High RAM usage in Ubuntu

tsunamikitsune · 06-22-2006, 04:30 PM

When I logged in, I checked the System Monitor (Without opening any other programs).

About 100MB of my User Memory is being used up, and I'm assuming that User Memory = RAM. 100MB is close to 40% of my total RAM. Is this normal?

BobNutfield · 06-22-2006, 05:27 PM

Hi

This would not be unusual with the Gnome desktop running. To get a better understanding of what is using the most memory, open a terminal and type:

Quote:

top

This opens a list of running processes and breaks down percentages of memory usage, cpu usage, etc. Type ^c to end the program.

Also check the available memory by typing:

Quote:

free

What you are interested in is the amount available in cache.

Hope this helps

Bob

pljvaldez · 06-22-2006, 05:27 PM

Type in free -lm and look for the line that says "+/- buffers". The used column on that line is what is used and the free column is what is available to applications. Notice the total doesn't add up to your system RAM because part of it is reserved for the kernel and not available to applications.

My KDE Debian Sarge Desktop used about 57MB when I installed it. But now that I've installed some other monitors and services, it uses about 75MB typically. Of course, my XP install was using ~240MB after boot...