[Newbie]memory useage of X
Hi, I've always experienced a massive overuse of memory by X (c 120M ram) but recently a freind running xfree4.2 on mandrake found his usage on upgrading to 4.2 was reduced to c 20M. Thinking ti save memory i also upgraded to xf86 v4.2, however i still use 120M RAM is there an easy way to fix this problem? cheers, Jason ___ Newbie mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** To unsubscribe , or change message options, see: http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/newbie
Re: [Newbie]memory useage of X
Jason, You are probably using a tool (e.g. top) that is including the memory onboard the video card, as well as the system memory. -Gryn (Adam Luter) On Fri, Nov 01, 2002 at 05:27:25PM +, Jason RILEY wrote: > Hi, > > I've always experienced a massive overuse of memory by X (c 120M ram) > but recently a freind running xfree4.2 on mandrake found his usage on > upgrading to 4.2 was reduced to c 20M. > Thinking ti save memory i also upgraded to xf86 v4.2, however i still > use 120M RAM is there an easy way to fix this problem? > > cheers, > Jason > > ___ > Newbie mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > *** To unsubscribe , or change message options, see: > http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/newbie ___ Newbie mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** To unsubscribe , or change message options, see: http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/newbie
Re: [Newbie]memory useage of X
See the archives of this list:It seems that linux resp. X uses ALL memory available in order to optimise resource utilisation (the idea being that available RAM should not remain unused) At least this is what I have understood, anyone knowing better correct me... Lionel --- Adam Luter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Jason, > > You are probably using a tool (e.g. top) that is including the > memory onboard the video card, as well as the system memory. > > -Gryn (Adam Luter) > > > On Fri, Nov 01, 2002 at 05:27:25PM +, Jason RILEY wrote: > > Hi, > > > > I've always experienced a massive overuse of memory by X (c 120M ram) > > but recently a freind running xfree4.2 on mandrake found his usage on > > upgrading to 4.2 was reduced to c 20M. > > Thinking ti save memory i also upgraded to xf86 v4.2, however i still > > use 120M RAM is there an easy way to fix this problem? > > > > cheers, > > Jason > > > > ___ > > Newbie mailing list > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > *** To unsubscribe , or change message options, see: > > http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/newbie > ___ > Newbie mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > *** To unsubscribe , or change message options, see: > http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/newbie __ Do you Yahoo!? HotJobs - Search new jobs daily now http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/ ___ Newbie mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** To unsubscribe , or change message options, see: http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/newbie
Re: [Newbie]memory useage of X
This is unlikely as we are running the same top version. also the difference in memeory useage is considerably more then the meagre 32mb on my graphics card. also as i am running processes large enough to fill memory, i am overrunning the system memory when i need more than the remaining 3/4 of my system memory. Is there some optimisation of x memory useage or is this a feature of redhat vs mandrake? ( as i need to reinstall my o.s. it would be useful to know as whilst i am a redhat man if switching to mandrake will improve my memory performance which is key to my work it would be useful to know now) cheers, jason --__--__-- Message: 20 Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2002 09:00:04 -0600 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Newbie]memory useage of X From: Adam Luter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Jason, You are probably using a tool (e.g. top) that is including the memory onboard the video card, as well as the system memory. -Gryn (Adam Luter) On Fri, Nov 01, 2002 at 05:27:25PM +, Jason RILEY wrote: > Hi, > > I've always experienced a massive overuse of memory by X (c 120M ram) > but recently a freind running xfree4.2 on mandrake found his usage on > upgrading to 4.2 was reduced to c 20M. > Thinking ti save memory i also upgraded to xf86 v4.2, however i still > use 120M RAM is there an easy way to fix this problem? > > cheers, > Jason > > ___ > Newbie mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > *** To unsubscribe , or change message options, see: > http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/newbie --__--__-- ___ Newbie mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/newbie End of Newbie Digest -- -- Jason Riley PhD Student Computer Science Department University College London Telephone: ucl: 3462 Gower Street external: +44 (0)20 7679 3462 London WC1E 6BT WebPage: http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/J.Riley UK --
Re: [Newbie]memory useage of X
Lionel, It is true that Linux (and most Unix) follow a "full" memory model. Which means all memory is used for either user programs/libraries or disk cache. But I -think- the problem here is that X also uses video memory. And this extra memory is often reported alongside regular memory, especially in programs such as top: Virtual Resource Share X: 778521168 1000 xfs-xtt: 15500 160 160 prime-net: 10580 1024010240 The first column is -all- memory, main or otherwise. The second is total real (i.e. main) memory. The last is memory used from the executable residing in memory; that is both a copy of the executable and also its libraries. At least, these interpetations are the best I can manage -- but I'm sure I'm wrong: The last example was prime-net, which is small code but allocates alot to solve a long math problem. So share should not be 10240, but closer to 240. But xfs-xtt at least makes sense since it should use mostly video memory to store it's font's. If you are wondering why my X is so small it is because I am only running one xterm and a minimal window manager. If, for example I load mozilla, my memory jumps up to Res:3096. One last note, I -am- certain about this: Virt >= Res >= Share and that most of the time Virt ~= Res ~= Share, that is they are, for the most of time, very close. Hope that helps, Gryn On Sun, Nov 03, 2002 at 11:51:40PM -0800, Lionel Lecoq wrote: > See the archives of this list:It seems that linux resp. X uses ALL memory available >in order to > optimise resource utilisation (the idea being that available RAM should not remain >unused) > At least this is what I have understood, anyone knowing better correct me... > Lionel ___ Newbie mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** To unsubscribe , or change message options, see: http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/newbie
Re: [Newbie]memory useage of X
Don't run X. Or, don't run a "desktop" (e.g. Gnome, KDE). Lastly use a low footprint window manager (e.g. blackbox, ratpoison). Hope that helps :) , Gryn (Adam Luter) On Mon, Nov 04, 2002 at 02:35:39PM +, Jason Riley wrote: > This is unlikely as we are running the same top version. also the difference in >memeory useage is considerably more then the meagre 32mb on > my graphics card. > also as i am running processes large enough to fill memory, i am overrunning the >system memory when i need more than the remaining 3/4 of my system memory. > > Is there some optimisation of x memory useage or is this a feature of redhat vs >mandrake? ( as i need to reinstall my o.s. it would be useful to know as whilst i am >a redhat man > if switching to mandrake will improve my memory performance which is key to my work >it would be useful to know now) > > cheers, > jason ___ Newbie mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** To unsubscribe , or change message options, see: http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/newbie
Re: [Newbie]memory useage of X
On Mon, 4 Nov 2002, Jason Riley wrote: > This is unlikely as we are running the same top version. also the > difference in memeory useage is considerably more then the meagre 32mb > on my graphics card. also as i am running processes large enough to fill > memory, i am overrunning the system memory when i need more than the > remaining 3/4 of my system memory. > > Is there some optimisation of x memory useage or is this a feature of > redhat vs mandrake? ( as i need to reinstall my o.s. it would be useful > to know as whilst i am a redhat man if switching to mandrake will > improve my memory performance which is key to my work it would be useful > to know now) >> >> Adam Luter wrote: >> You are probably using a tool (e.g. top) that is including the >> memory onboard the video card, as well as the system memory. >> >> On Fri, Nov 01, 2002 at 05:27:25PM +, Jason RILEY wrote: >> > I've always experienced a massive overuse of memory by X (c 120M >> > ram) but recently a freind running xfree4.2 on mandrake found his >> > usage on upgrading to 4.2 was reduced to c 20M. Thinking ti save >> > memory i also upgraded to xf86 v4.2, however i still use 120M RAM is >> > there an easy way to fix this problem? I think Lionel Lecoq answered this already, but basically the system is running as expected. Linux/BSD/BeOS/MacOSX all try to use as much of the memory as possible. All the processes compete for it. The competition can be weighted using the "nice" command. See "man nice" for more details. So, if you have some computational process that you want to be given priority as a memory hog you can set it to a nice-value of "-20". You can also use "top" to renice processes on the fly. Your question is not an XFree86 specific one, it's a general *NIX sysadmin question. Please use your manuals, Google, books and comp.unix.sysadmin. XFree86 is working as expected. HTH, Oisin Feeley ___ Newbie mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** To unsubscribe , or change message options, see: http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/newbie
