hey,
I am on Slackware 11 with KDE and kernel 2.6.20 with DRI enabled.
The tools I generally use are : Firefox, mplayer, Psi(Jabber Client), Amarok, Akgregator, KMail , Apache,MySql,PHp , Yakuake, these are all nearly always on. I have 1GB DDR2 RAM with 2GB Swap.
After startx , X consumes only around 20MB physical memory. The computer behaves and responds well. But after 6-7 hours, X is seen to consume 195MB physical memory. The comp stops responding and I have to go back to CLI and startx again (if I can) although many times I just have to reset the comp.

Is this behaviour expected? Any suggestions? Are there any specific kernel modules that control/cause this behaviour cos I am running my own kernel config.
Is there a program that looks out for too high mem usage by any program and restarts that specific program(viz. X here).

What you mean: "nearly allways on"? You mean you leave the computer and firefox is open? Because:
I left Firefox in a heavy flash site open for 12 hours and swap was filled up. The computer became Windows. Everything in cache.

silly idea (maybe time consuming): make a cronjob every minute that writes to a file the usage of memory (ps -u is ok for you?)

ofcourse not ... I would never leave anything as leaky as Firefox running on ...

But akgregator, Amarok , Yakuake and Psi are always on....

And I dont knw much about cronjobs etc.... but wouldn't that really screw up my comp??

Much of KDE is leaky (IMO). Run 'top' and sort by memory usage (press 'F' (that's '<Shift> f') then 'n' then '<Enter>'). There you can see what uses up most memory.

try closing amaroK it leaks really bad if you leave it on for long times

hmm... I thought Linux was for servers?! how are so many apps leaky?

Or is it that servers run CLI or XFCE at most?

thanks all.

Usually servers don't even run X, a server is not a admin desktop

so you think Linux servers run KDE and amarok ? what for ?

As gbonvehi says, they don't even run X.

Really, I think much of KDE is leaky (I know koffice, amarok, kpdf do leak). XFCE is quite leaky too.

Really, it's up to you to find a non-leaky program. Not all FLOSS is created equal. Look around and find the best. I can tell you that nothing on my system (except maybe firefox and openoffice) has a significant memory leak ... I could leave it on for years without memory going up too much (if I don't use firefox or openoffice). Leave Window$ on for more than 12-24 hrs and I can almost guarantee you it will be frozen when you get back ... I tried this many times ... got the same result every time.

My desktop box with Slackware 11 has been up for the last 83 days (nothing special, I had to move house).
Currently X is showing 59Mb of RAM being used.
I use WindowMaker...and also use Amarok constantly, but none of the other applications you mention.
WindowMaker is currently using 2139Kb of RAM, largely because of the background I have on the desktop.
In the past I've found some very nice looking GTK2 themes leaked RAM badly over a long period of time.
Obviously something is doing the same for you...so it's a case of changing your applications and desktop and seeing what it is.
Considering how quickly the RAM is leaking for you it shouldn't be very hard to work out what is doing it.

ya I am pretty sure that Amarok doesn't cause problem . After I went from 2.6.18 to 6.20 kernel, I have started noticing this problem. Before that I had run my desktop box with KDE on for 14-15 days straight without problem.
I have been unable as of yet to catch the culprit. I just mentioned all my apps to see if anyone else had issues with them.,

Hmmm ... well, do you suppose the kernel could be causing it somehow ?

No... I did a few more things , started installing some more stuff. And I dont think kernel can cause a leak in X , can it?
Right now , every time I close Akgregator it gives a SIGSEGV .. and another program that I use "Valknut" seems to be a memory hog.

My X seems to consume insane amounts of Virtual Memory ... at actual memory usage of 35MB its virtual mem is at 300MB.. Is that normal?

I use Firefox and Valknut. Both programs consume BIG amounts of RAM.

Try cat 0 > /proc/sys/vm/swappiness IF you have > 384 of ram

Normally swappiness is 60

cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

is showing swappiness of 60 .. so it seems to be normal I guess...

It's normal, you can easily "debug" this by leaving X without programs running a few hours. Then you start the program you think it's the problem and watch.