Gentoo consumes much more memory than Ubuntu

Message

chugunium · Post by **chugunium** » Thu May 21, 2020 8:23 pm

Dear all,

I have an old PC with 2Gb RAM and I want to use it as a xfce-desktop. I had upgraded Gentoo to actual, had installed xfce and had configured it. I have expected that RAM consumption would be about 300-350 mb after login but it was 500+ mb (free) / 1.1+ gb (ps_mem).
After that I had installed xubuntu 20.04 alongside Gentoo and had configured xfce same way (plugins, panel, autostart, etc). Memory consumption was ~350mb (free) / ~450 (ps_mem).

I think that incorrect kernel config may cause such consumption but I'm not sure. And I don't know what to do to find out what is the cause. Maybe somebody can help me here.

Some data.

emerge --info: https://bpa.st/FDWA
lshw: https://bpa.st/GUBA
lspci -v: https://bpa.st/G4MA
.config: https://pastebin.com/VBsDGjPH

Some memory consumption info.

Gentoo after loading lxdm screen

Code: Select all

# free
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:        2044372      118816     1714488        2848      211068     1892768
Swap:       7999484           0     7999484

# free -h
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:          1,9Gi       115Mi       1,6Gi       2,0Mi       206Mi       1,8Gi
Swap:         7,6Gi          0B       7,6Gi

# ps_mem 
 Private  +   Shared  =  RAM used	Program

148.0 KiB + 248.0 KiB = 396.0 KiB	init
176.0 KiB + 284.0 KiB = 460.0 KiB	bootlogd
184.0 KiB + 308.0 KiB = 492.0 KiB	acpid
280.0 KiB + 450.0 KiB = 730.0 KiB	fcron
584.0 KiB + 716.0 KiB =   1.3 MiB	dhcpcd
364.0 KiB +   1.1 MiB =   1.5 MiB	lxdm-binary
640.0 KiB +   1.0 MiB =   1.6 MiB	dbus-daemon
912.0 KiB +   2.6 MiB =   3.5 MiB	agetty (6)
  1.2 MiB +   2.8 MiB =   3.9 MiB	console-kit-daemon
  2.0 MiB +   2.3 MiB =   4.3 MiB	bash
  2.1 MiB +   3.1 MiB =   5.2 MiB	nmbd
  1.9 MiB +   4.5 MiB =   6.4 MiB	syslog-ng (2)
  3.1 MiB +   3.4 MiB =   6.4 MiB	systemd-udevd
  2.1 MiB +   4.9 MiB =   7.1 MiB	sshd (2)
  5.0 MiB +   8.0 MiB =  13.0 MiB	NetworkManager
  5.7 MiB +  18.2 MiB =  23.9 MiB	smbd (4)
 12.8 MiB +  14.9 MiB =  27.7 MiB	polkitd
 28.6 MiB +  44.7 MiB =  73.2 MiB	lxdm-greeter-gtk
 49.5 MiB +  64.6 MiB = 114.2 MiB	Xorg
---------------------------------
                        295.2 MiB
=================================

xubuntu after loading lxdm screen:

Code: Select all

# free
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:        2033772      176496     1443388        1900      413888     1705476
Swap:       7999484           0     7999484

# free -h
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:          1,9Gi       172Mi       1,4Gi       1,0Mi       404Mi       1,6Gi
Swap:         7,6Gi          0B       7,6Gi

# python3 Downloads/ps_mem.py 
 Private  +   Shared  =  RAM used	Program

228.0 KiB +  50.5 KiB = 278.5 KiB	acpid
204.0 KiB + 101.5 KiB = 305.5 KiB	anacron
308.0 KiB +  56.5 KiB = 364.5 KiB	agetty
324.0 KiB + 133.5 KiB = 457.5 KiB	cron
344.0 KiB + 135.5 KiB = 479.5 KiB	rtkit-daemon
348.0 KiB + 272.5 KiB = 620.5 KiB	lxdm-binary
464.0 KiB + 158.5 KiB = 622.5 KiB	irqbalance
560.0 KiB + 402.5 KiB = 962.5 KiB	su
476.0 KiB + 620.0 KiB =   1.1 MiB	avahi-daemon (2)
952.0 KiB + 313.0 KiB =   1.2 MiB	kerneloops (2)
  1.0 MiB + 611.5 KiB =   1.6 MiB	systemd-timesyncd
  1.4 MiB + 269.5 KiB =   1.6 MiB	sudo
  1.2 MiB + 662.5 KiB =   1.8 MiB	systemd-logind
  1.3 MiB + 629.5 KiB =   1.9 MiB	accounts-daemon
  1.4 MiB + 710.0 KiB =   2.1 MiB	dbus-daemon (2)
  2.2 MiB + 136.5 KiB =   2.4 MiB	rsyslogd
  2.2 MiB + 974.5 KiB =   3.1 MiB	cupsd
  2.8 MiB + 663.5 KiB =   3.5 MiB	polkitd
  2.4 MiB +   1.4 MiB =   3.8 MiB	bash (2)
  2.5 MiB +   1.9 MiB =   4.3 MiB	cups-browsed
  4.4 MiB + 162.5 KiB =   4.6 MiB	systemd-udevd
  4.7 MiB +   1.1 MiB =   5.8 MiB	systemd-resolved
  5.1 MiB + 864.5 KiB =   5.9 MiB	udisksd
  2.5 MiB +   3.8 MiB =   6.3 MiB	sshd (3)
  4.3 MiB +   4.8 MiB =   9.0 MiB	systemd (3)
  7.4 MiB +   1.9 MiB =   9.3 MiB	NetworkManager
  9.0 MiB +   1.6 MiB =  10.6 MiB	pulseaudio
  9.3 MiB +   2.6 MiB =  11.9 MiB	networkd-dispat
 16.8 MiB +   2.5 MiB =  19.3 MiB	lxdm-greeter-gtk
 58.7 MiB + 940.5 KiB =  59.6 MiB	Xorg
 72.0 MiB +   4.8 MiB =  76.8 MiB	systemd-journald
---------------------------------
                        251.6 MiB
=================================

Gentoo after login to xfce session:

Code: Select all

# free
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:        2044372      516556     1237628        3220      290188     1492860
Swap:       7999484           0     7999484

# free -h
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:          1,9Gi       503Mi       1,2Gi       3,0Mi       283Mi       1,4Gi
Swap:         7,6Gi          0B       7,6Gi

# ps_mem 
 Private  +   Shared  =  RAM used	Program

148.0 KiB + 194.0 KiB = 342.0 KiB	init
176.0 KiB + 228.0 KiB = 404.0 KiB	bootlogd
184.0 KiB + 244.0 KiB = 428.0 KiB	acpid
280.0 KiB + 358.0 KiB = 638.0 KiB	fcron
352.0 KiB + 480.0 KiB = 832.0 KiB	dbus-launch
388.0 KiB + 614.0 KiB =   1.0 MiB	lxdm-binary
392.0 KiB + 658.0 KiB =   1.0 MiB	lxdm-session
584.0 KiB + 648.0 KiB =   1.2 MiB	dhcpcd
652.0 KiB + 672.0 KiB =   1.3 MiB	ssh-agent
752.0 KiB + 912.0 KiB =   1.6 MiB	gpg-agent
676.0 KiB +   1.0 MiB =   1.7 MiB	gvfsd-metadata
792.0 KiB +   1.1 MiB =   1.9 MiB	gvfs-mtp-volume-monitor
924.0 KiB +   1.2 MiB =   2.1 MiB	xfconfd
  1.1 MiB +   1.4 MiB =   2.6 MiB	gnome-keyring-daemon
  1.2 MiB +   1.5 MiB =   2.7 MiB	console-kit-daemon
  1.1 MiB +   1.6 MiB =   2.7 MiB	gvfs-gphoto2-volume-monitor
  1.0 MiB +   1.7 MiB =   2.7 MiB	gsettings-helper
900.0 KiB +   1.8 MiB =   2.7 MiB	agetty (6)
  1.0 MiB +   1.8 MiB =   2.8 MiB	gvfs-afc-volume-monitor
960.0 KiB +   1.9 MiB =   2.8 MiB	gvfsd
  1.2 MiB +   2.3 MiB =   3.5 MiB	gvfsd-trash
  1.4 MiB +   2.0 MiB =   3.5 MiB	dbus-daemon (2)
  1.5 MiB +   2.3 MiB =   3.8 MiB	upowerd
  2.0 MiB +   2.1 MiB =   4.1 MiB	bash
  1.9 MiB +   2.9 MiB =   4.8 MiB	gvfs-udisks2-volume-monitor
  2.1 MiB +   2.9 MiB =   5.1 MiB	nmbd
  1.9 MiB +   4.0 MiB =   5.9 MiB	syslog-ng (2)
  3.0 MiB +   3.2 MiB =   6.1 MiB	systemd-udevd
  1.9 MiB +   4.4 MiB =   6.3 MiB	sshd (2)
  4.6 MiB +   5.7 MiB =  10.3 MiB	udisksd
  4.7 MiB +   6.1 MiB =  10.8 MiB	NetworkManager
  5.2 MiB +   6.5 MiB =  11.6 MiB	pulseaudio
  5.7 MiB +  17.6 MiB =  23.3 MiB	smbd (4)
 13.2 MiB +  14.0 MiB =  27.2 MiB	polkitd
 18.7 MiB +  20.8 MiB =  39.6 MiB	xfce4-volumed-pulse
 18.5 MiB +  22.2 MiB =  40.7 MiB	xfce4-notifyd
 18.7 MiB +  22.4 MiB =  41.0 MiB	panel-15-systra
 19.5 MiB +  22.1 MiB =  41.6 MiB	xfsettingsd
 19.1 MiB +  22.6 MiB =  41.7 MiB	xfce4-power-manager
 18.9 MiB +  22.8 MiB =  41.7 MiB	xfce4-screensaver
 18.7 MiB +  23.8 MiB =  42.5 MiB	xfce4-clipman
 19.4 MiB +  23.3 MiB =  42.6 MiB	Thunar
 19.6 MiB +  23.4 MiB =  43.1 MiB	xfce4-session
 20.1 MiB +  23.8 MiB =  43.9 MiB	tumblerd
 19.0 MiB +  25.3 MiB =  44.3 MiB	panel-20-alsa
 20.0 MiB +  25.8 MiB =  45.8 MiB	xfce4-panel
 20.4 MiB +  26.4 MiB =  46.9 MiB	panel-2-whisker
 20.9 MiB +  27.0 MiB =  47.9 MiB	xfwm4
 21.5 MiB +  28.6 MiB =  50.0 MiB	nm-applet
 22.3 MiB +  28.0 MiB =  50.4 MiB	panel-19-xkb
 26.9 MiB +  34.1 MiB =  61.1 MiB	panel-16-weathe
 33.6 MiB +  40.6 MiB =  74.2 MiB	xfdesktop
 58.7 MiB +  61.2 MiB = 120.0 MiB	Xorg
---------------------------------
                          1.1 GiB
=================================

xubuntu after login to xfce session:

