After successful reinstall of kernel - a new memory problem

After ‘megavolt’ helped get my netbook working again by reinstalling the kernel, i was wondering why it is now locking up when running applications like Brave and VLC, until i opened the task manager and noticed that the memory being used ‘without’ any application running is 90% constantly and the page file mem is using 50%. So when i open an application it rises to 100% and browser pages or VLC locks up or runs extremely slow. It’s also a bit slower booting to desktop too.

Hi @sputnix,

What is the specifications of said netbook?

IFAIK netbooks are quite low-spec, so there might not be anything to do about it.

It’s an Asus EeePC Sea Shell Series. I think the specs should be attached to my profile? It was running like a dream until the recent update the other day. Is there a command to list what memory is being used in terminal?

You can check with:

free -h

And

sudo top

can also give you valuable information.

P.S.:

I checked your profile, that’s why I asked, so please see How to provide good information

Ah ok, sorry i thought i filled out the specs when i joined, Will have to check. I’m using a GPD pocket Ver.1 to message on here at the moment. It also has XFCE Manjaro and has the same update but yes this one isn’t as old as the Sea Shell, which i think was made in 2011. The GPD is more modern. I’ll try those commands now.

1 Like

free -h reports the same as task manager.
sudo top, i forgot my sudo password.

can you recommend a distribution for an old Asus?
with XFCE.

thanks, i don’t want to chuck it out as a brick just yet.
the good news is that i can recover files off it to back up drive.
maybe I’ll put XP on it or something like that and store it for 100 years.

Look at Manjaro LXDE/LXQT or something like that. See:

And sudo uses your user’s password. If your user doesn’t have one, then I don’t know what happens or where it happens.

I remembered the password now.
Oh this is good, the sudo top command.
what am i looking for and which column, there’s a lot of running numbers. I’m looking for a memory leak or something?

It’s so you can see what is using memory and so on, to help with diagnosing or eliminating the possibility of a problem.

See here: https://www.howtouselinux.com/sort-by-memory-top-command-linux

Great info.
Shift+m
Top contenders:

MiB Mem 1970.7 total, free 102.4
MiB Swap 512.0 total, free 502.2

%MEM
blueman-applet 8.9
nm-applet 8.6
xfwm4 7.0
xfdesktop 6.9
xfce4-terminal 6.8

cpu 0.3

Hmmm, 8.9% memory…just something bluetooth-ish, it would seem.

It may not be a lot, but it might also be, relative to how much there is in total…

What is the output of uptime?

P.S.:

Paste any terminal output wrapped in triple backticks before as well as after the pasted text. Like this:

```
pasted text
```

It’ll just format it better when displaying it, thus improving legibility quite a bit.

I’d love to copy and paste output but i’m using a different machine to message on here. Where do i find uptime?

tasks 171 total, 1 running, 170 sleeping

Edit: top 19:58:32 up 51 min, 1 user, load average: 0.01

It’s just a command in the terminal:

uptime

Edit:

:point_up_2: actually looks quite good.

I have mo idea what the reason for the behavior can be then, sorry!

19:59:57 up 53 min, 1 user, load average: 0.25, 0.09, 0.07

Yup. Don’t know. Sorry.

It’s ok, you can delete this whole thread if you like. I think the Sea Shell Asus is going bye bye. RIP Asus.

I can’t really. I’m not an administrator. Besides, WHY? What would be accomplished with that?

You can always hold a funeral for it. Give it a good sendoff. The 'ol 12 bit salute.