Linux Mint Forums

by **quaestor** on Tue Oct 23, 2012 3:12 am

Hi all,

I'm a long time Ubuntu user but I've just installed Mint 13 xfce. I've run into a strange memory usage situation that I'm hoping someone can help me diagnose.

Some background info first:
System ram is 1GB
Swap is 1GB
Idle ram usage hovers around 250-350MB

I'll open an application (in this case a small video game called FTL) and the system will grind to a halt from all the swapping going on.

Using top, I can see the application is only using 8-10% of the system ram. However, total ram usage grows until all system ram is used plus 200-300MB of swap is used.

I'd suspect a memory leak or something except for the fact that the application memory usage remains 8-10%.

This same application had no difficulty on the same hardware running Ubuntu 10.04.

Any thoughts on what I can do to get to the bottom of this problem?

Thanks in advance!

by **jaythespacehound** on Tue Oct 23, 2012 7:47 am

Looking at top what processes are using the rest of the RAM?
You can sort by memory usage by hitting F (capital) and then n (usually).

by **xenopeek** on Tue Oct 23, 2012 7:53 am

You can reduce swappiness setting, and this will delay the usage of swap till just before it is really needed. By default swappiness is set to keep a large of pool of memory readily available, and so starts swapping much earlier than strictly needed. See here: http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/998

Also, did you install 32 bit or 64 bit edition? I hope you will answer 32 bit. The 64 bit edition can use up to 30% more memory per application. That is as expected and as designed, and not a problem for users with some more RAM (from 4 GiB up I'd say) but with only 1 GiB RAM it's not very handy.

by **quaestor** on Tue Oct 23, 2012 2:18 pm

Jay,

Thanks for the suggestion. That's what I was doing to find what was going on but FTL is the only application that appears to be using extra memory.

Here is the output from top while FTL is running:

Code: Select all: top - 11:10:47 up 9 min, 2 users, load average: 1.62, 1.76, 0.95 Tasks: 141 total, 1 running, 140 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie Cpu(s): 15.6%us, 6.8%sy, 0.0%ni, 77.6%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st Mem: 1015896k total, 913268k used, 102628k free, 9656k buffers Swap: 1037308k total, 439624k used, 597684k free, 643880k cached PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 2083 quaestor 20 0 1200m 81m 12m S 27 8.3 0:50.29 FTL 2134 quaestor 20 0 153m 16m 12m S 0 1.7 0:02.29 gedit 1622 quaestor 20 0 57900 11m 2452 S 0 1.1 0:00.42 mintUpdate 1633 quaestor 20 0 36476 10m 2444 S 0 1.0 0:00.27 wicd-client 1233 root 20 0 53480 9972 4052 S 6 1.0 0:17.68 Xorg 1635 quaestor 20 0 42556 9716 2120 S 0 1.0 0:00.28 applet.py 2124 quaestor 20 0 24664 9344 7560 S 0 0.9 0:00.46 xfwm4 1997 quaestor 20 0 144m 8700 5512 S 4 0.9 0:01.99 gnome-terminal 1597 quaestor 20 0 120m 8544 5392 S 0 0.8 0:01.60 xfce4-panel 1599 quaestor 20 0 120m 8304 5452 S 0 0.8 0:00.58 Thunar 1601 quaestor 20 0 121m 7124 4580 S 0 0.7 0:03.12 xfdesktop 1191 root 20 0 25900 6568 1420 S 0 0.6 0:01.09 wicd 1631 quaestor 20 0 214m 5416 2896 S 0 0.5 0:00.18 nm-applet 1264 root 20 0 15264 4852 936 S 0 0.5 0:00.36 wicd-monitor 1706 quaestor 20 0 133m 4440 2540 S 0 0.4 0:00.15 xfce4-indicator 1711 quaestor 20 0 22620 4220 2928 S 0 0.4 0:00.06 panel-5-datetim 1638 quaestor 9 -11 162m 4060 2564 S 9 0.4 0:14.75 pulseaudio 1625 quaestor 20 0 115m 4052 2488 S 0 0.4 0:00.12 xfce4-power-man 1674 quaestor 20 0 106m 4044 2512 S 0 0.4 0:00.08 xfce4-places-pl 1710 quaestor 20 0 21572 3360 2224 S 0 0.3 0:00.07 panel-6-systray 1507 quaestor 20 0 31492 3212 2108 S 0 0.3 0:00.10 x-session-manag 1726 quaestor 20 0 40264 2884 300 S 0 0.3 0:00.14 tumblerd 1659 quaestor 20 0 23736 2860 1488 S 0 0.3 0:00.10 xfsettingsd 1662 quaestor 20 0 40188 2440 1288 S 0 0.2 0:00.04 notify-osd 853 root 20 0 32240 2336 1512 S 0 0.2 0:00.25 NetworkManager 2140 quaestor 20 0 33516 2244 1888 S 0 0.2 0:00.02 dconf-service 1605 quaestor 20 0 30304 2180 1088 S 0 0.2 0:00.05 polkit-gnome-au 2003 quaestor 20 0 8512 2072 0 S 0 0.2 0:00.41 bash 1613 quaestor 20 0 12084 2056 344 S 0 0.2 0:00.02 mintupdate-laun 1863 quaestor 20 0 124m 1940 848 S 0 0.2 0:00.10 indicator-sound 860 root 20 0 25380 1692 684 S 0 0.2 0:00.17 polkitd 1135 whoopsie 20 0 25836 1676 728 S 0 0.2 0:00.03 whoopsie 1587 quaestor 20 0 4864 1588 392 S 0 0.2 0:00.31 dbus-daemon 1642 quaestor 20 0 10652 1540 416 S 0 0.2 0:00.06 gconfd-2 1671 root 20 0 28428 1352 668 S 0 0.1 0:00.08 upowerd 1434 root 20 0 30148 1324 700 S 0 0.1 0:00.06 console-kit-dae 1227 root 20 0 21448 1268 268 S 0 0.1 0:00.09 mdm

