You seem to already know this, switching VLC to using ALSA solves the problem (tried it to at least 2 different ubuntu installations). No killing/restarting or removing pulseaudio required. Just open vlc -> Tools -> Preferences -> Audio and set Output module to ALSA.
FYI, regarding the kernel, I think the OOM killer works. I never had to reboot my system when vlc was having the memory leak. Yes, the whole system became unresponsive, then it takes a long while, but finally vlc gets killed and the system slowly becomes responsive again. (I struggled and managed to open an ssh connection and get some top output). -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/743323 Title: vlc memory leak -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs