memory usage [solved]

[Ricker]

Hello,

How do I check the memory (RAM) usage of my computer while Linux Mint is in operation..??

Thanks

[Pjotr]

In the terminal:

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top

[Ricker]

I type Top in the terminal??

[xenopeek]

System Monitor in your menu.

[ralplpcr]

In a terminal, type free -g.
This will show your memory usage in GB. *Note: approximately 1GB is normally "reserved", so your total will show 1 less than is actually installed.

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 $ free -g
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:             7          5          2          0          0          1
-/+ buffers/cache:          3          4
Swap:            7          0          7

Alternately, the top command in a terminal will show a bit more detail as to which programs are using that memory.

[Ricker]

I only have 1.5GB installed in my T42 laptop and was wondering if this will be OK for Linux Mint..??

[Pjotr]

Please generate an overview of your system like this:

- Launch a terminal window (this is how to launch a terminal window);

- make the terminal window full screen, to avoid chopped lines;

- copy/paste this command into the terminal:

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inxi -Fxz

(if you type: the letter F is a capital letter)

- Press Enter.

- Copy/paste the output in your next message.

[Ricker]

Thanks!

Right now I need to make dinner so I will try to generate an overview of the system ASAP...

[Pjotr]

No hurry.... Past midnight over here, so I'm going to hit the sack.

[Termy]

Lots of ways to get system information on memory usage. Here are some examples:

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free -h

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top # Or htop, if installed.

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ps -ax --sort -pmem -o pid,tty,stat,time,pmem,comm

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watch -n 0.1 cat /proc/meminfo

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watch -n 0.1 free -lth

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for F in {overcommit_memory,lowmem_reserve_ratio,memory{_failure_early_kill,_failure_recovery},overcommit_memory}; { printf "%s = %s\n" "$F" "$(< /proc/sys/vm/$F)"; }

As for GUI ways, depends on your setup. lol There's usually some sort of "task manager" type thing which shows plenty of information about memory usage.

[ralplpcr]

I only have 1.5GB installed in my T42 laptop and was wondering if this will be OK for Linux Mint..??

It'll run, but it won't be a speed-demon or anything. I'd recommend using the XCFE version - - it's the "lightest" of the 4 current environments. While the others will technically run,they're likely to be very laggy and not enjoyable to use.

If you can get more memory, I'd suggest upgrading to 2GB - - that's the max your motherboard can handle. 1GB sticks for that can be found for around $20 in the US.
You may also want to consider changing out the hard drive to an SSD. That will greatly improve your experience.... though it all depends on whether you wish to spend the money. A regular spindle drive will work - - it'll just be slower.

[FreedomTruth]

inxi -I (that's a capital i) will show basic memory usage; inxi -t m10 will show the ten most memory-using processes. You can even combine them

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user@host:~$ inxi -It m10
Processes: Memory - MB / % used - top  10 active
           1: mem: 1592.51MB (4.9%) command: VirtualBox pid: 3521
           2: mem: 397.35MB (1.2%) command: palemoon pid: 23086
           3: mem: 383.84MB (1.1%) command: VirtualBox pid: 3605
           4: mem: 125.79MB (0.3%) command: X pid: 2660
           5: mem: 67.74MB (0.2%) command: mono-service.exe (started by: mono) pid: 2837
           6: mem: 51.22MB (0.1%) command: scp-dbus-service.py (started by: python) pid: 6388
           7: mem: 42.07MB (0.1%) command: knotify4 pid: 11469
           8: mem: 32.85MB (0.1%) command: python pid: 3180
           9: mem: 31.59MB (0.0%) command: xfdesktop pid: 3109
           10: mem: 25.93MB (0.0%) command: Thunar pid: 3105
Info:      Processes: 323 Uptime: 2 days Memory: 4948.1/32205.5MB Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.1.28 

1.5GB should handle mint mate or xfce ... I run mint 17.3 xfce on a 512 mb ram machine

[Ricker]

Thanks for the advice!!

