You can just write a small skript which fills your memory to proof it yourself.

But dont think the caching is wasting of memory. It increases the overall speed of your Desktop. Stuff that is cached haven´t to be read from the Harddisk again and loading from RAM is much faster than loading from HDD as we all now.

One of the applications where you can see the best that the memory gets freed is VirtualBox (cause VMs normally needs a lot of memory)

oh and dont listen to that Tiling-WM Fanboys^^ one of the most reasons why they use tiling-wms is cause they are not able to mesure the memory usage correclty in case of not knowing how memory management works in Linux (so they think that there Tiling-WMs needs much less memory than other WMs). You cant trust them if its about memory usage of applications.

That KDE needs more memory than plain Tiling-WMs is not becease plasma or kwin, its because the very lot of small deamons who start in the background. These Deamons are for example kuiserver which is a very nice deamons who increases the workspeed (instead of open every link in a webbrowser he follows the link to the target and opens the link with the according applicaions (for example images with gwenview))

But as i said. KDE even works fine and have no problems on systems with 512 or even 256mb of memory so you just shouldn´t care about how much memory KDE needs cause you dont see which part of it is cached.

If you want to get really sure you can use Vallgrind/Massiff and you´ll proof yourself again that it doesnt worth to care about it cause 75% or even more is cached and will be freed if someone needs it

Also you use an nVidia Card where the driver is unexpactable^^

Oh i found another way to good find out.

Do a restart and take a look how much memory KDE needs fresh after the start. Then unplugg for example the half of the memory in your computer and restart (for example if you have 4GB, remove 2GB)

what does KDE need after the restart? About the half of before. So if you want to take KDE very less memory, just remove your memory the less you have the less it uses xD

at least you´ll see that its mostly something psychological. It disturbs you seen that high numbers and so can´t accept that as memory usage. But we have to accept that memory usage as it is today in Linux with KDE is not that memory usage we´re used to.

Last edited by Vamp898 (2010-09-21 09:39:20)

soaliar · 2010-09-21 11:29:50

Vamp898 wrote:

at least you´ll see that its mostly something psychological. It disturbs you seen that high numbers and so can´t accept that as memory usage. But we have to accept that memory usage as it is today in Linux with KDE is not that memory usage we´re used to.

Yes, but there's a problem: when the used RAM reaches the limit (I just have 1 GB of RAM) and I open a heavy app, the entire system hangs up and starts to write on the HD (it's using the swap, right?). The last time it happened wasn't with a heavy app at all, it was with Midori with three tabs. :s

So, i think that the amount of memory used by X isn't helping me... On the contrary, it's slowing down my system.

Vamp898 · 2010-09-21 11:39:57

Ok than it doesn´t have anything to do with the standard memory usage from KDE.

Do you have things enabled like 3D Effeckts? Does this problem also appears if you use the vesa driver instead of the nvidia?

with 1GB of RAM X.Org never uses that much memory.

mutlu_inek · 2010-09-21 13:10:41

I'd guess video driver + xserver leakage. As Vamp898 says, try with the vesa and the nouveau drivers. Or, if you are willing to risk breakage, try [testing]. The latter might have issues with the nvidia binary blob, though.

broch · 2010-09-21 13:18:47

The problem is. The more Memory you have, the more KDE uses. Especially when you enable 3D Effects.
So the memory you see as "used" is not really used. If you start any applications that needs this memory, it will be freed.

he, he do you believe this really?
Magic.....
cache and used memory are two different things

for example kuiserver which is a very nice deamons who increases the workspeed

no
kuiserver only visualizes ongoing work. e.g. file transfer

Very long posts, not much essence.

soaliar · 2010-09-21 21:32:54

mutlu_inek wrote:

I'd guess video driver + xserver leakage. As Vamp898 says, try with the vesa and the nouveau drivers. Or, if you are willing to risk breakage, try [testing]. The latter might have issues with the nvidia binary blob, though.

