Gnome shell memleaks?

jelf · n00b Joined: 01 Jul 2014 Posts: 8

Hello.
I'm using "GNOME Shell 3.10.4" with "x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers-337.25". I neither use any extensions (according to "eselect gnome-shell-extensions") nor manualy installed them, so it seems to memory leak in gnome shell, becose it uses less then 1G memory on startup, but more then 2.6G after a day of work (when all windows are closed). It also use much processor time at this moments. I do not sure this is a memory leak, but have no other ideas how to explain this.
This problem is most often seen after playing video games via wine or watching video via vlc. I don't know, what information i should attach, if there isn't a common problem. However i will attach make.conf, just in case this problem is about use flags
PS should i select only nvidia in my VIDEO_CARDS, or it is better to save nouveau there too?
PPS i am using amd64

Make.conf: http://pastebin.com/n64sKb7c

Solved: using systemd fixed all possibly leaks (didn't tested with system monitor extension)
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russK · l33t Joined: 27 Jun 2006 Posts: 648

I think you might be on to something, it looks like I may have the same issue, I just never noticed because I have much more memory than I need.

I noticed just now that you can use 'gnome-shell -r' (replace) which will start a new process and kick the old one out. It's mildly disruptive but the memory footprint goes back down to what it was when first started.

mackal · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 04 Aug 2011 Posts: 87

You can also hit Alt+F2 and type r to restart gnome-shell. I have also noticed it uses a lot of memory but I also have too much RAM

jelf · n00b Joined: 01 Jul 2014 Posts: 8

greyspoke · Apprentice Joined: 08 Jan 2010 Posts: 153

This was discussed on this thread here.

There is a Gnome bug about it (in addition to the link I posted back there) here. Though it is not clear that Gnome recognise them as bugs from the comments by the devs on that.

jelf · n00b Joined: 01 Jul 2014 Posts: 8

Thistled · Guru Joined: 06 Jan 2011 Posts: 551 Location: Scotland

Yep, it's been doing this for about a year on my box.

If you enable the system monitor extension you will lose RAM in no time at all.
Without the system monitor enabled, you will lose RAM over a longer period of time.

When you only have 4Gb of RAM, you notice this in no time at all.

As suggested above Alt+F2 followed by r will restore the RAM.

I did notice when the memory mappings (or whatever it's called) are checked, there is a dump file which is swallowing the RAM.

This has been around for a while, and I don't know why it has not been addressed.
Perhaps it's unique to Gentoo, and that is why it is taking so long.

If I could code I would help out. But alas.
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jelf · n00b Joined: 01 Jul 2014 Posts: 8

Thistled · Guru Joined: 06 Jan 2011 Posts: 551 Location: Scotland

Sure Jelf.

Open Gnome-system-monitor
Right click on "gnome-shell"
Select "Memory Maps"

It will display all the processes using memory for Gnome Shell.

In my case, the file in question had "dump" in the title and was consuming memory every fews seconds.

Hope this helps.
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jelf · n00b Joined: 01 Jul 2014 Posts: 8

Thistled, i do not have "dump" file there. Sure about that.
Anyway, thank you for this method, i'd never used it before, but it may be usefull
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Thistled · Guru Joined: 06 Jan 2011 Posts: 551 Location: Scotland

Okay Jelf.

If you were to enable the system monitor extension then I guess you would see the dump file.

If you carefully scan the "memory map" for gnome-shell, you should be able to see which process
is gradually consuming the memory.

Hope this helps.
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Whatever you do, do it properly!

jelf · n00b Joined: 01 Jul 2014 Posts: 8

Okay, i have the solution: never use desktop/gnome profile, only desktop/gnome/systemd. Damn
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Sorry for my english, i'm trying