¿Because setting the vm.watermark_scale_factor property increases ram consumption?

[Juan_David95]

friends, when I configure the vm.watermark_scale_factor property in /etc/sysctl.conf, which is the property in charge of indicating to the kernel when the kswapd daemon is activated for paging from ram to disk, something happens that I can't find an explanation for: it increases the consumption of ram memory.

If I leave its default value, which is 10, that is, kswapd is activated when it has 0.1% of memory available, the conky tells me that the computer boots with 1.2gb of ram consumption; but if, for example, I set it to 1000, which is its maximum value, the consumption starts with 2.9 and 3gb without opening anything at all.

I have tried this in the liquorix kernel that I use and also in the debian one with the same result. Also when I used linuxmint, I remember that the consumption also increased when the value of that property increased by 200.

I set this property to 270, because I notice that when it is set to that value, when the exchange begins the PC does not suffer from slowness. If I leave it by default at 10, the exchange causes a small paralysis of 10 to 15 seconds.

To recap, if I leave this property by default at 10 it consumes 1.2gb; if I set it to 270 it consumes 1.7gb; and if I set it to 1000 it consumes 2.9-3.0gb without opening any application. I check in the system monitor and there is no process with a high consumption of ram

The first thing that comes to mind is that it is a general bug in the kernel.

¿Why does the consumption increase if this property is only to activate the kswapd swap daemon?

[dolphin_oracle]

although I really don't know much about that particular parameter, the first thing that came to my mind is that the system is using more cache. I usually use the "free -h" command to get a broader picture of how ram is used.

[Juan_David95]

Your answer seemed very logical to me, that the system used more cache, although that property is not supposed to be for that; but the results of free -h seem to indicate that there is no increase in cache usage:

vm.watermark_scale_factor=270

Code: Select all

$ free -h
               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           5,7Gi       933Mi       3,8Gi        21Mi       1,0Gi       4,1Gi
Swap:          4,8Gi          0B       4,8Gi

vm.watermark_scale_factor=1000

Code: Select all

$ free -h
               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           5,7Gi       1,1Gi       3,6Gi        39Mi       1,0Gi       2,9Gi
Swap:          4,8Gi          0B       4,8Gi

imagen vm.watermark_scale_factor=1000


the same shows the system monitor. All that consumption without opening anything.