Very high memory used and i don't know what for

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1

I’m not familiar on a very technical level how linux uses memory, but the memory usage seems pretty high to me…

Output from free -h:

               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:            15Gi       6,2Gi       316Mi       819Mi       8,5Gi       7,7Gi
Swap:           16Gi       1,8Gi        14Gi

Buff/cache 8 gigabytes? Isn’t that a bit much?
Used 6 gigabytes as well, i’m having firefox open and a launcher for a game right now, nothing that would really be using that much memory. I do have 3 activities set up, is that it? Nothing’s on them though, they’re just there to switch to when i need them (kinda like a virtual desktop, but better! :slight_smile: ).

top output:

top - 00:49:31 up 1 day,  3:54,  3 users,  load average: 1,00, 1,40, 2,13
Tasks: 350 total,   2 running, 348 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s):  9,0 us,  2,2 sy,  0,0 ni, 88,7 id,  0,0 wa,  0,0 hi,  0,0 si,  0,0 st
MiB Mem :  15369,1 total,    643,9 free,   6588,7 used,   8136,6 buff/cache
MiB Swap:  16894,4 total,  15004,1 free,   1890,3 used.   7633,2 avail Mem

ps -e output:

    PID TTY          TIME CMD
      1 ?        00:00:02 systemd
      2 ?        00:00:00 kthreadd
      3 ?        00:00:00 rcu_gp
      4 ?        00:00:00 rcu_par_gp
      5 ?        00:00:00 slub_flushwq
      6 ?        00:00:00 netns
     10 ?        00:00:00 mm_percpu_wq
     11 ?        00:00:00 rcu_tasks_kthread
     12 ?        00:00:00 rcu_tasks_trace_kthread
     13 ?        00:00:00 ksoftirqd/0
     14 ?        00:00:24 rcu_preempt
     15 ?        00:00:00 migration/0
     16 ?        00:00:00 idle_inject/0
     18 ?        00:00:00 cpuhp/0
     19 ?        00:00:00 cpuhp/1
     20 ?        00:00:00 idle_inject/1
     21 ?        00:00:00 migration/1
     22 ?        00:00:00 ksoftirqd/1
     24 ?        00:00:00 kworker/1:0H-events_highpri
     25 ?        00:00:00 cpuhp/2
     26 ?        00:00:00 idle_inject/2
     27 ?        00:00:00 migration/2
     28 ?        00:00:00 ksoftirqd/2
     30 ?        00:00:00 kworker/2:0H-events_highpri
     31 ?        00:00:00 cpuhp/3
     32 ?        00:00:00 idle_inject/3
     33 ?        00:00:00 migration/3
     34 ?        00:00:00 ksoftirqd/3
     36 ?        00:00:00 kworker/3:0H-events_highpri
     37 ?        00:00:00 cpuhp/4
     38 ?        00:00:00 idle_inject/4
     39 ?        00:00:00 migration/4
     40 ?        00:00:00 ksoftirqd/4
     42 ?        00:00:00 kworker/4:0H-events_highpri
     43 ?        00:00:00 cpuhp/5
     44 ?        00:00:00 idle_inject/5
     45 ?        00:00:00 migration/5
     46 ?        00:00:00 ksoftirqd/5
     48 ?        00:00:00 kworker/5:0H-events_highpri
     49 ?        00:00:00 cpuhp/6
     50 ?        00:00:00 idle_inject/6
     51 ?        00:00:00 migration/6
     52 ?        00:00:00 ksoftirqd/6
     54 ?        00:00:00 kworker/6:0H-events_highpri
     55 ?        00:00:00 cpuhp/7
     56 ?        00:00:00 idle_inject/7
     57 ?        00:00:00 migration/7
     58 ?        00:00:00 ksoftirqd/7
     60 ?        00:00:00 kworker/7:0H-events_highpri
     61 ?        00:00:00 cpuhp/8
     62 ?        00:00:00 idle_inject/8
     63 ?        00:00:00 migration/8
     64 ?        00:00:00 ksoftirqd/8
     66 ?        00:00:00 kworker/8:0H-events_highpri
     67 ?        00:00:00 cpuhp/9
     68 ?        00:00:00 idle_inject/9