But using this driver and Xfce, Gnome or Openbox X stays at 30 MB. The problem appears when I use KDE. I'll try disabling the effects...

lucke · 2010-09-21 21:56:23

Blur effect plugin seems to be the culprit, at least in my case.

Last edited by lucke (2010-09-21 21:56:45)

soaliar · 2010-09-22 01:15:46

I have disabled the effects. X started on 30 MB, and after some hours is on 35 MB.

lucke wrote:

Blur effect plugin seems to be the culprit, at least in my case.

Maybe... I'll try enabling the effects and disabling the blur.

EDIT:

OMFG, I enabled the effects and now X is on 250 MB... And the blur effect is disabled.

Last edited by soaliar (2010-09-22 01:17:52)

Vamp898 · 2010-09-23 01:28:49

broch wrote:

The problem is. The more Memory you have, the more KDE uses. Especially when you enable 3D Effects.
So the memory you see as "used" is not really used. If you start any applications that needs this memory, it will be freed.
he, he do you believe this really?
Magic.....
cache and used memory are two different things
for example kuiserver which is a very nice deamons who increases the workspeed
no
kuiserver only visualizes ongoing work. e.g. file transfer
Very long posts, not much essence.

with kuiserver you were right. Really i shouldn´t write about such stuff after 30-hours of non-sleep.

and yes i believe this. I tested it myself and it works so why shouldnt i believe it? I tested it about 20 times in every possible test case and it worked every time. Do you have any reason to not believe it or dont you just like the idea that KDE doesnt need that much memory? Did you maybe mixed-up buffered memory with cached memory?

Caching is that stuff that you see as "used" in top/htop/whatevery and what can be freed by the appliaction for example if the memory gets short

Buffering is that what you see as buffered and is not shown as used. For example if you have 4 GB of memory about 3 GB can be buffered and 1 GB can be used

in that case that 4GB is aviable, 3 GB Bufferden and 1GB really used (just with KDE) you can decrase the "used" memory down to about 100mb

so 900mb is just cached

I tested it again just for you on my Virtual Machine and, as ever, KDE freed the memory when my script started to fill the memory. So it seems that its caching what im talking about and its working

Last edited by Vamp898 (2010-09-23 02:59:51)

soaliar · 2010-09-23 02:03:20

Without effects everything seems normal. X is at 30, 32 MB of RAM, no matter what app do I open.
But if I turn the effects on, X starts to consume RAM until it reaches more than 400 MB.

Vamp898 · 2010-09-23 02:03:54

soaliar wrote:

Without effects everything seems normal. X is at 30, 32 MB of RAM, no matter what app do I open.
But if I turn the effects on, X starts to consume RAM until it reaches more than 400 MB.

Than its something about your graphic card/driver

broch · 2010-09-23 13:28:12

Vamp898 wrote:

broch wrote:
The problem is. The more Memory you have, the more KDE uses. Especially when you enable 3D Effects.
So the memory you see as "used" is not really used. If you start any applications that needs this memory, it will be freed.
he, he do you believe this really?
Magic.....
cache and used memory are two different things
for example kuiserver which is a very nice deamons who increases the workspeed
no
kuiserver only visualizes ongoing work. e.g. file transfer
Very long posts, not much essence.
with kuiserver you were right. Really i shouldn´t write about such stuff after 30-hours of non-sleep.
and yes i believe this. I tested it myself and it works so why shouldnt i believe it? I tested it about 20 times in every possible test case and it worked every time. Do you have any reason to not believe it or dont you just like the idea that KDE doesnt need that much memory? Did you maybe mixed-up buffered memory with cached memory?
Caching is that stuff that you see as "used" in top/htop/whatevery and what can be freed by the appliaction for example if the memory gets short
Buffering is that what you see as buffered and is not shown as used. For example if you have 4 GB of memory about 3 GB can be buffered and 1 GB can be used
in that case that 4GB is aviable, 3 GB Bufferden and 1GB really used (just with KDE) you can decrase the "used" memory down to about 100mb
so 900mb is just cached
I tested it again just for you on my Virtual Machine and, as ever, KDE freed the memory when my script started to fill the memory. So it seems that its caching what im talking about and its working

"buffers" show part of RAM dedicated to cache disk block.
"cached" is similar but it shows caches pages from file reading.
so total "buffers" and "cached" size is system cache. which dynamically grow or shrink as required by kernel.
Besides cache part, the RAM is also used by application data and code.

