High memory usage
 

Hi,

I have now install Debian Sarge for my first time. I have also installed kernel 2.6.8-2-686 and the nvidia-drivers needed for my graphic card. So far so good.

The problem is, that im experiencing a massive memory usage. I'm running Gnome 2.8.2 , but that seems not to be the reason, running fluxbox, i also get a very high memory usage.

Could you give me a few tips how to get memory usage lower? I did not expect more memory usage than under windows.

Could it be, that after the base installation a huge bunch of programmes have been installed, and are running , although they are unnecessary?

Thank you all very much in advice.

Here a couple of numbers after typing "free" under gnome with firefox and a terminal running:

• total used free shared buffers cached
  Mem: 256748 251860 4888 0 8796 137292
  -/+ buffers/cache: 105772 150976
  Swap: 433712 720 432992
  

and here ps -aux:

• USER PID %CPU %MEM VSZ RSS TTY STAT START TIME COMMAND
  root 1 0.0 0.1 1504 512 ? S 18:50 0:00 init [2]
  root 2 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? SN 18:50 0:00 [ksoftirqd/0]
  root 3 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 18:50 0:00 [events/0]
  root 4 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 18:50 0:00 [khelper]
  root 5 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 18:50 0:00 [kacpid]
  root 37 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 18:50 0:00 [kblockd/0]
  root 47 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 18:50 0:00 [pdflush]
  root 48 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 18:50 0:00 [pdflush]
  root 50 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 18:50 0:00 [aio/0]
  root 49 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 18:50 0:00 [kswapd0]
  root 186 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 18:50 0:00 [kseriod]
  root 206 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 18:50 0:00 [ata/0]
  root 303 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 18:50 0:00 [kjournald]
  root 352 0.0 0.1 1492 460 ? S<s 18:50 0:00 udevd
  root 1210 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 18:50 0:00 [kjournald]
  root 1475 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 18:50 0:00 [khubd]
  root 1964 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 18:50 0:00 [pciehpd_event]
  root 1984 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 18:50 0:00 [shpchpd_event]
  root 2716 0.0 0.3 2376 868 ? Ss 18:50 0:00 dhclient -e -pf /var/run/dhclient.eth0.pid -lf /var/run/dhcliendaemon 2721 0.0 0.1 1612 460 ? Ss 18:50 0:00 /sbin/portmap
  root 3208 0.0 0.3 2260 820 ? Ss 18:50 0:00 /sbin/syslogd
  root 3211 0.0 0.5 2452 1472 ? Ss 18:50 0:00 /sbin/klogd
  message 3218 0.0 0.3 2092 1004 ? Ss 18:50 0:00 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon-1 --system
  hal 3223 0.0 1.9 6632 5116 ? Ds 18:50 0:00 /usr/sbin/hald --drop-privileges
  root 3232 0.0 0.3 2556 876 ? Ss 18:50 0:00 /usr/bin/dirmngr --daemon --sh
  Debian- 3306 0.0 0.6 5136 1724 ? Ss 18:50 0:00 /usr/sbin/exim4 -bd -q30m
  root 3311 0.0 0.2 2240 728 ? Ss 18:50 0:00 /usr/sbin/inetd
  lp 3316 0.0 0.3 2464 888 ? Ss 18:50 0:00 /usr/sbin/lpd -s
  root 3338 0.0 0.5 3468 1504 ? Ss 18:51 0:00 /usr/sbin/sshd
  gabriel 3362 0.0 0.6 2940 1564 ? Ss 18:51 0:00 /usr/sbin/famd -T 0
  root 3366 0.0 0.3 2376 924 ? Ss 18:51 0:00 /sbin/rpc.statd
  daemon 3369 0.0 0.2 1684 628 ? Ss 18:51 0:00 /usr/sbin/atd
  root 3372 0.0 0.2 1756 716 ? Ss 18:51 0:00 /usr/sbin/cron
  root 3377 0.0 0.9 9296 2372 ? Ss 18:51 0:00 /usr/bin/gdm
  root 3391 0.0 1.1 9876 3028 ? S 18:51 0:00 /usr/bin/gdm
  root 3401 0.0 0.1 1500 484 tty1 Ss+ 18:51 0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty1
