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Improve memory usage in Debian

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theblueplll
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Re: Improve memory usage in Debian

#41 Post by theblueplll »

Hallvor wrote:
sickpig wrote: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.

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Re: Improve memory usage in Debian

#42 Post by 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.
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Last edited by GarryRicketson on 2019-06-25 02:12, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Improve memory usage in Debian

#43 Post by sickpig »

theblueplll wrote: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.

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Re: Improve memory usage in Debian

#44 Post by Hallvor »

theblueplll wrote:
Hallvor wrote:
sickpig wrote: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.
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Re: Improve memory usage in Debian

#45 Post by Hallvor »

sickpig wrote:
theblueplll wrote: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.
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Re: Improve memory usage in Debian

#46 Post by PsySc0rpi0n »

Hallvor wrote:
sickpig wrote: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.
It's not that the point. I on't want to have 16Gb of RAM and force my OS and apps to use as low memory as possible. It becomes an issue when you're pretty much sure that your OS and apps are using too much memory without reason. Like when something is wrong!
I don't mind to have 15 tabs open on chrome, using Atom (text editor), Gimp while I listen to music with VLC and speaking to people on Discord, Telegram and Skpe and RAM is at 95% or more... That's reasonable. What it is not reasonable is when you have only the same 15 tabs open and not much more and you have like 85% or 90% of RAM used. That's not reasonable to me and probably something is wrong. Some hanged up app or some process using too much CPU and/or RAM without you knowing!

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Re: Improve memory usage in Debian

#47 Post by Hallvor »

My post was not directed at you.
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Re: Improve memory usage in Debian

#48 Post by oswaldkelso »

PsySc0rpi0n wrote:
Hallvor wrote:
sickpig wrote: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.
It's not that the point. I on't want to have 16Gb of RAM and force my OS and apps to use as low memory as possible. It becomes an issue when you're pretty much sure that your OS and apps are using too much memory without reason. Like when something is wrong!
I don't mind to have 15 tabs open on chrome, using Atom (text editor), Gimp while I listen to music with VLC and speaking to people on Discord, Telegram and Skpe and RAM is at 95% or more... That's reasonable. What it is not reasonable is when you have only the same 15 tabs open and not much more and you have like 85% or 90% of RAM used. That's not reasonable to me and probably something is wrong. Some hanged up app or some process using too much CPU and/or RAM without you knowing!
On this system I have 3GB of memory. I don't run the same applications or Debian but a similar load as you. 26 tabs in the browser, MPV playing a film inkscape and gimp with files open, transmission, Rox, pidgin, 2 libre-office files open a doc and a spreadsheet, wicd and mail, tor, and chat.

3.6 MiB + 1.1 MiB = 4.7 MiB tint2 (2)
4.0 MiB + 865.5 KiB = 4.9 MiB notification-daemon
4.9 MiB + 467.0 KiB = 5.3 MiB wicd
5.9 MiB + 1.3 MiB = 7.3 MiB transmission-gtk
7.0 MiB + 879.5 KiB = 7.9 MiB ROX-Filer
8.0 MiB + 471.5 KiB = 8.5 MiB bash (3)
7.2 MiB + 1.4 MiB = 8.6 MiB leafpad (2)
10.7 MiB + 1.6 MiB = 12.3 MiB wicd-client
12.5 MiB + 73.5 KiB = 12.5 MiB nscd
13.1 MiB + 1.4 MiB = 14.5 MiB pidgin
14.7 MiB + 1.6 MiB = 16.3 MiB claws-mail
21.6 MiB + 3.3 MiB = 24.9 MiB mumble
37.2 MiB + 361.0 KiB = 37.5 MiB tor
16.9 MiB + 29.4 MiB = 46.3 MiB Xorg
52.4 MiB + 1.8 MiB = 54.2 MiB mpv
72.9 MiB + 1.8 MiB = 74.7 MiB inkscape
82.2 MiB + 1.3 MiB = 83.5 MiB soffice.bin
237.2 MiB + 1.6 MiB = 238.8 MiB gimp-2.6
680.1 MiB + 26.3 MiB = 706.5 MiB seamonkey
---------------------------------
1.4 GiB
=================================
bash-4.3#

Now my system is old and 32bit but I would expect you to be able to run the same with 64bit applications with newer versions with 3gb of ram. If not you must be running some serious bugs or bloat somewhere. Having 16 gb of ram to run those application is obscene even allowing for "you have it I'll use it." of the kernel.

Maybe you need to review your software choice and buy a samsung nc 10. That will make you think about what effects your performance. in a way that improves it. Then when you run that system with 16gb of ram it will friggin fly

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Re: Improve memory usage in Debian

#49 Post by sickpig »

oswaldkelso, i dont suppose u r running a DE
or electron apps(the worse RAM magnets)

no doubt something is wrong in OP's kde system, the question is what?

