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Memory Question - System Crippled - SWAP?
Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2023 4:50 pm
by potato
Code: Select all
System:
Kernel: 6.1.0-10-amd64 [6.1.38-2] arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.1.0-10-amd64 root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash
Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.27.5 wm: kwin_x11 vt: 7 dm: SDDM Distro: MX-23_KDE_x64 Libretto July
31 2023 base: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: HP product: HP Pavilion Notebook v: Type1ProductConfigId
serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: HP model: 8119 v: 91.1E serial: <superuser required> UEFI-[Legacy]: Insyde v: F.82
date: 08/18/2016
CPU:
Info: model: Intel Core i7-6700HQ bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Skylake-S gen: core 6 level: v3
note: check built: 2015 process: Intel 14nm family: 6 model-id: 0x5E (94) stepping: 3
microcode: 0xF0
Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 4 tpc: 2 threads: 8 smt: enabled cache: L1: 256 KiB
desc: d-4x32 KiB; i-4x32 KiB L2: 1024 KiB desc: 4x256 KiB L3: 6 MiB desc: 1x6 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 2211 high: 2400 min/max: 800/3500 scaling: driver: intel_pstate
governor: powersave cores: 1: 2160 2: 2111 3: 2171 4: 2120 5: 2114 6: 2400 7: 2400 8: 2215
bogomips: 41599
Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3
Vulnerabilities:
Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX unsupported
Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion
Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
Type: mmio_stale_data mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
Type: retbleed mitigation: IBRS
Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: IBRS, IBPB: conditional, STIBP: conditional, RSB filling,
PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected
Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode
Type: tsx_async_abort mitigation: TSX disabled
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 530 vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-9
process: Intel 14n built: 2015-16 ports: active: HDMI-A-1 empty: none bus-ID: 00:02.0
chip-ID: 8086:191b class-ID: 0300
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.9 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X:
loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: iris gpu: i915 display-ID: :0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1366x768 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 361x203mm (14.21x7.99") s-diag: 414mm (16.31")
Monitor-1: HDMI-A-1 mapped: HDMI-1 model: Samsung built: 2011 res: 1366x768 hz: 60 dpi: 217
gamma: 1.2 size: 160x90mm (6.3x3.54") diag: 184mm (7.2") ratio: 16:9 modes: max: 1366x768
min: 720x400
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 530 (SKL GT2)
direct-render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: Intel 100 Series/C230 Series Family HD Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:a170 class-ID: 0403
API: ALSA v: k6.1.0-10-amd64 status: kernel-api tools: alsamixer,amixer
Server-1: PipeWire v: 0.3.65 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
Device-1: Realtek RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: r8169
v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: 3000 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8136
class-ID: 0200
IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 991.14 GiB used: 24.21 GiB (2.4%)
SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: HGST (Hitachi) model: HTS541010A9E680 size: 931.51 GiB
block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: HDD rpm: 5400 serial: <filter>
rev: A710 scheme: GPT
ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: Samsung model: MZ7LF120HCHP-000L3 size: 59.63 GiB
block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 1L6Q
scheme: GPT
Partition:
ID-1: / raw-size: 59.58 GiB size: 58.35 GiB (97.92%) used: 12 GiB (20.6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb2
maj-min: 8:18
ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 44 MiB size: 43.3 MiB (98.40%) used: 1 KiB (0.0%) fs: vfat
dev: /dev/sdb1 maj-min: 8:17
ID-3: /home raw-size: 931.51 GiB size: 915.82 GiB (98.32%) used: 12.22 GiB (1.3%) fs: ext4
dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1
Swap:
Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 3 GiB used: 721.9 MiB (23.5%) priority: -2 file: /swap/swap
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 50.0 C pch: 68.0 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 2443 libs: 1346 tools: apt,apt-get,aptitude,nala pm: rpm pkgs: 0
pm: flatpak pkgs: 0
No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list
1: deb [arch=amd64] https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
1: deb http://mirrors.rit.edu/mxlinux/mx-packages/mx/repo/ bookworm main non-free
2: deb http://mirrors.rit.edu/mxlinux/mx-packages/mx/repo/ bookworm ahs
Info:
Processes: 262 Uptime: 2d 22h 32m wakeups: 60 Memory: 7.6 GiB used: 6.55 GiB (86.2%)
Init: SysVinit v: 3.06 runlevel: 5 default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12
Client: shell wrapper v: 5.2.15-release inxi: 3.3.26
Boot Mode: BIOS (legacy, CSM, MBR)
I have a 64GB SSD for / and a 1TB HDD for /home
How is memory handled if I do not dedicate a swap area? I thought that the system would create RAM file (swap file) automagically?