When I was on OSDisc.com I asked Ramsey about Linux Mint and he recommend the Linux Mint 18.1 Xfce 32bit DVD

So I bought this DVD and I am very impressed with Linux Mint compared to Windows XP Pro.. Day and night difference...Life is good again in cyber space..

At the moment my IBM T42 laptop is a dual boot and would imagine over time I will need to use Gparted to reclaim more real estate on the hard drive...

Screenshot_2018-02-14_12-42-54.png

[Ricker]

Generate an overview of your system with TOP command....

Screenshot_2018-02-TOP.png

[bob466]

System Monitor in your menu.

Yes I use it...but with 16GB of Ram memory usage has never been an issue for me...more is always best.

[Ricker]

Linux Mint seems to be OK for Youtube, online banking, Ebay, and general Web surfing....

Linux Mint Xfce beats Windows XP Pro... My Firefox in Win XP Pro would lock up...

[Ricker]

My biggest problem with Windows XP Pro and Windows 7 was installing updates...

They would fail to install... With Linux Mint Xfce all of my updates installed without any problems/errors...

Bill Gates discontinued MSE (Anti-virus) support for Windows XP .. And the guy is worth billions... (BYE BILL)...

[Ricker]

I only have 1.5GB installed in my T42 laptop and was wondering if this will be OK for Linux Mint..??

My answer would be :"yes and no".
According to the officials requirement , "512MB RAM (1GB recommended for a comfortable usage)".
An other OS with a W used to advert in the 90' that it could work with only 8MB of ram. Which was true as long as you didn't run any apps...
I guess the "pure linux mint core" only use 500MB. But every stuff you add on top of that adds more load.

Right now, my webbrowser "eats" 860MB, and the rest should be around 1GM despite being in what I call "a normal situation".
Good way to check if you need more memory is to see if your computer tends often to use swap. If yes, it means it's time to do something.

Adding Ram is then the best answer. But since your laptop dates from 2004 it may not accept a lot. And laptops tends to be... complicated when you have to add hardware on it... Anyway, any improvement would be nice.
Using a SSD drive may probably not be a good idea. Swap partition on SSD may be incredibly fast compared to standard HD drive, but SSD have a limited number of write cycle and since swap write/erase a lot it may decrease their lifetime.
If it's not installed on your computer, you could try to install zram. It improves the performance of swap.

Back to the initial question then: what are you using this computer for?
If it's for basic internet browsing and so on, the answer may be to use distributions and apps that use a minimum of ram resources. Maybe Mint is not the perfect distro for you then and you should try stuff like puppylinux and co. that comes with apps adapted to old computers.
If you want to use it as a powerful computer, doing video compression, heavy picture treatment, etc... then my answer would be... why don't you just buy a new computer? Even an low budget computer of today is incredibly powerful compared to a 15year old computer...

Hope to have been helpful and relevant (!)

At the moment I have three laptops IBM T41 XP Pro / IBM T42 XP Pro / Acer Aspire Netbook Win 7

I was hoping to salvage the IBM laptops because they are built well plus replacement batteries are cheap....

[Termy]

Donno what to say. Lots of use for old computers.
Examples are : servers, multimedia workstation, stuff for children...
Recycling them can be useful too.

Absolutely. I've repurposed many old machines over the years.

[Ricker]

Donno what to say. Lots of use for old computers.
Examples are : servers, multimedia workstation, stuff for children...
Recycling them can be useful too.

Absolutely. I've repurposed many old machines over the years.

When IBM hires students from college they only hire the cream of the crop people...Therefore these IBM laptops will endure the test of time...
My three laptops were purchased used from eBay and a IBM computer refurbish center. I replaced the CMOS battery in both IBM laptops.. All is well and the Linux Mint 18.1 Xfce works absolutely great. However I am still a Newbie...