Mint 12 using a lot of ram

Forum rules
Before you post read how to get help. Topics in this forum are automatically closed 6 months after creation.
Locked
mintmemory

Mint 12 using a lot of ram

Post by mintmemory »

I have Mint 12 and I like to keep it simple, so I'm using Gnome Classic with no effects. The problem is that it's still using a silly amount of memory and it's getting very irritating. I'm not sure if this is normal for Mint or not. I've a reasonably good computer - quad core i3 with 4GB of RAM and an ATI Radeon graphics card that appears to be playing nice so far. After just logging in and opening this browser and the system monitor, it's up to just shy of 1GB of RAM in use.

Here's the numbers:

Code: Select all

top - 00:02:14 up 42 days, 13:12,  1 user,  load average: 0.08, 0.51, 1.14
Tasks: 171 total,   1 running, 169 sleeping,   0 stopped,   1 zombie
Cpu(s):  0.2%us,  0.1%sy,  0.0%ni, 99.8%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   3918724k total,  1909200k used,  2009524k free,    58428k buffers
Swap:  4052988k total,   303208k used,  3749780k free,   815176k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND            
29423 root      20   0  238m  87m  24m S    1  2.3   0:39.07 Xorg               
29853 aetherle  20   0  441m  27m  17m S    1  0.7   0:44.76 gnome-system-mo    
29875 aetherle  20   0  668m 117m  37m S    1  3.1   0:25.95 chrome             
29939 aetherle  20   0  916m  87m  28m S    1  2.3   0:16.93 chrome             
11671 nobody    20   0  180m  260    0 S    0  0.0  20:28.70 mysqld             
29220 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.59 kworker/0:1        
    1 root      20   0 24192 1252  524 S    0  0.0   0:02.57 init               
    2 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:01.30 kthreadd           
    3 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   9:05.08 ksoftirqd/0        
    6 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 migration/0        
    7 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 migration/1        
    9 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   1:08.22 ksoftirqd/1        
   11 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 migration/2        
   13 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   4:56.71 ksoftirqd/2        
   14 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 migration/3        
   16 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:57.40 ksoftirqd/3        
   17 root       0 -20     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 cpuset             
Dunno what this means but I'm hoping there's something in here that someone recognizes. If this is normal I'll be swapping to another distro.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
User avatar
xenopeek
Level 25
Level 25
Posts: 29507
Joined: Wed Jul 06, 2011 3:58 am

Re: Mint 12 using a lot of ram

Post by xenopeek »

I'm not exactly sure how to read this output, it looks like it is using a whole lot less memory (the RES column).

Can you perhaps run the following command and share instead the output of that?

Code: Select all

free -m
Image
mintmemory

Re: Mint 12 using a lot of ram

Post by mintmemory »

Sure - here - this is with two tabs in chrome, Thunderbird, and I have Skype running in the background.

Code: Select all

             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          3826       2751       1075          0        189       1331
-/+ buffers/cache:       1229       2597
Swap:         3957          0       3957
mintmemory

Re: Mint 12 using a lot of ram

Post by mintmemory »

Just to be sure, I've checked with the top command again - this is after a full restart + Thunderbird open + Skype in background + Chrome