Free RAM size here means RAM area that isn't occupied by cache nor application but cache area is considered as another "free" RAM since it will shrunk dynamically in the case that application calls for more memory.
There is clear distinction between used and cached memory.

Now if your KDE is using more RAM if you add more memory, then either you have KDE bug or problems with your configuration.

Last edited by broch (2010-09-23 15:41:24)

agapito · 2010-09-23 15:43:30

I am using catalyst driver with ATI 5770. With KDE4 and kwin effects activated, my xorg memory is always 600/700 MB after some hours using computer. Recently i switched to Gnome Desktop with compiz on by default, and my xorg memory never exceeds 200 MB. KDE4 effects are fucking slow and also system responsive. I hope qt 4.7 can change this situation.

Last edited by agapito (2010-09-23 15:43:57)

Vamp898 · 2010-09-23 21:02:50

broch wrote:

Vamp898 wrote:
broch wrote:
he, he do you believe this really?
Magic.....
cache and used memory are two different things

no
kuiserver only visualizes ongoing work. e.g. file transfer
Very long posts, not much essence.
with kuiserver you were right. Really i shouldn´t write about such stuff after 30-hours of non-sleep.
and yes i believe this. I tested it myself and it works so why shouldnt i believe it? I tested it about 20 times in every possible test case and it worked every time. Do you have any reason to not believe it or dont you just like the idea that KDE doesnt need that much memory? Did you maybe mixed-up buffered memory with cached memory?
Caching is that stuff that you see as "used" in top/htop/whatevery and what can be freed by the appliaction for example if the memory gets short
Buffering is that what you see as buffered and is not shown as used. For example if you have 4 GB of memory about 3 GB can be buffered and 1 GB can be used
in that case that 4GB is aviable, 3 GB Bufferden and 1GB really used (just with KDE) you can decrase the "used" memory down to about 100mb
so 900mb is just cached
I tested it again just for you on my Virtual Machine and, as ever, KDE freed the memory when my script started to fill the memory. So it seems that its caching what im talking about and its working
"buffers" show part of RAM dedicated to cache disk block.
"cached" is similar but it shows caches pages from file reading.
so total "buffers" and "cached" size is system cache. which dynamically grow or shrink as required by kernel.
Besides cache part, the RAM is also used by application data and code.
Free RAM size here means RAM area that isn't occupied by cache nor application but cache area is considered as another "free" RAM since it will shrunk dynamically in the case that application calls for more memory.
There is clear distinction between used and cached memory.

and how can you see memory that is not cached? Neither top nor htop are aviable to show that. They show the cached memory just as used and nobody knows for sure how much is cached and how much does the application need to work...

For example on me it showes that plasma needs/uses about 100mb of memory. If i open my script which fills the memory the memory usage of plasma goes down to 15mb

what happend with that 85mb?

Last edited by Vamp898 (2010-09-23 21:04:28)

soaliar · 2010-09-23 23:50:01

Vamp898 wrote:

soaliar wrote:
Without effects everything seems normal. X is at 30, 32 MB of RAM, no matter what app do I open.
But if I turn the effects on, X starts to consume RAM until it reaches more than 400 MB.
Than its something about your graphic card/driver

But if I use another 3D app (Hitman Blood Money, PES 2010, Dolphin Emulator, etc.) nothing happens. X stays at 30 MB as usual.

This only happens if I turn on the KDE effects.

soaliar · 2010-09-24 00:02:36

I think that the guilty here was a Windows 7 like Aurorae theme (Microsoft ruins my PC even if I don't use its OS). ¬¬
My config now:

Oxygen theme
Effects on
No blur

Lets see what happens.

