Linux Memory (again)

[Michael Butash]

On Mon, Nov 9, 2020 at 2:05 AM Steve Litt via PLUG-discuss <
plug-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org> wrote:

> On Sun, 8 Nov 2020 13:24:36 -0700
>
> Set Firefox to dump its cache and other stuff upon exit, and exit it at
> least once per day.
>

The real pain in the arse is relaunching each profile of mine.  I do so
manually, probably a jackass for not scripting something to do this, but
it's infrequent enough I just do it.  Nightly sort of thing would need
scripting and some restoration after.

I see merit in this, just wish these browsers would wipe their own arse
occasionally.


> 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.
>

Yeah, I got a ventilation stand for my xps15, ripped it apart, installed
new thermal paste, thermal pads on mosfets to the chassis, and various
other thermal hacks as these are known to throttle down under load.
Thermals were better by a bit, but nothing astounding.  My office does get
hot with 2-3 49" tv's running all time, and various
network/security/wifi/other devices running in here a plenty.  Summer in AZ
is a challenge, winter I just use it as a heater for the house.  This is
excluding my server room downstairs that heats the bottom half.

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.
>

My problem is the apps.  Obviously anything Microsoft is a browser pig, and
running 3-4 profiles with full email, calendar, teams, will use some ~500mb
of memory each, but by far no 40gb which is realized for use at the os
level, and not just reserved/virtual memory.  Gsuite isn't much better,
rest is just random crap.


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

I will check this out, I tend to live in text editors one way or another,
but never got used to using vim entirely in a shell.


> 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.
>

Yes for most extents, I probably deal with 2-5 active projects each week,
random interjections for support, random sales calls, random requests for
info all over really.  I tend to just keep all the crap open all the time,
better or worse.


> 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.
>

The one time I did, I found it quite foreign to me, and didn't like it at
all.

I'd probably still use kde4 if they ever fixed multi-monitor support, but
literally said "will not fix" and moved on to 5.x, where it took them a
good while to fix even there, and damn sure not fully.


> 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.
>

Again, don't disagree I should do this more, but rather find some happy
place of memory to literally just keep it going as-is.


> 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.
>

So with profiles, either firefox or chrome, it instantiates each
separately.  Meaning I install plugins, themes, bookmarks, everything
separately for each.  I presume things like cache as well, as that's where
things like M$ and even Google barf trying to share different accounts,
apps, and maintain separation.

I suspect this is why I find my browser using 40gb of ram, but really,
really!?

On my system with 128gb of ram, I'd find chrome using some 60gb of ram at
times.  Other stupid things like pavucontrol I'd find using 20gb of ram at
times.  As a volume control app.  It's always something.


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