Code: Select all

top - 14:19:01 up 14:10,  1 user,  load average: 0.03, 0.09, 0.13
Tasks: 169 total,   2 running, 167 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  0.8%us,  0.3%sy,  0.0%ni, 98.3%id,  0.5%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   3918724k total,  2798788k used,  1119936k free,   194564k buffers
Swap:  4052988k total,        0k used,  4052988k free,  1342636k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND            
29413 aetherle  20   0  354m  17m  11m S    2  0.5   0:00.63 gnome-terminal     
 1264 root      20   0  266m 101m  11m S    1  2.7   8:30.53 Xorg               
24340 aetherle  20   0  780m 168m  45m S    1  4.4   7:24.53 chrome             
24384 aetherle  20   0  943m  84m  14m S    1  2.2   0:42.26 chrome             
25738 aetherle  20   0  299m  87m  18m S    1  2.3   2:02.05 skype              
    3 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:02.01 ksoftirqd/0        
 1243 root      20   0 15856  648  472 S    0  0.0   0:05.75 irqbalance         
 1823 aetherle  20   0  609m  70m  17m S    0  1.8   0:15.20 dropbox            
29495 aetherle  20   0 21468 1400 1000 R    0  0.0   0:00.02 top                
    1 root      20   0 24180 2216 1328 S    0  0.1   0:00.89 init               
    2 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.01 kthreadd           
    6 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 migration/0        
    7 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 migration/1        
    8 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:05.38 kworker/1:0        
    9 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.34 ksoftirqd/1        
   11 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 migration/2        
   13 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.67 ksoftirqd/2        
User avatar
xenopeek
Level 25
Level 25
Posts: 29507
Joined: Wed Jul 06, 2011 3:58 am

Re: Mint 12 using a lot of ram

Post by xenopeek »

The free command confirms 1229 MB of memory is in use (and 189 MB buffers and 1331 MB cached, but that is used only to speed up performance by the kernel and is released by the kernel the moment some programs needs more memory).

To figure out which applications are using your memory, run top again but then press M (shift + m) to sort on %MEM column. This will but the programs using the most memory at the top, so you can take some conclusions from there. The current output tells us not very much.

On a start of Linux Mint 13 (I don't have 12 here) with Cinnamon it is using about 263 MB of memory and with MATE about 332 MB of memory (probably that should be a bit lower as I have some additional services started on MATE). Also, if you have currently installed Linux Mint in 64 bit, and you are comparing memory use to a 32 bit installation, you might note that 64 bit programs use more memory because their integer data size is twice as big. I can't recall, but somebody on the forums did a comparison and the same program compiled for 64 bit could use up to 30% more memory than when compiled for 32 bit.
Image
mintmemory

Re: Mint 12 using a lot of ram

Post by mintmemory »

Okay, that's kinda helpful - here's the output:

Code: Select all

top - 15:52:53 up 15:44,  1 user,  load average: 0.10, 0.13, 0.13
Tasks: 153 total,   1 running, 152 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  0.1%us,  0.0%sy,  0.0%ni, 99.9%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   3918724k total,  2389668k used,  1529056k free,   208048k buffers
Swap:  4052988k total,        0k used,  4052988k free,  1560412k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND            
 1264 root      20   0  253m 100m  10m S    0  2.6   9:42.07 Xorg               
 1821 aetherle  20   0  670m  53m  16m S    0  1.4   0:34.34 nautilus           
29971 aetherle  20   0  644m  38m  20m S    0  1.0   0:01.69 empathy-chat       
 1777 aetherle  20   0  504m  36m  14m S    0  0.9   2:03.16 gnome-panel        
 1793 aetherle  20   0  374m  30m  14m S    0  0.8   0:01.76 mintUpdate         
 2008 aetherle  20   0  245m  23m  10m S    0  0.6   0:01.69 applet.py          
 1958 aetherle  20   0  201m  20m 7740 S    0  0.5   0:01.16 zeitgeist-daemo    
 1748 aetherle  20   0  513m  19m  12m S    0  0.5   0:08.27 gnome-settings-    
29413 aetherle  20   0  354m  17m  11m S    0  0.5   0:05.48 gnome-terminal     
 1763 aetherle  20   0  351m  16m  11m S    0  0.4   0:49.91 metacity           
 1789 aetherle  20   0  392m  14m 9972 S    0  0.4   0:00.81 gnome-sound-app    
 1765 aetherle  20   0  326m  13m 9724 S    0  0.4   0:02.04 gnome-screensav    
 1814 aetherle  20   0  249m  13m 9060 S    0  0.4   0:09.15 notify-osd         
 1794 aetherle  20   0  421m  13m 8512 S    0  0.4   0:00.33 nm-applet          
25789 aetherle  20   0  312m  13m  10m S    0  0.3   0:00.01 goa-daemon         
 1667 aetherle  20   0  186m  12m 3332 S    0  0.3   0:00.30 gnome-keyring-d    
  899 colord    20   0  350m  11m 8616 S    0  0.3   0:00.14 colord    