16gb RAM is such a luxury, i have 3 laptops their combined total does not equal 16gb RAM

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Re: Improve memory usage in Debian

#50 Post by Hallvor »

It is not that hard to identify the culprit. I'll suggest the OP runs all his usual suspects and monitor their resource usage closely. Once the culprit(s) is/are found, uninstall them and look for options.
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Re: Improve memory usage in Debian

#51 Post by sickpig »

@Hallvor
thats not helpful at all
OP needs to know how to identify and prevent the high RAM using activities. My suggestion is to skip DE and if thats not palatable then use TDE which is quite frugal in terms of RAM usage.
U r saying KDE is not resource hungry at all but OP is using KDE then why are they having this issue?

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Re: Improve memory usage in Debian

#52 Post by Wheelerof4te »

^You are being vocal about ditching KDE, but I have yet to understand why. OP has 16 GB of RAM, that should be enough to run any DE.
His problem lies elsewhere.

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Re: Improve memory usage in Debian

#53 Post by Hallvor »

sickpig wrote:@Hallvor
thats not helpful at all
OP needs to know how to identify and prevent the high RAM using activities. My suggestion is to skip DE and if thats not palatable then use TDE which is quite frugal in terms of RAM usage.
U r saying KDE is not resource hungry at all but OP is using KDE then why are they having this issue?
Please learn the difference between correlation and causality.

Secondly, changing desktop environment is quite a job. Giving advice in that direction for no good reason, is horrible advice.

Thirdly, KDE is not that resource hungry. In a real use example (Web browser, file manager and terminal), Debian 9 with KDE clocked in at 5th place out of 20, a mere 96 MB behind Debian XFCE - with maybe twice the configurability.

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments ... n_updated/
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Re: Improve memory usage in Debian

#54 Post by wizard10000 »

sickpig wrote: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.
I used to have that same obsession (which I call intellectual masturbation). But - unused resources are wasted resources.

My openbox install with all my bells and whistles takes up about 350MB of RAM at idle, which is pretty fat for openbox but that includes compton, conky, tilda and a small pile of GVFS stuff for plugging in cameras or phones.
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Re: Improve memory usage in Debian

#55 Post by sickpig »

Hallvor wrote:[Secondly, changing desktop environment is quite a job. Giving advice in that direction for no good reason, is horrible advice.
the quickest way to confirm if they can open same tabs and apps without draining excessive RAM is test in a different DE.
Alternatively purge KDE and do a fresh install of it?
For me no advice is horrible advice. Any advice which might resolve OP's issue is useful I believe.
Wheelerof4te wrote:^You are being vocal about ditching KDE, but I have yet to understand why. OP has 16 GB of RAM, that should be enough to run any DE.
His problem lies elsewhere.
I agree problem lies elsewhere. Hopefully a purge and KDE reinstall solves it for the OP.
wizard10000 wrote: I used to have that same obsession (which I call intellectual masturbation). But - unused resources are wasted resources.

My openbox install with all my bells and whistles takes up about 350MB of RAM at idle, which is pretty fat for openbox but that includes compton, conky, tilda and a small pile of GVFS stuff for plugging in cameras or phones.
Openbox is quite flexible it can be as light or as heavy you want it to be. Gives the user extensive granular control over what can be added. I love its modularity, you can only add components which are useful to you and skip the rest.

I use all of system's resources, I just like to keep the baseline as low as possible.

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Re: Improve memory usage in Debian

#56 Post by sickpig »

Hallvor wrote:Please learn the difference between correlation and causality.
how is this constructive? your posts have just been in defence of kde, any actual help in solving the OP, no.

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Re: Improve memory usage in Debian

#57 Post by sickpig »

and i choose not to learn stupid things like "correlation and causality"

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Re: Improve memory usage in Debian

#58 Post by vbrummond »

Hallvor is a quality contributor here, so I don't appreciate this conduct. There isn't a computer today that isn't affordable that can't run any Linux DE in memory. The issue today is support for modern gpu technology, compositing, and perceived performance.
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Re: Improve memory usage in Debian

#59 Post by sickpig »

yes, my responses were childish, I shall refrain from such behaviour. I agree our forum is no place for non-sense. My apologies.

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Re: Improve memory usage in Debian

#60 Post by Deb-fan »

First find out how much memory each of those are using (+1 ps_mem) but there are so many commands,utils,methods of doing it in gnu/Linux, worth Googling about the topic and experimenting to find what you like. Yep browsers are notorious memory hogs now. That can be mitigated to whatever extent (as shown by HOAS demonstrating Firefox.) Which has always been my browser, thus I've learned to tweak it to make it faster and lighter than out-of-box. Google such tweaks for your preferred web browser but be careful in how you go about it ie: use a virtual machine or to separate profile. There are plenty of trash how-to's on the web.

+1 lowering swappiness. Same for disabling unneeded start up services with systemctl etc. Switching to a lighter desktop (or window manager) is a easy and straightforward way to save a huge chunk of system resources but is dependent on a person preferences. Would advise trying any that look interesting to you in live session isos or vm to see if it's something you'd want to do or pursue.

KDE/etc can be tweaked to reduce memory footprint too (Google) the way they come out-of-box verses how someone with the required know how can set them up can be drastically different. things. Just a matter of getting familiar with whatever de/wm or combo thereof and what they can do.
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