     69 ?        00:00:00 migration/9
     70 ?        00:00:00 ksoftirqd/9
     72 ?        00:00:00 kworker/9:0H-events_highpri
     73 ?        00:00:00 cpuhp/10
     74 ?        00:00:00 idle_inject/10
     75 ?        00:00:00 migration/10
     76 ?        00:00:00 ksoftirqd/10
     78 ?        00:00:00 kworker/10:0H-events_highpri
     79 ?        00:00:00 cpuhp/11
     80 ?        00:00:00 idle_inject/11
     81 ?        00:00:00 migration/11
     82 ?        00:00:00 ksoftirqd/11
     84 ?        00:00:00 kworker/11:0H-events_highpri
     85 ?        00:00:00 kdevtmpfs
     86 ?        00:00:00 inet_frag_wq
     88 ?        00:00:00 khungtaskd
     89 ?        00:00:00 oom_reaper
     90 ?        00:00:00 writeback
     91 ?        00:03:08 kcompactd0
     92 ?        00:00:00 ksmd
     93 ?        00:00:00 khugepaged
     94 ?        00:00:00 kintegrityd
     95 ?        00:00:00 kblockd
     96 ?        00:00:00 blkcg_punt_bio
     98 ?        00:00:00 tpm_dev_wq
     99 ?        00:00:00 ata_sff
    100 ?        00:00:00 md
    101 ?        00:00:00 edac-poller
    102 ?        00:00:00 devfreq_wq
    103 ?        00:00:00 watchdogd
    108 ?        00:00:00 irq/25-AMD-Vi
    110 ?        00:00:22 kswapd0
    111 ?        00:00:00 ecryptfs-kthread
    118 ?        00:00:00 kthrotld
    125 ?        00:00:00 acpi_thermal_pm
    126 ?        00:00:00 xenbus_probe
    128 ?        00:00:00 mld
    129 ?        00:00:00 ipv6_addrconf
    134 ?        00:00:00 kstrp
    140 ?        00:00:00 zswap1
    141 ?        00:00:00 zswap1
    142 ?        00:00:00 zswap-shrink
    195 ?        00:00:00 charger_manager
    207 ?        00:00:00 kworker/9:1H-kblockd
    211 ?        00:00:00 kworker/2:1H-kblockd
    212 ?        00:00:00 kworker/7:1H-kblockd
    217 ?        00:00:00 kworker/6:1H-kblockd
    222 ?        00:00:00 kworker/11:1H-kblockd
    223 ?        00:00:00 kworker/1:1H-kblockd
    226 ?        00:00:00 kworker/3:1H-kblockd
    227 ?        00:00:00 kworker/4:1H-kblockd
    229 ?        00:00:00 kworker/5:1H-kblockd
    230 ?        00:00:00 kworker/8:1H-kblockd
    237 ?        00:00:00 kworker/10:1H-kblockd
    246 ?        00:00:00 nvme-wq
    247 ?        00:00:00 nvme-reset-wq
    248 ?        00:00:00 nvme-delete-wq
    250 ?        00:00:00 scsi_eh_0
    251 ?        00:00:00 scsi_tmf_0
    253 ?        00:00:00 scsi_eh_1
    254 ?        00:00:00 scsi_tmf_1
    255 ?        00:00:00 scsi_eh_2
    256 ?        00:00:00 scsi_tmf_2
    257 ?        00:00:00 scsi_eh_3
    258 ?        00:00:00 scsi_tmf_3
    259 ?        00:00:00 scsi_eh_4
    260 ?        00:00:00 scsi_tmf_4
    261 ?        00:00:00 scsi_eh_5
    262 ?        00:00:00 scsi_tmf_5
    315 ?        00:00:00 btrfs-worker
    316 ?        00:00:00 btrfs-worker-hi
    317 ?        00:00:00 btrfs-delalloc
    318 ?        00:00:00 btrfs-flush_del
    319 ?        00:00:00 btrfs-cache
    320 ?        00:00:00 btrfs-fixup
    321 ?        00:00:00 btrfs-endio
    322 ?        00:00:00 btrfs-endio-met
    323 ?        00:00:00 btrfs-endio-rai
    324 ?        00:00:00 btrfs-rmw
    325 ?        00:00:00 btrfs-endio-wri
    326 ?        00:00:00 btrfs-compresse
    327 ?        00:00:00 btrfs-freespace
    328 ?        00:00:00 btrfs-delayed-m
    329 ?        00:00:00 btrfs-qgroup-re
    330 ?        00:00:00 btrfs-cleaner
    331 ?        00:00:16 btrfs-transaction
    372 ?        00:00:00 kmpathd
    373 ?        00:00:00 kmpath_handlerd