Used Oxygen for some hours and X stays at 35 MB, then switched to Aurorae Seven and, after a few hours, nothing happens. =/
Everything seems normal.

Last edited by soaliar (2010-09-24 02:13:31)

mhertz · 2010-09-24 07:34:10

Vamp898 wrote:

oh and dont listen to that Tiling-WM Fanboys^^ one of the most reasons why they use tiling-wms is cause they are not able to mesure the memory usage correclty in case of not knowing how memory management works in Linux (so they think that there Tiling-WMs needs much less memory than other WMs). You cant trust them if its about memory usage of applications

You're full of bs! Very many tilling wm's use less private bytes than stacking ones, and it's rather you who do not fully understand the technical semantics about linux memory use! Don't go around generalising large groups of different ppl as all being completelly imbecils, thank you very much!

Sorry for off-topic, but that just made me freakin' mad! (I don't go around calling other ppl for ignorant morons just because they e.g. are KDE users!)

Last edited by mhertz (2010-09-24 07:35:54)

broch · 2010-09-24 12:12:30

Vamp898 wrote:

broch wrote:
Vamp898 wrote:
with kuiserver you were right. Really i shouldn´t write about such stuff after 30-hours of non-sleep.
and yes i believe this. I tested it myself and it works so why shouldnt i believe it? I tested it about 20 times in every possible test case and it worked every time. Do you have any reason to not believe it or dont you just like the idea that KDE doesnt need that much memory? Did you maybe mixed-up buffered memory with cached memory?
Caching is that stuff that you see as "used" in top/htop/whatevery and what can be freed by the appliaction for example if the memory gets short
Buffering is that what you see as buffered and is not shown as used. For example if you have 4 GB of memory about 3 GB can be buffered and 1 GB can be used
in that case that 4GB is aviable, 3 GB Bufferden and 1GB really used (just with KDE) you can decrase the "used" memory down to about 100mb
so 900mb is just cached
I tested it again just for you on my Virtual Machine and, as ever, KDE freed the memory when my script started to fill the memory. So it seems that its caching what im talking about and its working
"buffers" show part of RAM dedicated to cache disk block.
"cached" is similar but it shows caches pages from file reading.
so total "buffers" and "cached" size is system cache. which dynamically grow or shrink as required by kernel.
Besides cache part, the RAM is also used by application data and code.
Free RAM size here means RAM area that isn't occupied by cache nor application but cache area is considered as another "free" RAM since it will shrunk dynamically in the case that application calls for more memory.
There is clear distinction between used and cached memory.
and how can you see memory that is not cached? Neither top nor htop are aviable to show that. They show the cached memory just as used and nobody knows for sure how much is cached and how much does the application need to work...
For example on me it showes that plasma needs/uses about 100mb of memory. If i open my script which fills the memory the memory usage of plasma goes down to 15mb
what happend with that 85mb?

I don't want to be rude, but I would suggest that you dig into linux manuals and learn about OS. It is better than guessing and will make your help other users more efficient and closer to the facts in the future.

thanks

Arch Linux

#1 2010-09-20 02:25:40

X is eating RAM

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Re: X is eating RAM

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Re: X is eating RAM

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Re: X is eating RAM

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Re: X is eating RAM

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Re: X is eating RAM

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Re: X is eating RAM

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Re: X is eating RAM

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Re: X is eating RAM

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Re: X is eating RAM

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Re: X is eating RAM

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Re: X is eating RAM

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Re: X is eating RAM

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Re: X is eating RAM

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Re: X is eating RAM

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Re: X is eating RAM

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Re: X is eating RAM

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Re: X is eating RAM

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Re: X is eating RAM

#20 2010-09-23 15:43:30

Re: X is eating RAM

#21 2010-09-23 21:02:50

Re: X is eating RAM

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Re: X is eating RAM

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Re: X is eating RAM

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Re: X is eating RAM

#25 2010-09-24 12:12:30

Re: X is eating RAM

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