Gnome or X overloading my system?

[ianw1974]

Recently changed from KDE to Gnome, and am now finding that my system is overloading. This is a snapshot from memory usage:

 

[ian@europa ~]$ free
		 total	   used	   free	 shared	buffers	 cached
Mem:		515304	 508232	   7072		  0	   1720	  55016
-/+ buffers/cache:	 451496	  63808
Swap:	   996020	 490120	 505900

 

it never used to use swap at all until now. Now I've done a ps aux and found:

 

root	  3603  4.8 67.1 734264 345800 tty7	Ss+  07:40   7:28 /etc/X11/X :0 -

 

that X is using almost 70% of my systems memory, and this is probably including the swap as well. I have 1GB swap and 512MB ram in my laptop.

 

Incidently, on Friday, my whole swap was utilised, and my system wouldn't respond. A CTRL-ALT-F1 took minutes to respond, and logging in sometimes failed with timeouts. Eventually when I got in, I was able to get my system responding but only for a few minutes, and a reboot would be required to sort it out.

 

I thought Gnome was meant to be less intensive than KDE? Doesn't seem the case :unsure:

[arctic]

[fabian@localhost Desktop]$ free
			 total	   used	   free	 shared	buffers	 cached
Mem:		970564	 271184	 699380		  0	  13640	 147104
-/+ buffers/cache:	 110440	 860124
Swap:	  2048276		  0	2048276

 

root	  4945  1.3  1.8  25580 17704 tty7	 Ss+  10:23   0:27 /etc/X11/X :0 -audit 0 -deferglyphs

 

These are my corresponding results in Gnome (with some apps running). I wonder why your X eats up that much RAM. This is not normal. Maybe a badly configured X?

[ianw1974]

I just have the Mandriva default X config. My desktops that are running Gnome, have 1GB of RAM, and 1GB swap configured accordingly, and barely use the swap at all.

 

It's perfectly OK with KDE though, and I've now switched back and I'm also using kdm now instead of GDM. I was liking Gnome though, cos my desktop was looking pretty damn neat (see the show off your desktop for my screenie).

 

I only had Firefox and Gaim open, so wasn't as if I was overloading it with apps, and I'd only been running it since 8am this morning, so a matter of a couple of hours before it halted. I tried logging out, to reboot, but it hung, and required a 5 second power off to kill it completely because nothing was responding.

 

Anyway, here is my /etc/X11/xorg.conf in case you see anything that comes to mind in relation to badly configured:

 

# File generated by XFdrake.

# **********************************************************************
# Refer to the XF86Config man page for details about the format of
# this file.
# **********************************************************************

Section "Files"
# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concatenated together)
# By default, Mandrake 6.0 and later now use a font server independent of
# the X server to render fonts.
FontPath "unix/:-1"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
#DontZap # disable <Crtl><Alt><BS> (server abort)
#DontZoom # disable <Crtl><Alt><KP_+>/<KP_-> (resolution switching)
AllowMouseOpenFail # allows the server to start up even if the mouse does not work
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "dbe" # Double-Buffering Extension
Load "v4l" # Video for Linux
Load "extmod"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
Load "synaptics"
Load "glx" # 3D layer
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard1"
Driver "keyboard"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "gb"
Option "XkbOptions" "compose:rwin"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse1"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "6 7"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "SynapticsMouse1"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "EdgeMotionMinSpeed" "200"
Option "MinSpeed" "0.8"
Option "MaxSpeed" "1.00"
Option "BottomEdge" "650"
Option "EdgeMotionMaxSpeed" "200"
Option "UpDownScrolling" "0"
Option "CircScrollTrigger" "2"
Option "SHMConfig" "on"
Option "EmulateMidButtonTime" "75"
Option "CircScrollDelta" "0.1"
Option "LeftEdge" "120"
Option "FingerLow" "14"
Option "HorizScrollDelta" "20"
Option "MaxTapMove" "110"
Option "MaxTapTime" "180"
Option "FingerHigh" "15"
Option "VertScrollDelta" "20"
Option "CircularScrolling" "1"
Option "AccelFactor" "0.015"
Option "RightEdge" "830"
Option "TopEdge" "120"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "monitor1"
VendorName "Generic"
ModelName "Flat Panel 1024x768"
HorizSync 31.5-55
VertRefresh 40-70

# TV fullscreen mode or DVD fullscreen output.
# 768x576 @ 79 Hz, 50 kHz hsync
ModeLine "768x576"	 50.00  768  832  846 1000   576  590  595  630

# 768x576 @ 100 Hz, 61.6 kHz hsync
ModeLine "768x576"	 63.07  768  800  960 1024   576  578  590  616
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "device1"
VendorName "nVidia Corp."
BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce4 (generic)"
Driver "nv"
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "screen1"
Device "device1"
Monitor "monitor1"
DefaultColorDepth 24

Subsection "Display"
	Depth 8
	Virtual 1024 768
EndSubsection

Subsection "Display"
	Depth 15
	Virtual 1024 768
EndSubsection

Subsection "Display"
	Depth 16
	Virtual 1024 768
EndSubsection

Subsection "Display"
	Depth 24
	Virtual 1024 768
EndSubsection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "layout1"
InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "SynapticsMouse1" "AlwaysCore"
Screen "screen1"
EndSection

 

anything obvious there?!?

 

EDIT: the full x line:

 

root	  3397  7.1  4.7  29460 24668 tty7	 Ss+  10:55   0:38 /etc/X11/X -deferglyphs 16 :0 -auth /var/run/xauth/A:0-Ecr

[arctic]

No, nothing obvious. I guess that the problem could be caused by the nvidia driver, but for that we would need someone else with an nvidia driver to test his Mandriva system with Gnome and post the output of the ps aux and free here for comparision.