    387 ?        00:00:01 systemd-journal
    388 ?        00:00:00 systemd-udevd
    474 ?        00:00:00 cryptd
    485 ?        00:00:00 kworker/0:2H-kblockd
    510 ?        00:00:00 vfio-irqfd-clea
    530 ?        00:00:00 kworker/u65:1-hci0
    532 ?        00:00:00 amd_iommu_v2
    543 ?        00:00:00 systemd-timesyn
    557 ?        00:00:00 amdgpu-reset-de
    560 ?        00:00:00 bluetoothd
    561 ?        00:00:00 crond
    562 ?        00:00:13 dbus-daemon
    564 ?        00:00:03 polkitd
    565 ?        00:00:00 systemd-logind
    566 ?        00:00:00 systemd-machine
    587 ?        00:00:07 NetworkManager
    590 ?        00:00:00 ModemManager
    605 ?        00:00:00 cupsd
    627 ?        00:00:00 sddm
    643 ?        00:00:00 amdgpu_dm_hpd_r
    644 ?        00:00:00 amdgpu_dm_hpd_r
    645 ?        00:00:00 amdgpu_dm_hpd_r
    646 ?        00:00:00 dm_vblank_contr
    653 ?        00:00:00 bpfilter_umh
    675 ?        00:00:00 card0-crtc0
    676 ?        00:00:00 card0-crtc1
    677 ?        00:00:00 card0-crtc2
    678 ?        00:00:00 card0-crtc3
    679 ?        00:02:43 gfx
    680 ?        00:00:00 comp_1.0.0
    681 ?        00:00:00 comp_1.1.0
    682 ?        00:00:00 comp_1.2.0
    683 ?        00:00:00 comp_1.3.0
    684 ?        00:00:00 comp_1.0.1
    685 ?        00:00:00 comp_1.1.1
    686 ?        00:00:00 comp_1.2.1
    687 ?        00:00:00 comp_1.3.1
    688 ?        00:00:01 sdma0
    689 ?        00:00:00 vcn_dec
    690 ?        00:00:00 vcn_enc0
    691 ?        00:00:00 vcn_enc1
    692 ?        00:00:00 jpeg_dec
    741 ?        00:00:00 dnsmasq
    742 ?        00:00:00 dnsmasq
    760 tty1     00:32:49 Xorg
    820 ?        00:00:11 udisksd
    831 ?        00:00:06 upowerd
    846 ?        00:00:00 sddm-helper
    851 ?        00:00:00 systemd
    855 ?        00:00:00 (sd-pam)
    869 ?        00:00:03 kwalletd5
    871 ?        00:00:00 startplasma-x11
    883 ?        00:00:30 dbus-daemon
    914 ?        00:00:07 baloo_file
    918 ?        00:00:00 xdg-desktop-por
    922 ?        00:00:00 xdg-document-po
    926 ?        00:00:00 xdg-permission-
    933 ?        00:00:00 fusermount3
    942 ?        00:00:00 rtkit-daemon
    954 ?        00:00:16 ksmserver
    956 ?        00:00:12 kded5
    957 ?        00:20:11 kwin_x11
    993 ?        00:00:04 kglobalaccel5
   1000 ?        00:00:00 dconf-service
   1050 ?        00:00:15 kactivitymanage
   1052 ?        00:00:03 gmenudbusmenupr
   1053 ?        00:00:03 polkit-kde-auth
   1054 ?        00:00:06 org_kde_powerde
   1055 ?        00:00:03 xdg-desktop-por
   1056 ?        00:00:03 xembedsniproxy
   1087 ?        00:00:00 obexd
   1093 ?        00:00:03 kscreen_backend
   1104 ?        00:00:00 krfcommd
   1145 ?        00:00:00 pipewire
   1146 ?        00:00:00 pipewire-media-
   1173 ?        00:01:22 python3
   1185 ?        00:00:09 msm_kde_notifie
   1186 ?        00:00:08 kdeconnectd
   1187 ?        00:00:27 yakuake
   1195 ?        00:00:00 agent
   1197 ?        00:00:04 kaccess
   1199 ?        00:00:03 pamac-tray-plas
   1270 ?        00:00:00 gvfsd
   1283 ?        00:00:00 gvfsd-fuse
   1327 ?        00:07:48 pulseaudio
   1332 ?        00:05:04 jackdbus
   1334 ?        00:01:13 a2jmidid
   1357 ?        00:00:00 gsettings-helpe
   1426 ?        00:00:00 at-spi-bus-laun
   1432 ?        00:00:01 dbus-daemon
   1434 ?        00:00:03 at-spi2-registr
   1449 ?        00:00:00 pamac-daemon