Code: Select all

# free
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:        2033772      363072     1176976        2212      493724     1516712
Swap:       7999484           0     7999484

# free -h
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:          1,9Gi       354Mi       1,1Gi       2,0Mi       482Mi       1,4Gi
Swap:         7,6Gi          0B       7,6Gi

# python3 Downloads/ps_mem.py 
 Private  +   Shared  =  RAM used	Program

204.0 KiB +  48.5 KiB = 252.5 KiB	anacron
228.0 KiB +  30.5 KiB = 258.5 KiB	acpid
308.0 KiB +  32.5 KiB = 340.5 KiB	agetty
324.0 KiB +  70.5 KiB = 394.5 KiB	cron
344.0 KiB +  83.5 KiB = 427.5 KiB	rtkit-daemon
348.0 KiB + 107.5 KiB = 455.5 KiB	lxdm-binary
464.0 KiB +  77.5 KiB = 541.5 KiB	irqbalance
692.0 KiB +  17.5 KiB = 709.5 KiB	ssh-agent
560.0 KiB + 275.5 KiB = 835.5 KiB	su
824.0 KiB + 179.5 KiB =   1.0 MiB	gvfs-mtp-volume-monitor
476.0 KiB + 550.0 KiB =   1.0 MiB	avahi-daemon (2)
828.0 KiB + 217.5 KiB =   1.0 MiB	gpg-agent
952.0 KiB + 167.0 KiB =   1.1 MiB	kerneloops (2)
796.0 KiB + 339.5 KiB =   1.1 MiB	lxdm-session
996.0 KiB + 141.5 KiB =   1.1 MiB	xfconfd
996.0 KiB + 148.5 KiB =   1.1 MiB	gvfs-goa-volume-monitor
  1.1 MiB + 154.5 KiB =   1.3 MiB	gnome-keyring-daemon
  1.2 MiB + 161.5 KiB =   1.3 MiB	gvfsd-fuse
980.0 KiB + 406.5 KiB =   1.4 MiB	gvfsd
  1.1 MiB + 272.5 KiB =   1.4 MiB	gvfs-gphoto2-volume-monitor
  1.3 MiB + 207.5 KiB =   1.5 MiB	accounts-daemon
  1.0 MiB + 539.5 KiB =   1.5 MiB	systemd-timesyncd
  1.4 MiB + 182.5 KiB =   1.6 MiB	sudo
  1.2 MiB + 443.5 KiB =   1.6 MiB	gvfsd-trash
  1.4 MiB + 423.5 KiB =   1.8 MiB	gvfs-afc-volume-monitor
  1.2 MiB + 596.5 KiB =   1.8 MiB	systemd-logind
  2.2 MiB +  91.5 KiB =   2.3 MiB	rsyslogd
  1.9 MiB + 732.5 KiB =   2.6 MiB	polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1
  2.1 MiB + 544.5 KiB =   2.7 MiB	gvfs-udisks2-volume-monitor
  2.2 MiB + 532.0 KiB =   2.7 MiB	dbus-daemon (2)
  2.2 MiB + 670.5 KiB =   2.8 MiB	cupsd
  2.2 MiB + 814.5 KiB =   3.0 MiB	xfce4-notifyd
  2.9 MiB + 233.5 KiB =   3.1 MiB	polkitd
  2.1 MiB +   1.4 MiB =   3.5 MiB	cups-browsed
  2.4 MiB +   1.3 MiB =   3.7 MiB	bash (2)
  4.4 MiB + 129.5 KiB =   4.5 MiB	systemd-udevd
  4.5 MiB + 849.5 KiB =   5.4 MiB	udisksd
  4.4 MiB + 986.5 KiB =   5.4 MiB	systemd-resolved
  2.4 MiB +   3.7 MiB =   6.0 MiB	sshd (3)
  6.9 MiB +   1.4 MiB =   8.4 MiB	NetworkManager
  7.7 MiB +   1.0 MiB =   8.7 MiB	panel-5-systray
  4.5 MiB +   4.5 MiB =   9.0 MiB	systemd (3)
  7.8 MiB +   1.2 MiB =   9.0 MiB	pulseaudio
  8.3 MiB + 967.5 KiB =   9.2 MiB	Thunar
  8.2 MiB +   1.3 MiB =   9.5 MiB	xfce4-screensaver
  8.7 MiB +   1.1 MiB =   9.8 MiB	xfsettingsd
  9.2 MiB +   1.9 MiB =  11.2 MiB	networkd-dispat
  9.2 MiB +   2.3 MiB =  11.5 MiB	panel-6-whisker
 11.1 MiB + 797.5 KiB =  11.8 MiB	tumblerd
  9.5 MiB +   2.7 MiB =  12.2 MiB	xfwm4
  8.9 MiB +   3.4 MiB =  12.3 MiB	panel-10-pulsea
  9.4 MiB +   3.1 MiB =  12.6 MiB	xfce4-panel
 11.1 MiB +   3.7 MiB =  14.8 MiB	nm-applet
 12.6 MiB +   2.6 MiB =  15.2 MiB	panel-15-xkb
 13.3 MiB +   2.7 MiB =  16.1 MiB	panel-19-weathe
 23.0 MiB +   3.5 MiB =  26.4 MiB	xfdesktop
 20.2 MiB +   7.2 MiB =  27.4 MiB	xfce4-session
 55.7 MiB +   6.6 MiB =  62.3 MiB	Xorg
 78.1 MiB +   5.2 MiB =  83.3 MiB	systemd-journald
---------------------------------
                        455.2 MiB
=================================