I literally shut down everything, even Chrome. I was running nothing else at this point other than the terminal. This is 64bit Mint 12, by the way.
mintmemory

Re: Mint 12 using a lot of ram

Post by mintmemory »

Bump. Still hoping someone can help me with this.
wayne128

Re: Mint 12 using a lot of ram

Post by wayne128 »

just curious, so I check my distros ( not Mint)

for comparison purpose, to see if mine is running OK.
computer is i3, 4G Ram with Radeon HD5xxx series graphic

1. this is fedoraś based. running with gnome2.32, firefox open 12 tabs


~ $ free -m

Code: Select all

             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          3023        915       2108          0         23        433
-/+ buffers/cache:        457       2565
Swap:         4996          0   
~ $ top

Code: Select all

top - 10:53:01 up 6 min,  3 users,  load average: 0.98, 0.61, 0.28
Tasks: 148 total,   1 running, 147 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  2.0%us,  0.8%sy,  0.0%ni, 97.0%id,  0.0%wa,  0.2%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   3095648k total,   932044k used,  2163604k free,    24116k buffers
Swap:  5116696k total,        0k used,  5116696k free,   443984k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND            
 3456 wayne     20   0  383m 102m  29m S  7.0  3.4   0:26.07 firefox            
 1749 root      20   0  235m  91m  49m S  3.7  3.0   0:17.78 Xorg               
 4450 wayne     20   0 85676  15m  10m S  2.0  0.5   0:01.49 npviewer.bin       
 2786 wayne     20   0 31532  13m 5656 S  0.7  0.4   0:01.97 compiz             
 3077 wayne     20   0  107m  10m 8124 S  0.7  0.3   0:01.10 avant-window-na    
 3243 wayne     20   0  119m  14m  10m S  0.7  0.5   0:00.75 gnome-terminal     
 2660 wayne     20   0 10628 4532 2352 S  0.3  0.1   0:00.35 gconfd-2           
 2803 wayne     20   0  124m  16m 9948 S  0.3  0.5   0:00.28 python             
    1 root      20   0  2884 1388 1172 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.88 init               
    2 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 kthreadd           
    3 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 ksoftirqd/0        
    6 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 migration/0        
    7 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 watchdog/0         
    8 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 migration/1        
   10 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 ksoftirqd/1        
   11 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.03 kworker/0:1        
   12 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 watchdog/1         

So I have some 900M used. majority goes to firefox with 12 tabs running.


Next is to run virtualbox, when I set up I choose 1024M in virtual memory..
and I turn on guest OS, win7 running..

~ $ free -m

Code: Select all

             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          3023       2104        918          0         24        470
-/+ buffers/cache:       1609       1413
Swap:         4996          0       4996

~ $ top

Code: Select all

top - 10:55:49 up 8 min,  4 users,  load average: 0.95, 0.73, 0.38
Tasks: 153 total,   1 running, 152 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  1.2%us,  1.5%sy,  0.0%ni, 96.9%id,  0.2%wa,  0.3%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   3095648k total,  2139016k used,   956632k free,    24420k buffers
Swap:  5116696k total,        0k used,  5116696k free,   482156k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND            
 4807 wayne     20   0 1361m 1.1g 1.1g S  6.7 37.3   0:28.98 VirtualBox         
 1749 root      20   0  282m 101m  57m S  2.3  3.4   0:31.55 Xorg               
 3456 wayne     20   0  382m 106m  29m S  2.3  3.5   0:39.99 firefox            
 3243 wayne     20   0  120m  14m  10m S  1.7  0.5   0:01.21 gnome-terminal     
 4450 wayne     20   0 85676  15m  10m S  1.7  0.5   0:04.02 npviewer.bin       
 3077 wayne     20   0  107m  10m 8124 S  0.3  0.3   0:01.49 avant-window-na    
 4746 wayne     20   0  178m  36m  23m S  0.3  1.2   0:00.78 VirtualBox         
    1 root      20   0  2884 1388 1172 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.88 init               
    2 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 kthreadd           
    3 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 ksoftirqd/0        
    6 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 migration/0        
    7 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 watchdog/0         
    8 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 migration/1        
   10 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 ksoftirqd/1        
   11 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.04 kworker/0:1        
   12 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 watchdog/1         
   13 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 migration/2        
so 2.1G used, system is quite responsive..
wayne128