And after FTL is closed:

Code: Select all: top - 11:11:44 up 10 min, 2 users, load average: 1.08, 1.59, 0.94 Tasks: 138 total, 1 running, 137 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie Cpu(s): 4.8%us, 2.4%sy, 0.0%ni, 92.7%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st Mem: 1015896k total, 307504k used, 708392k free, 9672k buffers Swap: 1037308k total, 8484k used, 1028824k free, 149112k cached PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 2134 quaestor 20 0 153m 16m 12m S 0 1.7 0:03.25 gedit 1622 quaestor 20 0 57900 11m 2452 S 0 1.1 0:00.42 mintUpdate 1633 quaestor 20 0 36476 10m 2444 S 0 1.0 0:00.27 wicd-client 1233 root 20 0 53336 9.8m 4080 S 3 1.0 0:19.68 Xorg 1635 quaestor 20 0 42556 9716 2120 S 0 1.0 0:00.28 applet.py 2124 quaestor 20 0 24664 9344 7560 S 0 0.9 0:00.48 xfwm4 1997 quaestor 20 0 144m 8700 5512 S 4 0.9 0:02.41 gnome-terminal 1599 quaestor 20 0 120m 8596 5744 S 0 0.8 0:00.61 Thunar 1597 quaestor 20 0 120m 8544 5392 S 0 0.8 0:01.71 xfce4-panel 1601 quaestor 20 0 121m 7384 4840 S 0 0.7 0:03.13 xfdesktop 1191 root 20 0 25900 6568 1420 S 0 0.6 0:01.16 wicd 1631 quaestor 20 0 214m 5676 3156 S 0 0.6 0:00.18 nm-applet 1264 root 20 0 15264 4852 936 S 0 0.5 0:00.38 wicd-monitor 1706 quaestor 20 0 133m 4440 2540 S 0 0.4 0:00.15 xfce4-indicator 1625 quaestor 20 0 115m 4316 2752 S 0 0.4 0:00.12 xfce4-power-man 1711 quaestor 20 0 22620 4220 2928 S 0 0.4 0:00.07 panel-5-datetim 1674 quaestor 20 0 106m 4044 2512 S 0 0.4 0:00.08 xfce4-places-pl 1638 quaestor 9 -11 98.5m 3472 1976 S 0 0.3 0:17.72 pulseaudio 1710 quaestor 20 0 21572 3360 2224 S 0 0.3 0:00.07 panel-6-systray 1507 quaestor 20 0 31492 3212 2108 S 0 0.3 0:00.10 x-session-manag 1726 quaestor 20 0 40264 2884 300 S 0 0.3 0:00.14 tumblerd 1659 quaestor 20 0 23736 2860 1488 S 0 0.3 0:00.11 xfsettingsd 1863 quaestor 20 0 124m 2448 1348 S 0 0.2 0:00.11 indicator-sound 1605 quaestor 20 0 30304 2440 1348 S 0 0.2 0:00.05 polkit-gnome-au 1662 quaestor 20 0 40188 2440 1288 S 0 0.2 0:00.04 notify-osd 853 root 20 0 32240 2336 1512 S 0 0.2 0:00.27 NetworkManager 2140 quaestor 20 0 33516 2244 1888 S 0 0.2 0:00.02 dconf-service 2003 quaestor 20 0 8512 2072 0 S 0 0.2 0:00.41 bash 1613 quaestor 20 0 12084 2056 344 S 0 0.2 0:00.02 mintupdate-laun 860 root 20 0 25380 1692 684 S 0 0.2 0:00.17 polkitd 1135 whoopsie 20 0 25836 1676 728 S 0 0.2 0:00.04 whoopsie 1587 quaestor 20 0 4864 1588 392 S 0 0.2 0:00.31 dbus-daemon 1642 quaestor 20 0 10652 1540 416 S 0 0.2 0:00.06 gconfd-2 1671 root 20 0 28428 1352 668 S 0 0.1 0:00.08 upowerd 1434 root 20 0 30148 1324 700 S 0 0.1 0:00.06 console-kit-dae 1227 root 20 0 21448 1268 268 S 0 0.1 0:00.09 mdm 1718 quaestor 20 0 11092 1196 652 S 0 0.1 0:00.04 gvfs-gdu-volume

by **quaestor** on Tue Oct 23, 2012 2:23 pm

Vincent,

Thanks for the reply.

I tried a number of swappiness settings but it simply changed how quickly the system degraded. It doesn't change the fact that top reports FTL is only using 100-150MB yet about 1GB seems to be allocated.

I am running the 32bit version.

by **palo** on Wed Oct 24, 2012 4:05 pm

2083 quaestor 20 0 1200m 81m 12m S 27 8.3 0:50.29 FTL

Quaestor > I am only guessing here but if (hoping) you are multi-booting with the setup where you do not have the problem do you also see the high virtual memory - guessing not. More important - what is the Java version difference between the 2 setups.

Code: Select all: java -version

Pat

by **quaestor** on Mon Nov 05, 2012 3:18 am

Fixed by installing Debian 6

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