Re: Linux Memory (again)

On Sun, 8 Nov 2020 13:24:36 -0700
Michael Butash <michael@butash.net> wrote:


> They all are pigs I find. Tried Brave, Chrome, Chromium, and keep
> ending up back at firefox as a lesser of evils. Chrome is the new
> IE, so now I *need* it occasionally for plugins. I've been using tab
> suspenders across each, doesn't help much.

Set Firefox to dump its cache and other stuff upon exit, and exit it at
least once per day.

Also, I recommend you run a memory test on all the machine's RAM for
several passes. Keep an eye on the temperature: Detailed RAM tests get
things hot. Make sure your machine's fans are working well, the machine
is in a well ventilated area, and for the duration of the test I'd turn
the air conditioner down to 68 and wear a jacket, or if you're up north
open a window and wear a jacket.


>
> My problem is I have to keep different profiles for different
> companies I work with, usually no less than 4-6 at a time, 2 at least
> for my personal gsuite and work. Mostly I do so for M$ O365/Teams,
> as they can't figure out how to make it work across organizations or
> seemingly comprehend why anyone would. Hint: Consultants that work
> for 5-10 orgs at a time. Each profile just ends up hoarding ram,
> which ends up being 30-40gb at times on my system.

Find a way to shrink those profiles. They grow with time, and I'm sure
most of that growth is unnecessary and can be trimmed back.

>
> > I don't know how many VMs you run, but those eat up memory.
> >
>
> I have a mainstream Win10 build with visio and other windoze-y crap I
> need, 8gb of ram, and keep a few win10 ameliorated editions for
> clients to minimize footprint with 4gb. Usually only 2 windoze, 1 if
> I can. Occasionally a few other 2-4gb ram linux systems, but
> typically ~20gb for vbox and my vms. It's where all the other memory
> goes I have a hard time with, which I really can't identify.
>
> What the heck kind of editor requires 3-4GB RAM? That sounds crazy to
> > me. Why do you have a few dozen files open simultaneously?
> >
>
> Fine questions really, this tends to be where I'm bit odd. I've found
> whether using Pluma, Gedit, or even qqnotepad, they all tend to get a
> bit crazy with a lot of tabs. I presume things like undo memory,
> things like that are adding up, but I'm still like geez, really?

GVim is pretty easy on memory. I use it, you might like it too.

>
> Why so many? I mostly do network and security consulting, with config
> files from existing devices, resulting operational output extracted in
> text, across multiple orgs at a time. Not to mention configuration
> changes I'm making for template deployment off those, so it gets a
> bit crazy flipping between dozens of configs at a time.
>
> If I could find better ways to manage some of this, it would be nice,
> but seems everything just dumps this sort of thing into memory
> hoarding.
>
> Libreoffice is kind of a pig. Is there something else you can use? And
> > why a dozen or two simultaneous files open? This sounds like a
> > workflow nightmare. Do you mean one Libreoffice instance with 24
> > files open, or a bunch of separate Libreoffices in VMs. If the
> > latter, yeah, that's going to burn a lot of RAM, even more than one
> > instance with 24 documents.
> >
>
> I often blame Libreoffice, only to kill it with like 20 spreadsheets
> open, and 30 write files and find it was using (only) around 4gb of
> ram. I take notes a lot in libre because it's restore on crash has
> proven pretty flawless vs., well anything else. I mostly prefer
> pluma for text input and notes, but no good restore. Tried qqnotepad
> that had a restore function, it was highly dysfunctional.

If I'm reading you correctly, you're dealing with a dozen or more
customers every day and want to keep things ready for them. Unless
you're *simultaneously* dealing with *all* of them, I'd suggest you
ditch the VMs and use containers like lxc or docker, one per client,
configure them so they boot very fast, and shut them down when not
needed.


>
> > Ohhhh, KDE. I call that Krash, Delay, Expand. See
> > http://troubleshooters.com/lpm/201202/201202.htm . I use OpenBox,
> > which is a low-RAM, just-the-facts window manager. On every machine
> > I ever used KDE, performance was bad and on lower RAM machines,
> > things ground to a halt.
> >
> > Gnome and KDE are luxuries for folks with lightning fast processors
> > and huge quantities of RAM, who want their computers to perform
> > like a 2015 computer with 4GB RAM.
> >
>
> Yes KDE is a pain, but both pretty and functional.

You pay dearly for that pretty, and there's a wide variety of wm/de's
(Window Manager/Desktop Environment) that are very functional. If you
already have 128GB of RAM, I don't think you can purchase your way out
of this problem, and this computer isn't a luxury, it's a livelihood.
Try LXDE instead of KDE. I think you'll find it acceptable, while still
respecting your RAM and CPU.


> Perhaps this is just the price for working as I do. I also tend to
> keep things open to work perpetually as who needs work/life balance,
> so purging things would likely help.

I know what you mean. Every night, or every morning, I need to go
through and shut about 2 dozen windows. I don't call it purging, I call
it housekeeping.

>
> Trying to work as I do under windoze as a test, it just couldn't hang.
> Perhaps I expect too much of linux, but it's far more capable at
> least, though when it gets wonky, it does so fast.

Are you running six firefoxes with six different profiles on Windows,
each with several documents open? If not, you're comparing apples with
oranges. But anyway, I'm certain that, with this hardware running your
life and your business, you don't have to live this way. I think that
with a small adjustment in software and some moderate adjustments in
workflow, you can have a very snappy machine that does everything you
want it to.

SteveT

Steve Litt
Autumn 2020 featured book: Thriving in Tough Times
http://www.troubleshooters.com/thrive
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