[ianw1974]

I'm using the basic "nv" as you can see, as my card is cough Nvidia Geforce 420 GO, which in all honesty, is crap. No opengl or anything. And none of nvidia's drivers support it in Linux! Incidently, my machine at home has Nvidia Geforce 4 TI4400 and this works perfectly well with dkms-nvidia and Gnome/GDM.

 

I'm back with KDE/KDM now, and it's working a treat. But at least I have the nice slick desktop on two machines at least with Gnome.

 

I might try an i686 kernel later, and see if it helps make a difference, as my two other machines are running the i686 kernel from Mandriva's repos.

[ianw1974]

Well, I've updated the kernel now:

 

[root@europa ian]# Linux europa.comprze.com.pl 2.6.12-24mdk-i686-up-4GB #1 Mon Jul 17 13:52:11 MDT 2006 i686 Mobile Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 1.80GHz unknown GNU/Linux

 

and here is the memory usage after the reboot:

 

[ian@europa ~]$ free
		 total	   used	   free	 shared	buffers	 cached
Mem:		515304	 369956	 145348		  0	   9220	 207144
-/+ buffers/cache:	 153592	 361712
Swap:	   996020		  0	 996020

 

root	  3673  6.5  9.7  55900 50312 tty7	 Rs+  11:22   0:22 /etc/X11/X :0 - audit 0 -deferglyphs 16 -auth /var/lib/gdm/:0.Xauth -nolisten tcp vt7

 

will see what happens in a couple of hours :P

[arctic]

Hmm... quite a difference. :) Good luck with the new kernel.

[ianw1974]

Don't think it's working, here's what it's like 14 minutes after uptime:

 

root	  3673  6.2 26.3 141392 135860 tty7	Ss+  11:22   0:52 /etc/X11/X :0 -audit 0 -deferglyphs 16 -auth /var/lib/gdm/:0.Xauth -nolisten tcp vt7

 

bad bad bad! Guess it's KDE then for this lappy.

[scarecrow]

I guess it's just one of the usual Cairo quirks, if you happen to use Cairo... (Mandriva doesn't use Cairo yet, or I have lost some episodes?)

But yes, the easiest solution is using KDE instead... (not aiming at the usual desktop flaming, but the Cairo issues are affecting me when I use GTK2 applications, even if I'm NOT a Gnome desktop user... now THAT is annoying...

[ianw1974]

I dunno if I'm using Cairo or not. How do you tell? It's Mandriva 2006 anyway, and official repositories, so I'm not using anything unofficial.

 

Anyway, KDE now been running 2 hours with Firefox and Gaim, so same as before, yet the results are far better. Swap hasn't been touched, but with Gnome, it only takes 14 minutes and the swap is 50% utilised.

[arctic]

I use cairo and don't have these problems so I think that it is unlikely that cairo causes this.

[ianw1974]

For info, the nvidia geforce 420go has 16MB of video memory. But KDE, seems to work perfectly fine with it.

 

Now, I'm using a KDE/KDM combo, so perhaps tomorrow morning I'll login using Gnome/KDM instead and see if the resources are increased, as it shouldn't take long for me to find out (14 mins). Just need to find out what's causing the resources to disappear so damn quick (was using Gnome/GDM before).

 

Damn strange, but neither of my other systems are affected by it. I know that the systems usually consume all available ram anyway (without swap), because this means they are configured at their optimum. Swap is then only used as and when necessary. And they are only used very little if at all.

[Helmut]

Hi ianw 1974,

I use GNOME too, but KDE works fineI except that I prefer Gnome.

I had massive graphic problems with mdk2006 and my NVIDA card too. Nothing would work, and the screen only had horizontal psychedelic stripes and nothing was recognizable at all. Going to runlevel 3 in a console and calling up the mcc didn't work either. I swapped the NVIDIA MX440 for an older NVIDIA TNT2, and it initially worked a bit, but after adding the NVIDIA 3D driver, the screen went to garbled rubbish again. Nothing helped.

 

Now I'm back to mdk2005 and Gnome. That works!

According to Gnome System Monitor right now, I am using 293.760KB RAM, have 489.86 KB free, and Swap is 0KB used.

regards,

Helmut

Edited August 7, 2006 by Helmut

[scoonma]

Hi Ian,

 

you wrote:

 

I dunno if I'm using Cairo or not. How do you tell? It's Mandriva 2006 anyway, and official repositories, so I'm not using anything unofficial.

 

GNOME is relying on cairo. Regarding the memory issue: I am used to having this prob some time, but never was really able to find out the reason (i.e. the actual task causing the leak). When using "top", can you see memory being eaten up slowly, too? Do you have any zombie tasks lying around? Maybe we can work this out together.

 

Kind regards,

 

scoonma

[bvc]

Yes, the idea that gnome is lighter than kde is a thing of the past.

 

cairo won't use much memory, but it does slow the desktop down

lsof -n /usr/lib/libcairo.s

 

turn off nautilus makes gnome twice as fast.

gconf-editor>apps>nautilus>preferences>untick show_desktop

oh yeah...and to start nautilus as brower

nautilus --no-desktop --browser

spatial nautilus

nautilus --no-desktop

 

do not use an svg icon theme (tango for example) or a cairo based theme engine...examples...candido, rezlooks, murrine, mirage, clearlooks-devel (cvs)

 

X+nvidia+gnome+svg+cairo=slow

exactly why? no one particular reason, but many it seems

Edited August 8, 2006 by bvc