Re: Mint 12 using a lot of ram

Post by wayne128 »

on another partition running another distros ( not Mint)

same computer, i3, 4G Ram, radeon HD5xxx series graphic

firefox running 12 tabs.

~ $ free -m

Code: Select all

             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          3921        723       3198          0         27        502
-/+ buffers/cache:        192       3729
Swap:            0          0          0

~ $ top

Code: Select all

top - 11:04:28 up 2 min,  3 users,  load average: 0.78, 0.46, 0.18
Tasks: 126 total,   1 running, 125 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  2.7%us,  0.1%sy,  0.0%ni, 96.9%id,  0.1%wa,  0.1%hi,  0.1%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   4016076k total,   741260k used,  3274816k free,    28420k buffers
Swap:        0k total,        0k used,        0k free,   514868k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND            
 2608 wayne      1   0  328m  66m  27m S    5  1.7   0:11.30 firefox            
 1442 root       1   0  330m  53m  12m S    4  1.4   0:17.12 Xorg               
 5297 wayne      1   0 89828  12m 9508 S    2  0.3   0:00.30 gnome-terminal     
    8 root       1   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.11 kworker/1:0        
 2474 wayne      1   0 22076 9216 6428 S    0  0.2   0:00.14 gnome-settings-    
 2511 wayne      1   0 20336 9.9m 7752 S    0  0.3   0:00.57 metacity           
 2528 wayne      1   0  103m  22m  13m S    0  0.6   0:01.47 gnome-panel        
    1 root       1   0  2080  704  608 S    0  0.0   0:00.71 init               
    2 root       1   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 kthreadd           
    3 root       1   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 ksoftirqd/0        
    4 root       1   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 kworker/0:0        
    5 root       1   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 kworker/u:0        
    6 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 migration/0        
    7 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 migration/1        
    9 root       1   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 ksoftirqd/1        
   10 root       1   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 kworker/0:1        
   11 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 migration/2        
>700M used.


Now turn on virtualbox, run win7 guest OS in virtualbox, within it open firefox with 5 tabs running

~ $ free -m

Code: Select all

             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          3921       1881       2040          0         30        517
-/+ buffers/cache:       1333       2588
Swap:            0          0          0
~ $ top

Code: Select all

top - 11:09:14 up 7 min,  3 users,  load average: 0.58, 0.57, 0.29
Tasks: 129 total,   2 running, 127 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  5.6%us,  0.9%sy,  0.0%ni, 91.3%id,  1.9%wa,  0.3%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   4016076k total,  1928596k used,  2087480k free,    31068k buffers
Swap:        0k total,        0k used,        0k free,   529736k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND            
 7526 wayne      1   0 1315m 1.1g 1.1g S   11 28.5   1:59.26 VirtualBox         
 2608 wayne      1   0  330m  70m  27m S    6  1.8   0:30.85 firefox            
 1442 root       1   0  348m  71m  13m S    5  1.8   0:38.81 Xorg               
 5297 wayne      1   0 89984  12m 9688 R    3  0.3   0:01.16 gnome-terminal     
 2511 wayne      1   0 20336  10m 7884 S    1  0.3   0:01.82 metacity           
 5762 wayne      7   0  2524 1108  836 R    1  0.0   0:00.53 top                
  239 root       1   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.02 jbd2/sda7-8        
 2541 wayne      1   0  131m  17m  13m S    0  0.4   0:00.76 nautilus           
 7493 wayne      1   0  131m  32m  22m S    0  0.8   0:01.70 VirtualBox         
 7505 wayne      1   0 14176 4364 2560 S    0  0.1   0:00.29 VBoxXPCOMIPCD      
 7510 wayne      1   0 30952 8788 5372 S    0  0.2   0:00.60 VBoxSVC            
    1 root       1   0  2080  704  608 S    0  0.0   0:00.71 init               
    2 root       1   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 kthreadd           
    3 root       1   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 ksoftirqd/0        
    5 root       1   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 kworker/u:0        
    6 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 migration/0        
    7 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 migration/1        

