Improve memory usage in Debian

[Wheelerof4te]

Isn't any of those apps critical to the system? I mean not even 'systemd', 'kded4', 'dbus eamon', 'gnome-keyring-deamon', etc???

People here most likely think of systemd services. Disabling some of them you don't use might improve your boot time and CPU usage a bit, but any impact on RAM will be negligible.
And if you disable the wrong one, your system can become unstable. I would advise against this. As HoAS said, maybe trying out another browser can improve the situation.

or try the below in sysctl.conf

CODE: SELECT ALL
vm.swappiness = 0
vm.vfs_cache_pressure=15

Never reduce swappiness to 0. And I mean, never.

I use this https://github.com/oguzhaninan/Stacer/r ... tag/v1.1.0 for managing startup apps, services and much more.

Again, you don't have to do this. Your problem is likely the browser (Chromium).

[Wheelerof4te]

dbus is a dependency for systemd, i tried turning it off but my login crashes and i automatically re-login. So i wouldn't touch that.
'systemd', 'kded4', of course you would need..

Suggesting to disable dbus proves you have no idea what you're talking about. Please refrain from advising such things in the future.

[Hallvor]

looks beautiful and sleek for sure
but anything which uses above 100mb RAM after boot scares me off

I don't get this obsession of low memory usage on an empty desktop. It really doesn't matter at all, unless you like to stare at it, doing nothing. What matters, if RAM is so precious that you pay for it without wanting to use it, is how much RAM is being used when running the applications you use for your daily tasks.

[PsySc0rpi0n]

no no yes of course they are, am not saying all of them are useless, I meant research which ones can be safely turned off.
There are plenty of guides out there detailing which can be safely turned off.

edit
from the ones u listed i safely turned of gnome-keyring-deamon and it has not interrupted my work flow but i m not using a DE as such so my use case might not be applicable to you. dbus is a dependency for systemd, i tried turning it off but my login crashes and i automatically re-login. So i wouldn't touch that.
'systemd', 'kded4', of course you would need.

If in doubt leave it on.

I have no idea of what apps I could possibly stop. There are so many there. I would have to search each one and try to check if they are critical or not.
Although I'm not using Gnome, there are still some apps there with the name Gnome on it like gnome-keyring-eamon. I also have gpg-agent, so I'm not sure I can remove gnome-keyring-deamon.

I know only that I can stop teamviewerd, MusicManager, proftpd I think I can also remove. But most of the apps, I have no idea!


Edited;
Yeah, I'm not gonna mess much with autostarting apps other the ones I really know.
What I could possibly ask is for help detecting apps, for instance, belonging to Gnome (I used Gnome in the past, so maybe apps got behind when I changed Desktop) that I can uninstall and replace for proper ones belonging to KDE Plasma Desktop.

And yes,Chromium is the coolpritt of this amount of RAM used. I have just added a new add-on to block scripts from being ran an I'll try to manage them an enable only the ones I really need. Because apparently, JS scripts and Java running in our browsers are taking too much RAM too! So I'll give a try on this one for some time!

[sickpig]

Suggesting to disable dbus proves you have no idea what you're talking about. Please refrain from advising such things in the future.

where did i suggest to disable dbus?
proves u have no idea what you are reading about.

[Wheelerof4te]

Oh sorry, you really didn't. I am truly sorry. But you did turn it off yourself, which is a a big no-no if you want to retain some credibility.

i tried turning it off but my login crashes and i automatically re-login. So i wouldn't touch that.

[Hallvor]

no no yes of course they are, am not saying all of them are useless, I meant research which ones can be safely turned off.
There are plenty of guides out there detailing which can be safely turned off.

edit
from the ones u listed i safely turned of gnome-keyring-deamon and it has not interrupted my work flow but i m not using a DE as such so my use case might not be applicable to you. dbus is a dependency for systemd, i tried turning it off but my login crashes and i automatically re-login. So i wouldn't touch that.
'systemd', 'kded4', of course you would need.

If in doubt leave it on.

I have no idea of what apps I could possibly stop. There are so many there. I would have to search each one and try to check if they are critical or not.
Although I'm not using Gnome, there are still some apps there with the name Gnome on it like gnome-keyring-eamon. I also have gpg-agent, so I'm not sure I can remove gnome-keyring-deamon.

Just leave them. The effect on RAM usage is negligible.

Edit: Use KDE applications for KDE, if you can. They will use a lot of shared memory, making very efficient use of resources.