Thanks,

Yuri

alamahant · Post by **alamahant** » Thu May 21, 2020 8:47 pm

If you add the used memory and the buffer/cached memory in both cases xubuntu seems to comsume more.

Code: Select all

503Mi  +    283Mi  Gentoo=786M
354Mi  +    482Mi   Xubuntu=836M

Maybe some "sysctl" tweak or maybe a better kernel .config or a grub parameter for Xubuntu makes for better mem management.
Yet again you cant compare pears and oranges.Xubuntu is systemd and Gentoo is Openrc no?
Xubuntu's tweaking is being performed by a many many people working on it,whereas Gentoo you just configured your self no????
They are bound to have better results even when working on something as controversial as (X)ubuntu...

Please do this:
In Gentoo run:

Code: Select all

echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
echo 2 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches

And check again memory usage...
However having said all that a minimal level of systemd(systemctl preset-all) can also have surpising low mem consumption I recently discovered..
My stats after having just booted in into my new systemd-xfce Gentoo system:

Code: Select all

Tasks: 232 total,   1 running, 231 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s):  0.4 us,  0.8 sy,  0.0 ni, 96.7 id,  2.1 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st
MiB Mem :  15897.9 total,  15326.8 free,    321.8 used,    249.3 buff/cache
MiB Swap:      0.0 total,      0.0 free,      0.0 used.  15239.4 avail Mem 

    PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU  %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND                                      
   1755 root      20   0    6104   3360   2672 R   3.8   0.0   0:00.03 top                                          
      1 root      20   0   12724   8728   5952 S   0.0   0.1   0:01.28 systemd                                      
      2 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0.0   0.0   0:00.00 kthreadd                                     
      3 root       0 -20       0      0      0 I   0.0   0.0   0:00.00 rcu_gp                                       
      4 root       0 -20       0      0      0 I   0.0   0.0   0:00.00 rcu_par_gp                                   
      5 root      20   0       0      0      0 I   0.0   0.0   0:00.00 kworker/0:0-events                           
      6 root       0 -20       0      0      0 I   0.0   0.0   0:00.00 kworker/0:0H-events_highpri                  
      7 root      20   0       0      0      0 I   0.0   0.0   0:00.02 kworker/u16:0-events_unbound                 
      8 root       0 -20       0      0      0 I   0.0   0.0   0:00.00 mm_percpu_wq                                 
      9 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0.0   0.0   0:00.01 ksoftirqd/0                                  
     10 root      -2   0       0      0      0 S   0.0   0.0   0:00.00 rcuc/0                                       
     11 root      -2   0       0      0      0 I   0.0   0.0   0:00.03 rcu_preempt                                  
     12 root      -2   0       0      0      0 S   0.0   0.0   0:00.00 rcub/0                                       
     13 root      rt   0       0      0      0 S   0.0   0.0   0:00.00 migration/0                                  
     14 root     -51   0       0      0      0 S   0.0   0.0   0:00.00 idle_inject/0                                
     15 root      20   0       0      0      0 I   0.0   0.0   0:00.01 kworker/0:1-events                           
     16 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0.0   0.0   0:00.00 cpuhp/0                                      
     17 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0.0   0.0   0:00.00 cpuhp/1

And the "ps_mem" thingie.