so about 1.9G used, virtualbox as expected took some 1G ( I setup with 1024M )
wayne128

Re: Mint 12 using a lot of ram

Post by wayne128 »

mintmemory wrote:Okay, that's kinda helpful - here's the output:

Code: Select all

top - 15:52:53 up 15:44,  1 user,  load average: 0.10, 0.13, 0.13
Tasks: 153 total,   1 running, 152 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  0.1%us,  0.0%sy,  0.0%ni, 99.9%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   3918724k total,  2389668k used,  1529056k free,   208048k buffers
Swap:  4052988k total,        0k used,  4052988k free,  1560412k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND            
 1264 root      20   0  253m 100m  10m S    0  2.6   9:42.07 Xorg               
 1821 aetherle  20   0  670m  53m  16m S    0  1.4   0:34.34 nautilus           
29971 aetherle  20   0  644m  38m  20m S    0  1.0   0:01.69 empathy-chat       
 1777 aetherle  20   0  504m  36m  14m S    0  0.9   2:03.16 gnome-panel        
 1793 aetherle  20   0  374m  30m  14m S    0  0.8   0:01.76 mintUpdate   


I literally shut down everything, even Chrome. I was running nothing else at this point other than the terminal. This is 64bit Mint 12, by the way.
If you have nothing running ( except terminal and desktop),
with 2.3G used, that is really a lot.. because my another two distros run firefox 12 tabs plus virtualbox running wi7 with firefox open also, are using less than 2.2G ram....

something indeed is not right, but cannot tell from running top..

sorry cannot help much.
perhaps, keep this one
then setup another partition, try on some other distros, or running Mint12 Live to compare mem usage.

at the end, how responsive if your chosen distros , with your regular habits of running your apps, is important.
mintmemory

Re: Mint 12 using a lot of ram

Post by mintmemory »

I don't know... I'm officially out of ideas at this point. Here's top run again after a cold boot:

Code: Select all

top - 23:46:54 up 1 min,  1 user,  load average: 0.75, 0.24, 0.08
Tasks: 147 total,   2 running, 145 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  1.1%us,  0.3%sy,  0.0%ni, 94.7%id,  3.8%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.1%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   3918724k total,   823232k used,  3095492k free,    80072k buffers
Swap:  4052988k total,        0k used,  4052988k free,   376644k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND            
 1161 root      20   0  215m  64m 9928 S    0  1.7   0:01.42 Xorg               
 1730 aetherle  20   0  309m  29m  14m S    0  0.8   0:00.25 mintUpdate         
 1708 aetherle  20   0  499m  26m  13m S    0  0.7   0:01.08 gnome-panel        
 1735 aetherle  20   0  654m  26m  15m S    0  0.7   0:00.88 nautilus           
 2020 aetherle  20   0  245m  23m  10m S    3  0.6   0:00.10 applet.py          
 1949 aetherle  20   0  136m  18m 7404 S    0  0.5   0:00.13 zeitgeist-daemo    
 1688 aetherle  20   0  495m  17m  11m S    0  0.5   0:00.40 gnome-settings-    
 1951 aetherle  20   0  353m  16m  10m S    0  0.4   0:00.13 gnome-terminal     
 1724 aetherle  20   0  392m  13m 9872 S    0  0.4   0:00.09 gnome-sound-app    
 1726 aetherle  20   0  429m  13m 8520 S    0  0.4   0:00.09 nm-applet          
 1700 aetherle  20   0  174m  11m 8860 S    0  0.3   0:00.05 metacity           
  893 colord    20   0  350m  11m 8612 S    0  0.3   0:00.10 colord             
 1729 aetherle  20   0  317m  10m 7192 S    0  0.3   0:00.06 bluetooth-apple    
 1618 aetherle  20   0  254m 9348 6808 S    0  0.2   0:00.09 gnome-session      
 1702 aetherle  20   0  235m 8580 6360 S    0  0.2   0:00.03 gnome-screensav    
 1759 aetherle  20   0  241m 8492 6300 S    0  0.2   0:00.01 notify-osd         
 1940 aetherle  20   0  174m 8460 6124 S    0  0.2   0:00.01 gdu-notificatio 
And all the running processes at that time:

Code: Select all

  PID TTY          TIME CMD
    1 ?        00:00:00 init
    2 ?        00:00:00 kthreadd
    3 ?        00:00:00 ksoftirqd/0
    4 ?        00:00:00 kworker/0:0
    5 ?        00:00:00 kworker/u:0
    6 ?        00:00:00 migration/0
    7 ?        00:00:00 migration/1
    8 ?        00:00:00 kworker/1:0
    9 ?        00:00:00 ksoftirqd/1
   10 ?        00:00:00 kworker/0:1
   11 ?        00:00:00 migration/2
   12 ?        00:00:00 kworker/2:0
   13 ?        00:00:00 ksoftirqd/2
   14 ?        00:00:00 migration/3
   15 ?        00:00:00 kworker/3:0
   16 ?        00:00:00 ksoftirqd/3
   17 ?        00:00:00 cpuset
   18 ?        00:00:00 khelper
   19 ?        00:00:00 netns
   20 ?        00:00:00 kworker/u:1
   21 ?        00:00:00 sync_supers
   22 ?        00:00:00 bdi-default
   23 ?        00:00:00 kintegrityd
   24 ?        00:00:00 kblockd
   25 ?        00:00:00 ata_sff
   26 ?        00:00:00 khubd
   27 ?        00:00:00 md
   28 ?        00:00:00 kworker/2:1
   30 ?        00:00:00 khungtaskd
   31 ?        00:00:00 kswapd0
   32 ?        00:00:00 ksmd
   33 ?        00:00:00 khugepaged
   34 ?        00:00:00 fsnotify_mark
   35 ?        00:00:00 ecryptfs-kthrea
   36 ?        00:00:00 crypto
   44 ?        00:00:00 kthrotld
   45 ?        00:00:00 scsi_eh_0
   46 ?        00:00:00 scsi_eh_1
   47 ?        00:00:00 kworker/u:2
   48 ?        00:00:00 scsi_eh_2
   49 ?        00:00:00 scsi_eh_3
   50 ?        00:00:00 kworker/u:3
   51 ?        00:00:00 kworker/u:4
   52 ?        00:00:00 kworker/1:1
   53 ?        00:00:00 kworker/u:5
   72 ?        00:00:00 kworker/1:2
   73 ?        00:00:00 kworker/3:1
  162 ?        00:00:00 kworker/3:2
  181 ?        00:00:00 scsi_eh_4
  184 ?        00:00:00 scsi_eh_5
  270 ?        00:00:00 jbd2/sda1-8
  271 ?        00:00:00 ext4-dio-unwrit
  343 ?        00:00:00 upstart-udev-br
  384 ?        00:00:00 udevd
  484 ?        00:00:00 irq/16-mei
  514 ?        00:00:00 ttm_swap
  587 ?        00:00:00 udevd
  588 ?        00:00:00 udevd
  637 ?        00:00:00 kworker/0:2
  642 ?        00:00:00 kpsmoused
  679 ?        00:00:00 hd-audio0
  742 ?        00:00:00 upstart-socket-
  771 ?        00:00:00 scsi_eh_6
  772 ?        00:00:00 usb-storage
  835 ?        00:00:00 smbd
  852 ?        00:00:00 rsyslogd
  853 ?        00:00:00 dbus-daemon
  862 ?        00:00:00 modem-manager
  864 ?        00:00:00 NetworkManager
  867 ?        00:00:00 avahi-daemon
  874 ?        00:00:00 smbd
  880 ?        00:00:00 cupsd
  885 ?        00:00:00 avahi-daemon
  888 ?        00:00:00 polkitd
  893 ?        00:00:00 colord
  903 ?        00:00:00 kworker/2:2