  root 3410 0.0 0.1 1500 484 tty2 Ss+ 18:51 0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty2
  root 3411 0.0 0.1 1500 484 tty3 Ss+ 18:51 0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty3
  root 3412 0.0 0.1 1500 484 tty4 Ss+ 18:51 0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty4
  root 3413 0.0 0.1 1500 484 tty5 Ss+ 18:51 0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty5
  root 3414 0.0 0.1 1500 484 tty6 Ss+ 18:51 0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty6
  root 3531 1.9 10.6 96696 27344 ? S<L 18:51 0:48 /usr/X11R6/bin/X :0 -audit 0 -auth /var/lib/gdm/:0.Xauth -nolisgabriel 3604 0.0 3.6 17300 9460 ? Ss 18:58 0:00 x-session-manager
  gabriel 3646 0.0 0.3 2988 912 ? Ss 18:58 0:00 /usr/bin/ssh-agent x-session-manager
  gabriel 3648 0.0 3.2 10180 8412 ? S 18:58 0:01 /usr/lib/gconf2/gconfd-2 5
  gabriel 3651 0.0 0.3 2256 996 ? S 18:58 0:00 /usr/bin/gnome-keyring-daemon
  gabriel 3653 0.0 1.2 5668 3148 ? Ss 18:58 0:00 /usr/lib/bonobo-activation/bonobo-activation-server --ac-activagabriel 3655 0.0 3.5 19160 9024 ? S 18:58 0:00 /usr/lib/control-center/gnome-settings-daemon --oaf-activate-iigabriel 3665 0.0 0.7 4788 1952 ? S 18:58 0:00 xscreensaver -nosplash
  gabriel 3689 0.0 0.6 3712 1572 ? Ss 18:58 0:00 gnome-smproxy --sm-client-id default0
  gabriel 3691 0.1 2.9 12532 7688 ? Ss 18:58 0:03 /usr/bin/metacity --sm-client-id=default1
  gabriel 3699 0.3 5.2 21604 13508 ? Ss 18:58 0:06 gnome-panel --sm-client-id default2
  gabriel 3701 0.3 7.2 35072 18588 ? Ss 18:58 0:06 nautilus --no-default-window --sm-client-id default3
  gabriel 3703 0.0 2.5 15276 6624 ? Ss 18:58 0:00 gnome-volume-manager --sm-client-id default5
  gabriel 3712 0.2 4.2 17808 10944 ? S 18:58 0:04 /usr/lib/gnome-panel/wnck-applet --oaf-activate-iid=OAFIID:GNOMgabriel 3715 0.0 1.5 16688 4064 ? S 18:58 0:00 /usr/lib/gnome-vfs2/gnome-vfs-daemon --oaf-activate-iid=OAFIID:gabriel 3722 0.0 4.3 18800 11076 ? S 18:58 0:01 /usr/lib/gnome-applets/mixer_applet2 --oaf-activate-iid=OAFIID:gabriel 3724 0.0 0.2 2192 752 ? S 18:58 0:00 /usr/lib/nautilus-cd-burner/mapping-daemon
  gabriel 3726 0.1 3.8 18236 10012 ? S 18:58 0:03 /usr/lib/gnome-panel/clock-applet --oaf-activate-iid=OAFIID:GNOroot 3818 0.0 0.9 4224 2436 ? S 19:05 0:00 /usr/lib/gconf2/gconfd-2 19
  gabriel 4187 0.1 4.6 28332 11884 ? S 19:19 0:01 gnome-terminal
  gabriel 4188 0.0 0.2 2208 664 ? S 19:19 0:00 gnome-pty-helper
  gabriel 4189 0.0 0.6 3016 1628 pts/0 Ss 19:19 0:00 bash
  gabriel 4201 7.7 13.8 97960 35444 pts/0 S 19:21 0:46 /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/firefox-bin -a firefox
  gabriel 4232 0.0 0.3 2496 848 pts/0 R+ 19:31 0:00 ps -aux
  
  

Linux uses memory different from windows while it reserves almost all memory right at bootup. The whole memory isn't in actual use, it's just reserved.

After a while if've read this thread:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=319515

which says that Free Available memory = cached memory + buffer memory + non cached free memory.

Thanks for the reply.

I am also having high memory use.I running sarge and have upgraded to kernel 2.6. I was thinking it would use memory better but it lowered it a little bit.
I switched from ubuntu hoary to sarge.In using ubuntu memory usage was low like around 85 megs to start with.But sarge right off the bat 145 megs easy.
Possible problem here with memory.

http://www.tldp.org/LDP/tlk/mm/memory.html

Have a look at that for detailed explanation.

Linux may use most of your memory all the time,but when new things come about that require memory it is taken and then divided equally as needed.

No need to worry about your memory when you use linux :) It'll manage it all ok !

THanks that does make things clear.