Should I have created a swap area?
My system is crippled when I have lots of tabs open (two different browsers) ...MEM usage jumps over 96+%
My previous system (LXLE distro) with a Pentium G620, a 16GB SSD as / and a 750GB /home HDD, no swap, and 8GB of RAM was seamless.
Re: Memory Question - System Crippled - SWAP?
Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2023 5:11 pm
by Charlie Brown
potato wrote: Fri Sep 01, 2023 4:50 pm... I thought that the system would create RAM file (swap file) automagically?..
Yes, it's here and in use:
swap-1 type: file size: 3 GiB used: 721.9 MiB (23.5%) priority: -2 file: /swap/swap
At the time of QSI:
Memory: 7.6 GiB
used: 6.55 GiB (
86.2%)
Re: Memory Question - System Crippled - SWAP?
Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2023 5:17 pm
by Charlie Brown
You can try
Slimjet if you like, it was in MXPI once but not now, you can install with the .deb file from its website.
Also on current browsers you can try what happens if you disable hardware acceleration from their preferences/settings.
Re: Memory Question - System Crippled - SWAP?
Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2023 5:27 pm
by timkb4cq
Supposedly (I haven't tested this but have heard it repeatedly), the scheduler in the Liquorix kernel (available in the MX Package Installer) is better at keeping a system responsive when ram is getting full. It also has lower latency for audio. The tradeoff (there's always a tradeoff) is long running processes like compiles will slow down a trifle.
It's worth a try since you can always boot into the previous kernel if needed.
Re: Memory Question - System Crippled - SWAP?
Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2023 5:43 pm
by potato
timkb4cq wrote: Fri Sep 01, 2023 5:27 pm
Supposedly (I haven't tested this but have heard it repeatedly), the scheduler in the Liquorix kernel (available in the MX Package Installer) is better at keeping a system responsive when ram is getting full. It also has lower latency for audio. The tradeoff (there's
always a tradeoff) is long running processes like compiles will slow down a trifle.
It's worth a try since you can always boot into the previous kernel if needed.
Thank you for the attention.
Was wondering about your sig: HP Pavillion TP01, AMD Ryzen 3 5300G (quad core), Crucial 500GB SSD, Toshiba 6GB 7200rpm
That a 6GB drive?:)
Re: Memory Question - System Crippled - SWAP?
Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2023 5:47 pm
by FullScale4Me
I've seen the type of website have a big factor in CPU usage in a browser. News sites stick out in my mind, especially if they have more than 3 Advertising Networks. Incomplete/incorrect html drives browsers rendering engines nuts too.
Me jumping into the 'that guy' mode: You have more than a few too many tabs open for 8 Gb of physical memory. Less tabs or more memory. /end that guy.
Do find which tabs are the memory pigs! My local newspaper's site heats up my phone to a 'too hot to touch' if I spend more than 8-10 minute reading there!
Re: Memory Question - System Crippled - SWAP?
Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2023 5:50 pm
by Charlie Brown
In the meantime: "zram" may be good (actually there is an option for that during installation).
https://mxlinux.org/wiki/other/zram/ wrote:
Zram is a kernel feature that provides a form of virtual memory compression. It increases performance by avoiding paging to disk and using a compressed block device in RAM instead, inside which paging takes place until it is necessary to use the swap space on a hard disk drive.
On
MX-23 and up, zram-tools and init scripts are preinstalled but disabled. Users
can enable zramswaap manually.
Code: Select all
sudo update-rc.d zramswap defaults
Re: Memory Question - System Crippled - SWAP?
Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2023 6:52 pm
by timkb4cq
potato wrote: Fri Sep 01, 2023 5:43 pm
Was wondering about your sig: HP Pavillion TP01, AMD Ryzen 3 5300G (quad core), Crucial 500GB SSD, Toshiba 6GB 7200rpm
That a 6GB drive?:)
Must have edited that while half asleep. It's a 6TB drive. Sig corrected. Thanks for pointing that out.
Re: Memory Question - System Crippled - SWAP?
Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2023 7:00 pm
by DukeComposed
timkb4cq wrote: Fri Sep 01, 2023 5:27 pm
Supposedly (I haven't tested this but have heard it repeatedly), the scheduler in the Liquorix kernel (available in the MX Package Installer) is better at keeping a system responsive when ram is getting full. It also has lower latency for audio. The tradeoff (there's
always a tradeoff) is long running processes like compiles will slow down a trifle.
It's worth a try since you can always boot into the previous kernel if needed.
It looks as though the
Liquorix kernel feature set states that it uses BFQ, "Budget Fair Queueing". I'm no kernel expert, but the /boot/config file for MX-23 suggests that the default kernel also uses this scheduler. There are many other performance enhancements in the Liquorix kernel, though, that can also improve the user experience. I use a Liquorix kernel with ZFS support baked into it on one of my media machines and I haven't had any trouble with it.
FullScale4Me wrote: Fri Sep 01, 2023 5:47 pm
I've seen the type of website have a big factor in CPU usage in a browser. News sites stick out in my mind, especially if they have more than 3 Advertising Networks. Incomplete/incorrect html drives browsers rendering engines nuts too.
Me jumping into the 'that guy' mode: You have more than a few too many tabs open for 8 Gb of physical memory. Less tabs or more memory. /end that guy.
Do find which tabs are the memory pigs! My local newspaper's site heats up my phone to a 'too hot to touch' if I spend more than 8-10 minute reading there!
You can watch which processes are using the most memory by opening a terminal and running "top". Be sure to sort by the "%MEM" column. (One way to do that: start top, press "f", and then use the arrow keys to highlight the "%MEM" field, press "s" to sort by that field, and "q" to close the menu and go back to the display of your top processes. There are other ways to do this, too.)
On a personal note, I routinely get high memory usage on my laptop. MX-21, Xfce, 16 GB of DRAM, sustaining 70% usage after 2 days of uptime. It's only running a tmux session, two Emacs buffers, GitAhead, and Remmina. Performance remains fine because most of that used memory is for caching and doesn't impact any of my activities on that system. High memory consumption in this case doesn't mean low performance.
Before you go trying to optimize the kernel scheduler, you should probably try to find out what's consuming all your memory in the first place.
Re: Memory Question - System Crippled - SWAP?
Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2023 7:40 pm
by jeffreyC
If you can afford it you should take it to a shop and have it upgraded to 16GB of RAM, that is the maximum it can take and much better for browsing the current internet.
Reason I say to take it to a shop is the RAM in those is not really user serviceable, unlike some other brands.
Re: Memory Question - System Crippled - SWAP?
Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2023 9:25 pm
by FullScale4Me
On some browsers turning off "Use hardware acceleration when available" has been shown to reduce resource spiking and in a few cases machine lockup.
Adblockers can also help. Blocked = 0% CPU.
Re: Memory Question - System Crippled - SWAP?
Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2023 10:29 pm
by Stevo
Yes, all those dancing ad animations you see on a web page are munching away on your precious, precious RAM.
There are some Plasma toolbar widgets that will allow you to keep an eye on used memory in real time, though just tracking the usage also eats a little memory.
Re: Memory Question - System Crippled - SWAP?
Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2023 10:47 pm
by FullScale4Me
Re: Memory Question - System Crippled - SWAP?
Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2023 6:01 am
by BitterTruth
What do you think of XFCE or maybe going the window manager route? Changing to a lighter desktop environment (or a window manager) will reduce your ram usage. On my main rig, I have MX19.4, awesome window manager, and with 14 tabs open in chrome, I'm using 1.53 gb. You can also enable the 'unload inactive tabs' setting in firefox and chrome to help save on the ram usage that inactive tabs are taking up
EDIT: I have 4gb ram total installed.