 1120 tty4     00:00:00 getty
 1124 tty5     00:00:00 getty
 1132 tty2     00:00:00 getty
 1133 tty3     00:00:00 getty
 1136 tty6     00:00:00 getty
 1140 ?        00:00:00 lightdm
 1143 ?        00:00:00 acpid
 1153 ?        00:00:00 irqbalance
 1158 ?        00:00:00 cron
 1159 ?        00:00:00 atd
 1161 tty7     00:00:01 Xorg
 1184 ?        00:00:00 winbindd
 1203 ?        00:00:00 bluetoothd
 1207 ?        00:00:00 l2cap
 1212 ?        00:00:00 krfcommd
 1235 ?        00:00:00 winbindd
 1301 ?        00:00:00 flush-8:0
 1307 ?        00:00:00 accounts-daemon
 1309 ?        00:00:00 dhclient
 1319 ?        00:00:00 console-kit-dae
 1447 ?        00:00:00 nmbd
 1485 ?        00:00:00 upowerd
 1553 ?        00:00:00 rtkit-daemon
 1588 ?        00:00:00 ondemand
 1592 ?        00:00:00 sleep
 1595 tty1     00:00:00 getty
 1609 ?        00:00:00 gnome-keyring-d
 1618 ?        00:00:00 gnome-session
 1664 ?        00:00:00 ssh-agent
 1667 ?        00:00:00 dbus-launch
 1668 ?        00:00:00 dbus-daemon
 1670 ?        00:00:00 gvfsd
 1677 ?        00:00:00 gvfs-fuse-daemo
 1688 ?        00:00:00 gnome-settings-
 1696 ?        00:00:00 gconfd-2
 1698 ?        00:00:00 gsd-printer
 1700 ?        00:00:00 metacity
 1702 ?        00:00:00 gnome-screensav
 1708 ?        00:00:01 gnome-panel
 1712 ?        00:00:00 pulseaudio
 1716 ?        00:00:00 dconf-service
 1722 ?        00:00:00 polkit-gnome-au
 1723 ?        00:00:00 mintupdate-laun
 1724 ?        00:00:00 gnome-sound-app
 1725 ?        00:00:00 gnome-fallback-
 1726 ?        00:00:00 nm-applet
 1727 ?        00:00:00 sh
 1729 ?        00:00:00 bluetooth-apple
 1730 ?        00:00:00 mintUpdate
 1735 ?        00:00:00 nautilus
 1746 ?        00:00:00 gvfs-gdu-volume
 1748 ?        00:00:00 udisks-daemon
 1749 ?        00:00:00 udisks-daemon
 1759 ?        00:00:00 notify-osd
 1764 ?        00:00:00 gconf-helper
 1770 ?        00:00:00 gvfs-afc-volume
 1773 ?        00:00:00 gvfs-gphoto2-vo
 1818 ?        00:00:00 gvfsd-trash
 1834 ?        00:00:00 mission-control
 1897 ?        00:00:00 gvfsd-burn
 1924 ?        00:00:00 gvfsd-metadata
 1928 ?        00:00:00 telepathy-indic
 1940 ?        00:00:00 gdu-notificatio
 1943 ?        00:00:00 zeitgeist-datah
 1949 ?        00:00:00 zeitgeist-daemo
 1951 ?        00:00:00 gnome-terminal
 1956 ?        00:00:00 gnome-pty-helpe
 1957 ?        00:00:00 cat
 1958 pts/0    00:00:00 bash
 2020 ?        00:00:00 applet.py
 2022 pts/0    00:00:00 ps
I don't recognize most of these so I don't know if any of them shouldn't be there. Does anything look out of place?
User avatar
xenopeek
Level 25
Level 25
Posts: 29507
Joined: Wed Jul 06, 2011 3:58 am

Re: Mint 12 using a lot of ram

Post by xenopeek »

@wayne128, you are reading the output of the free command incorrectly. In the "used" column, you should look at the second line "-/+ buffers/cache" as that is showing the amount of memory your programs are actually using. The first line includes in that column also the amount of memory used for kernel buffers and cache, which is memory being used to optimize speed of your system but the kernel only uses this memory while no program needs it. For programs it is effectively free memory. So, you write ">700M used", while actually you are just using 192 MiB (the rest is buffers and cache). And in an earlier comment, on Fedora, you write "900M used", while actually you are just using 457 MiB (again the rest being buffers and cache). There is not much sense in looking at the value in the "used" column on the first row of the output, as that value includes the memory used by programs and this temporarily used buffers and cache memory from the kernel.

@mintmemory, perhaps Linux Mint 12 will be using a bit more memory because it is using Gnome Shell + MGSE instead of just Cinnamon as is the case on Linux Mint 13 (unless you added Cinnamon). Your last output reads like you have 370 MiB of memory is use by programs (the free -m command will be more clear), and while that is a bit high compared to what I see on Linux Mint 13, it should perhaps not be a problem?

If you want you can further optimize this by disabling services you are not using. I have a post on that for Linux Mint 13, but it should mostly apply to Linux Mint 12 as well, here: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 17#p600177 (The memory usage figures I shared for Linux Mint 13 were without disabling any of these services BTW.)
Image
mintmemory

Re: Mint 12 using a lot of ram

Post by mintmemory »

Thanks for looking at this, but I still don't know what's going on. The free -m command is as follows, nothing but the terminal open:

Code: Select all

             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          3826       1823       2003          0         92        762
-/+ buffers/cache:        968       2858
Swap:         3957         31       3926
This seems to read like there's almost 2GB in use. Even if I take off what's in the cache, that's still almost a gig. I'm not sure how exactly I'm supposed to interpret the numbers here, I guess... that said, if you can determine the system is using only 370MB at rest, I can live with that. I'm just wondering what the hell is going on with the 2GB number.
User avatar
xenopeek
Level 25
Level 25
Posts: 29507
Joined: Wed Jul 06, 2011 3:58 am

Re: Mint 12 using a lot of ram

Post by xenopeek »

That is showing 968 MiB of memory in use by programs. If you want to know exactly which programs are using how much memory, run the following command:

Code: Select all

ps -eo rss,cmd --sort=rss
In the first column of the output it shows the size in KiB of the physical memory used. This excludes any virtual or swapped memory, but it includes shared memory from libraries. The second column shows the program. It is sorted on programs with the most memory last.

Note that because the output includes the shared memory from libraries, if two programs use the same library they will both include the size of that in their size. So if you add up all the sizes from this list it will be too large, as it will count memory used for libraries multiple times. But the list will let you pin why you have 968 MiB of memory in use instead of just a third of that as you would expect with no programs running.

If you want to process the output with some other program, to count totals in the first column for example, run the following command:

Code: Select all

ps -eo rss,cmd --sort=rss | sed 's/^ *//' | sed 's/\(\d*\) /\1\t/' > output.csv
The output.csv file generated by that you can double-click to open it with Calc. Upon opening the file it will ask you to list the separators used. Unmark all, and only mark Tab.
Image
mintmemory

Re: Mint 12 using a lot of ram

Post by mintmemory »

I've done that. Looks like there are just too many processes running.

I'll use that thread and see about disabling some that I don't need. Thanks for all your help. I may try an upgrade to Mint 13 if it's stable enough.
Locked

Return to “MATE”