[sickpig]

I don't get this obsession of low memory usage on an empty desktop. It really doesn't matter at all, unless you like to stare at it, doing nothing. What matters, if RAM is so precious that you pay for it without wanting to use it, is how much RAM is being used when running the applications you use for your daily tasks.

I agree, I have this OCD for having the lowest possible RAM after boot without sacrificing utility. Also, I strive for fastest boot possible. I mean i know few seconds here and there is not going to change much but just another obsession.

[sickpig]

But you did turn it off yourself, which is a a big no-no if you want to retain some credibility.

hahaha i have broken my system many times by thinking ohh this looks imp can i turn it off? thats how i learn, by failing and then recovering not ashamed to admit it

[PsySc0rpi0n]

Yeah, me too. I failed too many times, but somehow I don't know why, my learning curve is very very flat! I use Debian for at least 8 years and there are tons of things I can't do on my own.

Anyway, I'll focus on manage the number of tabs open and the scripts running. I'll try to stop a couple of application from starting at boot such as teamviewer which I don't need at all as I use AnyDesk instead!

[theblueplll]

looks beautiful and sleek for sure
but anything which uses above 100mb RAM after boot scares me off

I don't get this obsession of low memory usage on an empty desktop. It really doesn't matter at all, unless you like to stare at it, doing nothing. What matters, if RAM is so precious that you pay for it without wanting to use it, is how much RAM is being used when running the applications you use for your daily tasks.

You have a point but I have an older machine with only 4gb of ram and it helps to be at least a little conscious of it.

I did actually notice I had a problem with a lot of cpu usage with kde even with minimal apps running.
So I am testing out Mate which uses a little more ram to start with but doesn't cracnk on my cpu so badly.

[GarryRicketson]

You have a point but I have an older machine with only 4gb of ram

I never can understand why people need so much ram, My host machine, only has 2gb, and it is all ways more then enough, on this VM, Debian Buster, using Dillo Browser, 4 tabs open,... 106 mb, I have 963mb and it is more then enough.

[sickpig]

You have a point but I have an older machine with only 4gb of ram and it helps to be at least a little conscious of it.

I did actually notice I had a problem with a lot of cpu usage with kde even with minimal apps running.
So I am testing out Mate which uses a little more ram to start with but doesn't cracnk on my cpu so badly.

TDE as DE is also quite frugal with RAM and CPU usage. When I used it 6 months ago with Debian 9.6 it used less than 220 mb RAM with zero cpu usage on idle after boot. I suppose it is in official repos.
The bottom panel can have stability issues but DE as a whole is quite smooth. I believe it is one of the most resource friendly DEs.

[Hallvor]

looks beautiful and sleek for sure
but anything which uses above 100mb RAM after boot scares me off

I don't get this obsession of low memory usage on an empty desktop. It really doesn't matter at all, unless you like to stare at it, doing nothing. What matters, if RAM is so precious that you pay for it without wanting to use it, is how much RAM is being used when running the applications you use for your daily tasks.

You have a point but I have an older machine with only 4gb of ram and it helps to be at least a little conscious of it.

I did actually notice I had a problem with a lot of cpu usage with kde even with minimal apps running.
So I am testing out Mate which uses a little more ram to start with but doesn't cracnk on my cpu so badly.

What process was using CPU? On an older computer, I would turn compositing and visual effects down to a minimum. KDE is not that heavy.

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments ... n_updated/

If you want something lighter, try TDE, like sickpig suggested. It should be about as light as LXDE, but with roughly as many options as KDE plasma. I have it on a 2011 netbook with 2 GB of RAM and a horrible processor. It will fly on your system.

[Hallvor]

You have a point but I have an older machine with only 4gb of ram and it helps to be at least a little conscious of it.

I did actually notice I had a problem with a lot of cpu usage with kde even with minimal apps running.
So I am testing out Mate which uses a little more ram to start with but doesn't cracnk on my cpu so badly.

TDE as DE is also quite frugal with RAM and CPU usage. When I used it 6 months ago with Debian 9.6 it used less than 220 mb RAM with zero cpu usage on idle after boot. I suppose it is in official repos.
The bottom panel can have stability issues but DE as a whole is quite smooth. I believe it is one of the most resource friendly DEs.

No, it is not in the official repositories, but it has its own Debian reposisitory:

https://wiki.trinitydesktop.org/DebianInstall

I have never had problems with the lower panel, but then I haven't tinkered with it much.

Yes, you are right. It is light on boot, but once you start running TDE applications on top of it, the light resource usage is very impressive.