Code: Select all

ps_mem
 Private  +   Shared  =  RAM used	Program

232.0 KiB + 394.0 KiB = 626.0 KiB	agetty
324.0 KiB + 508.0 KiB = 832.0 KiB	syndaemon
660.0 KiB + 690.0 KiB =   1.3 MiB	ssh-agent
760.0 KiB + 836.0 KiB =   1.6 MiB	gpg-agent
484.0 KiB +   1.1 MiB =   1.6 MiB	su
816.0 KiB +   1.1 MiB =   1.9 MiB	dbus-launch (2)
644.0 KiB +   1.3 MiB =   1.9 MiB	systemd-timesyncd
912.0 KiB +   1.2 MiB =   2.1 MiB	xfconfd
956.0 KiB +   1.6 MiB =   2.6 MiB	systemd-resolved
  1.2 MiB +   1.9 MiB =   3.1 MiB	systemd-logind
  1.1 MiB +   2.1 MiB =   3.2 MiB	gsettings-helper
  1.4 MiB +   1.9 MiB =   3.3 MiB	upowerd
  1.3 MiB +   2.0 MiB =   3.3 MiB	systemd-networkd
  1.6 MiB +   2.0 MiB =   3.7 MiB	gvfsd
  2.1 MiB +   2.3 MiB =   4.4 MiB	lvmetad
  1.9 MiB +   3.0 MiB =   5.0 MiB	dbus-daemon (3)
  1.3 MiB +   4.1 MiB =   5.4 MiB	bash (2)
  2.0 MiB +   3.8 MiB =   5.8 MiB	lightdm (2)
  3.0 MiB +   3.6 MiB =   6.6 MiB	systemd-udevd
  3.4 MiB +   4.6 MiB =   8.0 MiB	gvfs-udisks2-volume-monitor
  4.8 MiB +   6.9 MiB =  11.7 MiB	polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1
  4.9 MiB +   6.8 MiB =  11.7 MiB	xfce4-notifyd
  5.1 MiB +   6.8 MiB =  11.9 MiB	xfce4-power-manager
  5.0 MiB +   7.2 MiB =  12.2 MiB	panel-6-systray
  5.4 MiB +   7.8 MiB =  13.2 MiB	xfce4-session
  5.1 MiB +   8.1 MiB =  13.2 MiB	panel-14-action
  5.6 MiB +   7.9 MiB =  13.5 MiB	Thunar
  6.1 MiB +   7.4 MiB =  13.5 MiB	pulseaudio
  5.3 MiB +   8.3 MiB =  13.6 MiB	xfce4-screensaver
  5.9 MiB +   8.2 MiB =  14.0 MiB	xfsettingsd
  6.2 MiB +   7.9 MiB =  14.1 MiB	udisksd
  5.5 MiB +   9.0 MiB =  14.5 MiB	panel-9-power-m
  5.9 MiB +  10.6 MiB =  16.5 MiB	panel-10-notifi
  4.8 MiB +  12.0 MiB =  16.8 MiB	systemd.bak (3)
  7.5 MiB +  11.6 MiB =  19.1 MiB	xfce4-panel
 14.6 MiB +  15.7 MiB =  30.3 MiB	polkitd
 13.1 MiB +  20.2 MiB =  33.3 MiB	xfce4-terminal
 15.9 MiB +  19.0 MiB =  34.9 MiB	xfdesktop
 15.5 MiB +  28.8 MiB =  44.3 MiB	xfwm4
 30.4 MiB +  32.1 MiB =  62.5 MiB	named
 26.9 MiB +  39.4 MiB =  66.3 MiB	systemd-journald
 34.2 MiB +  45.2 MiB =  79.4 MiB	Xorg
---------------------------------
                        626.5 MiB
=================================

...And I have bind running also.
No sysctl tweaks.
Just kernel 5.6.10 from kernel.org compiled with an arch .config file.

dmpogo · Post by **dmpogo** » Fri May 22, 2020 2:29 am

As you may notice, the difference comes mainly from 'shared' part of the memory, which is almost non-existent in Ubuntu relative to Gentoo. I would actually wonder how shared memory is even counted into the total, since by it is meaning, this is one that the process shared with other. Perhaps somebody could explain what is happening with shared memory here.

Ant P. · Post by **Ant P.** » Fri May 22, 2020 8:37 am

I'm more used to seeing such wildly inaccurate comparisons being made to windows. Any tool that accounts shared memory separately per process then adds it up arithmetically is incompetently built.

The dangers of trusting random code off of Microsoft hosting services, I guess…

chugunium · Post by **chugunium** » Fri May 22, 2020 2:36 pm

alamahant,

alamahant wrote: If you add the used memory and the buffer/cached memory in both cases xubuntu seems to comsume more.

I know, but I don't understand why "Used" by Gentoo larger than Ubuntu.

alamahant wrote: Xubuntu's tweaking is being performed by a many many people working on it,whereas Gentoo you just configured your self no????
They are bound to have better results even when working on something as controversial as (X)ubuntu...

Yes, I am the only member of my team

But I'm trying to reach better results than I already did

alamahant wrote: Please do this:
In Gentoo run:
Code: Select all
echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
echo 2 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
And check again memory usage...

Before

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              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:        2044376      475548     1288500        3216      280328     1534404
Swap:       7999484           0     7999484

After

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              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:        2044376      476216     1442960        3216      125200     1535644
Swap:       7999484           0     7999484

Cache was partially dropped, it is expected behavior, "used" remains the same.

dmpogo, yes, you are right, "private" memory parts are comparable, but shared parts are much different and it is very strange for me to see it.

Ant P. Sorry for it, I was wrong to use summary from ps_mem in my first post. But "private" and "shared" shows interesting and inexplicable (for me) difference.

chugunium · Post by **chugunium** » Sun May 24, 2020 4:19 pm

I had tried gentoo-kernel-bin - nothing ever changed, 500+mb after login.
After that I have tried to boot Gentoo using Ubuntu kernel. I successfully booted and logged in, but memory consumption remains the same.

After that I take 'sysctl -a' from Ubuntu and Gentoo and wrote the script to find difference.

