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X doesn't free up memory


Guest snicker
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Guest snicker

i have a problem with Xorg, the consumed memory grows up and X don't free it up, so after 2-4 hours(especially if i run some gtk apps) process X consumes about 120mb ram so i have to restart Xwindows.

i have xorg6.7.0+xfce4.2 installed, i810 graphics card

any ideas?

Edited by snicker
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Guest snicker

yes, it slows the system so it's unusable... whole swap becomes used, then X consumes 120mb ram so switching desktops lasts 30 seconds... it's really only solution to restart X

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Have you tried other desktops other than Gnome...?

try a simple lightwieght one like IcWM and see if it happens.. if not then you might need to look into your gnome config a bit deeper and worse case reinstall gnome but at least you isolated the problem.

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Guest snicker

i did'nt write i'm using gnome, but xfce, but it's not window manager-related problem i think, because not xfce4-session or another child of X grows up, but process X itself; but i'll try running fluxbox

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  • 4 months later...

Hi!

 

I have similar problem. If I use X actively, like sitting behind the screen, the memory gradually goes away, first RAM, then swap. I have to reboot every couple of days because of that, and I'm just using 4-5 kpdf windows, a text editor, browser, etc nothing fancy. The other day the OS had to kill the browser because of lack of memory!

 

I have 512 Meg of RAM, the swap is the same size (it's a bit on the tight side I agree, but that was MDV's suggestion). I sit in gnome desktop, but use some KDE applications like krusader and kpdf.

 

I seem to have lost memory both with GDM and MdkDM, didn't try just XDM. Anything to be done about that?

 

I read this thread and a couple of others, but I don't think its a caching problem. Caching is a second-priority, right? If I need ram, the disk data has to go away, hasn't it?

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I had this prob on ML9.2 (9.1?) with gnome and ended up switching to kde and other distros. To have to restart X or reboot every couple of days seems about normal with X and gnome IMO ...probably kde to, though I shutdown every night. As a result I hardly ever use my swap but still after an entire day...a reboot/or restart of X feels good and snappy.

localhost:~# ps aux | grep "[X] "
root      7632  4.5  7.6  44540 39504 ?        S<L  11:23   8:43 /usr/bin/X11/X -dpi 100 -nolisten tcp
localhost:~# free -m
            total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:           504        348        156          0         33        147
-/+ buffers/cache:        166        337
Swap:          211          0        211
localhost:~#

The 7.6 in the first command is the % X is currently using on my sys....

nvidia gf4 mx440 64mb agp

Edited by bvc
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Hi!

 

I have similar problem. If I use X actively, like sitting behind the screen, the memory gradually goes away, first RAM, then swap. I have to reboot every couple of days because of that, and I'm just using 4-5 kpdf windows, a text editor, browser, etc nothing fancy. The other day the OS had to kill the browser because of lack of memory!

 

I have 512 Meg of RAM, the swap is the same size (it's a bit on the tight side I agree, but that was MDV's suggestion). I sit in gnome desktop, but use some KDE applications like krusader and kpdf.

 

I seem to have lost memory  both with GDM and MdkDM, didn't try just XDM. Anything to be done about that?

 

I read this thread and a couple of others, but I don't think its a caching problem. Caching is a second-priority, right? If I need ram, the disk data has to go away, hasn't it?

 

 

Just quickly... it doesn't solve it but you don't need to reboot... just restart X or the dm ...

 

/etc/init.d/gdm stop ; /etc/init.d/gdm start

 

for example... or CTRL+ALT+BKSPC

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[Just quickly... it doesn't solve it but you don't need to reboot... just restart X or the dm ...

 

/etc/init.d/gdm stop ; /etc/init.d/gdm start

 

for example...  or CTRL+ALT+BKSPC

 

Right, Gowator.

I meant "restart x", but for me it's as annoying as rebooting, with loosing all nice carefully crafted window layout (one of the reasons i moved to linux from youknowwhat was that i heard wouldn't HAVE to reboot every now and then)

 

Anyway, I found the problem. Here's my report:

 

The problem is pdf. I observed it in both gnome and KDE.

 

kpf is showing a document. I compile a new version of that document periodically, and kpdf "watches" the pdf file. The mem goes to hell every time the file gets updated. With documet1.pdf as large as 200K it flushes a few megs of memory into "Application memory" of X. the kpdf self does not increase its VmSize or VmRSS.

 

Shutting down kpdf returns the mem back to me. Acrobat doesn't "watch" files, but it takes a hundred meg to start up empty :screwy:, and adds some dozens of megs to the X black hole every update of the documet1.pdf.

 

KGhostview doesn't seem to have such effect.

 

my system is:

 

Mandriva LE, gnome, KDE on PIII-1Gz 512Mb, Nvidia 7-something driver.

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