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Difference (Ubuntu # Gentoo): 
fs.dentry-state=20310	4310	45	0	434	0 # 26106	9548	45	0	2374	0
fs.file-max=9223372036854775807 # 197766
fs.file-nr=6848	0	9223372036854775807 # 3520	0	197766
fs.inode-nr=20972	1417 # 23794	520
fs.inode-state=20972	1417	0	0	0	0	0 # 23794	520	0	0	0	0	0
fs.protected_fifos=1 # 0
fs.protected_regular=2 # 0
fs.quota.syncs=0 # 4
kernel.kptr_restrict=1 # 0
kernel.ns_last_pid=4486 # 3093
kernel.perf_event_max_sample_rate=9000 # 100000
kernel.pid_max=4194304 # 32768
kernel.printk=4	4	1	7 # 1	4	1	7
kernel.printk_devkmsg=on # ratelimit
kernel.pty.nr=1 # 3
kernel.random.boot_id=7fe361fc-c780-4079-81fc-0a7286127eca # 625fe4d8-188d-4fb6-bc6a-4cd71bf17d06
kernel.random.entropy_avail=3364 # 1413
kernel.random.uuid=270b4e7a-84b7-427d-8cd0-421ea5dcab39 # 2a6ecec6-b3fa-4b0e-b4cb-39d50c7d0b2d
kernel.sched_domain.cpu0.domain0.max_newidle_lb_cost=1092651 # 2348
kernel.sched_domain.cpu0.domain1.max_newidle_lb_cost=478376 # 4067
kernel.sched_domain.cpu1.domain0.max_newidle_lb_cost=943327 # 1938
kernel.sched_domain.cpu1.domain1.max_newidle_lb_cost=786815 # 4434
kernel.sched_domain.cpu2.domain0.max_newidle_lb_cost=947187 # 2813
kernel.sched_domain.cpu2.domain1.max_newidle_lb_cost=1163001 # 2548
kernel.sched_domain.cpu3.domain0.max_newidle_lb_cost=1236443 # 3064
kernel.sched_domain.cpu3.domain1.max_newidle_lb_cost=1260546 # 4935
kernel.sysrq=176 # 438
net.core.default_qdisc=fq_codel # pfifo_fast
net.ipv4.conf.all.rp_filter=2 # 0
net.ipv4.conf.default.promote_secondaries=1 # 0
net.ipv4.conf.default.rp_filter=2 # 0
net.ipv4.conf.enp4s0.rp_filter=2 # 0
net.ipv4.conf.lo.promote_secondaries=1 # 0
net.ipv4.ping_group_range=0	2147483647 # 1	0
net.ipv6.conf.all.use_tempaddr=2 # 0
net.ipv6.conf.default.use_tempaddr=2 # 0
net.ipv6.conf.enp4s0.accept_ra=0 # 1
net.ipv6.conf.enp4s0.accept_ra_defrtr=1 # 0
net.ipv6.conf.enp4s0.accept_ra_pinfo=1 # 0
net.ipv6.conf.enp4s0.accept_ra_rtr_pref=1 # 0
net.ipv6.conf.enp4s0.use_tempaddr=2 # 0
net.unix.max_dgram_qlen=512 # 10
vm.user_reserve_kbytes=61705 # 61721

Process finished with exit code 0

It seems that there is no parameters here that can help me.

Post by **Banana** » Sun May 24, 2020 5:24 pm

you can't really compare since the configurations are not the same.
As alamahant already said xubuntu is a ready build. Gentoo you need to do it by yourself. The basic installtion guidlines provide a working gentoo installtion. To create a system which uses less memory you need to tweek on the right places.

bambus89 · Post by **bambus89** » Sat May 30, 2020 11:08 am

Something is going wrong in your system. I have installed gentoo with Kernel 5.6.15, full disk encryption and a full blown Plasma desktop and after boot my system needs 550-700 mb fo ram...

The kernel i use is gentoo-kernel and for initramfs it uses dracut and the .config is the default config enabled all options comes with the kernel... so also full blown...

edit:

free -h:

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             gesamt       benutzt     frei      gemns.  Puffer/Cache verfügbar
Speicher:        15Gi       438Mi        14Gi       164Mi       717Mi        14Gi
Swap:            0B          0B          0B

ps_mem

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Private  +   Shared  =  RAM used       Program

 96.0 KiB + 124.0 KiB = 220.0 KiB       start_kdeinit
344.0 KiB + 552.0 KiB = 896.0 KiB       lvmetad
460.0 KiB + 978.0 KiB =   1.4 MiB       su
656.0 KiB +   1.1 MiB =   1.8 MiB       dconf-service
928.0 KiB +   1.8 MiB =   2.7 MiB       systemd-timesyncd
  1.1 MiB +   1.9 MiB =   3.0 MiB       gsettings-helper
  1.0 MiB +   2.0 MiB =   3.0 MiB       startplasma-x11
  1.4 MiB +   1.8 MiB =   3.1 MiB       obexd
  1.2 MiB +   2.2 MiB =   3.3 MiB       systemd-logind
  1.4 MiB +   2.1 MiB =   3.5 MiB       sudo
  1.7 MiB +   2.0 MiB =   3.8 MiB       bash
  1.6 MiB +   2.3 MiB =   4.0 MiB       upowerd
  1.9 MiB +   2.1 MiB =   4.0 MiB       bluetoothd
  2.0 MiB +   2.9 MiB =   4.9 MiB       thermald
  2.2 MiB +   3.0 MiB =   5.2 MiB       dbus-daemon (2)
  2.6 MiB +   2.6 MiB =   5.2 MiB       dhclient
  2.0 MiB +   3.3 MiB =   5.3 MiB       sddm
  2.1 MiB +   3.5 MiB =   5.7 MiB       sddm-helper
  2.2 MiB +   4.1 MiB =   6.3 MiB       xembedsniproxy
  3.2 MiB +   3.2 MiB =   6.4 MiB       haveged
  2.3 MiB +   4.2 MiB =   6.5 MiB       kscreen_backend_launcher
  2.4 MiB +   4.4 MiB =   6.8 MiB       gmenudbusmenuproxy
  3.1 MiB +   4.1 MiB =   7.1 MiB       wpa_supplicant
  3.4 MiB +   4.3 MiB =   7.7 MiB       systemd-udevd
  3.7 MiB +   4.2 MiB =   7.8 MiB       fish
  2.8 MiB +   5.2 MiB =   7.9 MiB       plasma_session
  4.5 MiB +   6.0 MiB =  10.5 MiB       udisksd
  4.8 MiB +   7.1 MiB =  11.9 MiB       baloo_file
  4.1 MiB +   8.0 MiB =  12.1 MiB       kactivitymanagerd
  4.5 MiB +   9.2 MiB =  13.7 MiB       klauncher
  6.1 MiB +   8.2 MiB =  14.3 MiB       NetworkManager
  3.4 MiB +  10.9 MiB =  14.3 MiB       systemd (3)
  5.9 MiB +  10.1 MiB =  16.0 MiB       kglobalaccel5
  5.9 MiB +  12.1 MiB =  18.0 MiB       org_kde_powerdevil
  7.0 MiB +  11.9 MiB =  18.9 MiB       kaccess
  7.3 MiB +  12.2 MiB =  19.4 MiB       kwalletd5
  7.5 MiB +  12.7 MiB =  20.2 MiB       DiscoverNotifier
  7.4 MiB +  12.8 MiB =  20.2 MiB       polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1
  7.5 MiB +  13.4 MiB =  20.9 MiB       ksmserver
 10.6 MiB +  12.7 MiB =  23.3 MiB       pulseaudio
 13.9 MiB +  15.0 MiB =  28.9 MiB       polkitd
 16.2 MiB +  31.7 MiB =  47.9 MiB       kded5
 22.7 MiB +  31.5 MiB =  54.2 MiB       Xorg
 21.5 MiB +  54.0 MiB =  75.5 MiB       kdeinit5 (7)
 60.8 MiB +  84.4 MiB = 145.2 MiB       kwin_x11
 75.8 MiB +  93.8 MiB = 169.6 MiB       systemd-journald
116.9 MiB + 150.9 MiB = 267.8 MiB       plasmashell
---------------------------------
                          1.1 GiB
=================================

Neofetch

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Memory: 630MiB / 15897MiB

Post by **Banana** » Sat May 30, 2020 4:53 pm

.config is the default config enabled all options comes with the kernel... so also full blown...

The default activated ones or really every single option available?

bambus89 · Post by **bambus89** » Sat May 30, 2020 10:49 pm

i think there are all options enabled because all my hardware even peripherals works all ootb

dmpogo · Post by **dmpogo** » Sun May 31, 2020 1:08 am

bambus89 wrote:i think there are all options enabled because all my hardware even peripherals works all ootb

If you mean, install gentoo-kernel, do make menconfig, save and exit immediately (which generates .config without you having changed anything) as default, then no, not alll options will be enabled. Many defaults are set to 'No'

bambus89 · Post by **bambus89** » Sun May 31, 2020 8:41 am

But i have an i2c touchpad from elan which i can say for some times with the genkernel-kernel install from handbook never worked... and with this kernel i do nothing and just all works out of the box...

edit:
If you mean that i invoke menuconfig then no... i do nothing and this process is fully automated. so maybe the install script does or a default gentoo .config will be loaded... i don't know. And even it is not "Full blown" most of the modules are in. I don't think that is does that much to ram usage...

chugunium · Post by **chugunium** » Mon Jun 01, 2020 11:31 am

Finally, I have found the reason!

I have an old videocard, NVIDIA GTX-280 and I use nvidia driver for it (not nouveau).

All the tests that I had posted here before I have done with

Code: Select all

# eselect opengl list
Available OpenGL implementations:
  [1]   nvidia *
  [2]   xorg-x11

But after

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# eselect opengl set 2
Switching to xorg-x11 OpenGL interface... done
# eselect opengl list
Available OpenGL implementations:
  [1]   nvidia
  [2]   xorg-x11 *
# reboot

I have got

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# free
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:        2044376      292856     1475296        3244      276224     1717088
Swap:       7999484           0     7999484

I have repeated it 6 times (3 reboot with nvidia opengl and 3 with xorg-x11 opengl) and result was the same: ~300mb with xorg-x11 and 500+mb with nvidia.

It is looks very, very strange for me. And I totally don't understand what I can do with it.

And in Ubuntu the same nvidia-drivers are used, hm.

dmpogo · Post by **dmpogo** » Mon Jun 01, 2020 2:01 pm

So to summarize, using nvidia-drivers on Gentoo leads to extra 200 Mb as compared to Ubiuntu ? xorg-X11 opengl on both Gentoo and Ubuntu behaves the same ?

I'll try to compare it on my machine with old nvidia card. What drivers are you using nvidia-drivers-340 ?

Since you are using nvidia-drivers, in your Gentoo kernel configuration did you clear out Direct Rendering Manager option in "Graphics Support" ?

chugunium · Post by **chugunium** » Mon Jun 01, 2020 3:41 pm

dmpogo wrote: So to summarize, using nvidia-drivers on Gentoo leads to extra 200 Mb as compared to Ubiuntu ?

yes

dmpogo wrote: xorg-X11 opengl on both Gentoo and Ubuntu behaves the same ?

Yes, Xubuntu consumes ~350 mb after login regardless the drivers, Gentoo consumes 500+ using nvidia and ~300 using xorg-x11

dmpogo wrote: I'll try to compare it on my machine with old nvidia card. What drivers are you using nvidia-drivers-340 ?

Thank you!
Yes, I use

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[ebuild   R    ] x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers-340.108:0/340::gentoo  USE="X acpi multilib static-libs tools" ABI_X86="(64) -32 (-x32)" 0 KiB

Unfortunally, it is the last supported version for my old card.

dmpogo wrote: Since you are using nvidia-drivers, in your Gentoo kernel configuration did you clear out Direct Rendering Manager option in "Graphics Support" ?

Device Drivers / Graphic support

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  │ │                                 < > /dev/agpgart (AGP Support)  ----                                                                   │ │  
  │ │                                 [*] VGA Arbitration                                                                                    │ │  
  │ │                                 (16)  Maximum number of GPUs                                                                           │ │  
  │ │                                 [ ] Laptop Hybrid Graphics - GPU switching support                                                     │ │  
  │ │                                 < > Direct Rendering Manager (XFree86 4.1.0 and higher DRI support)  ----                              │ │  
  │ │                                 [ ] Enable DisplayPort CEC-Tunneling-over-AUX HDMI support                                             │ │  
  │ │                                     ARM devices  ----                                                                                  │ │  
  │ │                                     ACP (Audio CoProcessor) Configuration  ----                                                        │ │  
  │ │                                     Frame buffer Devices  --->                                                                         │ │  
  │ │                                     Backlight & LCD device support  --->                                                               │ │  
  │ │                                     Console display driver support  --->                                                               │ │  
  │ │                                 [ ] Bootup logo  ----

Device Drivers / Graphic support / Device Drivers / Graphic support

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  │ │                                 [*] VGA text console                                                                                   │ │  
  │ │                                 [*]   Enable Scrollback Buffer in System RAM                                                           │ │  
  │ │                                 (128)   Scrollback Buffer Size (in KB)                                                                 │ │  
  │ │                                 [ ]     Persistent Scrollback History for each console by default                                      │ │  
  │ │                                 (80) Initial number of console screen columns                                                          │ │  
  │ │                                 (25) Initial number of console screen rows                                                             │ │  
  │ │                                 [*] Framebuffer Console support                                                                        │ │  
  │ │                                 [*]   Map the console to the primary display device                                                    │ │  
  │ │                                 [ ]   Framebuffer Console Rotation                                                                     │ │  
  │ │                                 [ ]   Framebuffer Console Deferred Takeover

dmpogo · Post by **dmpogo** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 4:56 am

Well one my card is of yours generation, and one is even older - both on 340 drivers

What I am think is that under Gentoo nvidia kernel modules are compiled on a spot during installation, while how they are compiled for Ubuntu, who knows, may be even by Nvidia themselves.
So perhaps Gentoo version is 'more generic' and has some more generous build options, reserving extra space or whatever, maybe part of GPU memory is premapped to RAM (and it is shared, i,e can be used by other processes if needed). While in Ubuntu it is done on as-needed basis. I am just speculating

chugunium · Post by **chugunium** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 4:29 pm

Cool!
It will be very interesting to see memory consumption in your case:)

About nvidia and ubuntu ... may be ... anyway there is any reason for it

chugunium · Post by **chugunium** » Wed Jun 03, 2020 9:00 am

dmpogo wrote: What I am think is that under Gentoo nvidia kernel modules are compiled on a spot during installation, while how they are compiled for Ubuntu, who knows, may be even by Nvidia themselves.

I thought about it yesterday, and I have remembered one fact.
When I tested different cases trying to determine the reason of difference in memory consumption, there was the following case: I had copied Xubuntu kernel with modules (nvidia drivers was successfully installed in Xubuntu) to Gentoo and I had booted Gentoo with it. Memory consumption with Xubuntu kernel was the same as with Gentoo kernel - 500+mb (inside Gentoo environment). But inside Xubuntu environment memory consumption was 350-360mb. Interesting fact. So I think that there is a chance that there is some misconfiguration in preferences of my Gentoo system and it is a reason of high memory consumption.

I mean that there is a chance for me to find and fix it. Because if it is a special build for ubuntu, there is no hope