   1510 ?        00:00:00 packagekitd
   1612 ?        00:00:00 gvfsd-metadata
   2393 ?        00:00:00 bash
   2475 ?        00:09:02 steam
   2550 ?        00:00:00 steam
   2551 ?        00:00:47 steamwebhelper
   2569 ?        00:00:00 steamwebhelper
   2570 ?        00:00:00 steamwebhelper
   2572 ?        00:00:00 steamwebhelper
   2585 ?        00:02:11 steamwebhelper
   2612 ?        00:00:05 steamwebhelper
   2841 ?        00:00:09 steamwebhelper
   2853 ?        00:05:45 steamwebhelper
   5245 ?        00:00:26 krunner
   5293 ?        00:00:03 baloorunner
  11083 ?        00:00:00 kworker/u65:0-btrfs-worker-high
  11467 ?        00:00:00 virtlogd
  11526 pts/1    00:00:02 zsh
  11532 pts/1    00:00:00 zsh
  11540 pts/1    00:00:00 zsh
  11541 pts/1    00:00:00 zsh
  11543 pts/1    00:00:00 gitstatusd
  36040 ?        00:00:00 gvfsd-http
  43477 ?        00:00:00 gvfs-udisks2-vo
  43482 ?        00:00:00 gvfsd-trash
  43500 ?        00:00:00 gvfsd-network
  43505 ?        00:00:00 gvfsd-dnssd
  44610 tty2     00:00:00 agetty
  46427 ?        00:00:04 dolphin
  63500 ?        00:00:00 kworker/0:1H-kblockd
  63629 ?        00:24:07 firefox
  63722 ?        00:00:00 Socket Process
  63747 ?        00:00:03 Privileged Cont
  63797 ?        00:00:59 WebExtensions
  63854 ?        00:00:18 plasma-browser-
  64226 ?        00:22:23 RDD Process
  64320 ?        00:00:37 Utility Process
  70768 ?        00:01:12 Isolated Web Co
  76969 ?        00:09:22 Isolated Web Co
  77275 ?        00:00:04 Isolated Web Co
  77535 ?        00:00:00 steamwebhelper
  79323 ?        00:00:00 accounts-daemon
  79825 ?        00:00:00 kworker/11:0-events
  80183 ?        00:00:04 kworker/u64:3-events_unbound
  81612 ?        00:03:57 plasmashell
  81629 ?        00:00:04 ksystemstats
  81728 ?        00:00:02 kio_http_cache_
  85756 ?        00:00:02 kworker/u64:1-btrfs-worker
  85907 ?        00:02:00 Isolated Web Co
  85973 ?        00:00:03 steamwebhelper
  86044 ?        00:00:00 kworker/4:1-rcu_par_gp
  86394 ?        00:00:00 reaper
  86395 ?        00:00:00 gamemoded
  86403 ?        00:00:00 pv-bwrap
  86502 ?        00:00:00 pressure-vessel
  86503 ?        00:00:00 kworker/0:0-events
  86536 ?        00:00:00 python3
  86540 ?        00:00:00 steam.exe
  86542 ?        00:02:03 wineserver
  86546 ?        00:00:00 services.exe
  86549 ?        00:00:01 winedevice.exe
  86558 ?        00:00:09 winedevice.exe
  86571 ?        00:00:00 plugplay.exe
  86577 ?        00:00:00 svchost.exe
  86584 ?        00:00:06 explorer.exe
  86591 ?        00:00:00 rpcss.exe
  86601 ?        00:00:00 tabtip.exe
  86680 ?        00:37:56 Gw2-64.exe
  86723 ?        00:01:12 CoherentUI_Host
  86750 ?        00:03:24 CoherentUI_Host
  86762 ?        00:04:45 CoherentUI_Host
  86810 ?        00:00:01 kworker/u64:11-btrfs-endio-write
  86938 ?        00:00:00 kworker/1:0-inet_frag_wq
  86946 ?        00:00:00 kworker/9:2-events
  86994 ?        00:00:01 kworker/u64:13-events_power_efficient
  87212 ?        00:00:00 kworker/u64:14-flush-btrfs-1
  87213 ?        00:00:01 kworker/u64:15-btrfs-worker
  87345 ?        00:00:01 Isolated Web Co
  87617 ?        00:00:00 kworker/8:2-mm_percpu_wq
  87674 ?        00:02:34 Isolated Web Co
  87790 ?        00:00:00 kworker/10:1-rcu_par_gp
  87791 ?        00:00:00 kworker/11:2-rcu_par_gp
  87792 ?        00:00:00 kworker/2:2-events
  87794 ?        00:00:00 kworker/5:0-events
  88228 ?        00:00:00 kworker/6:0-rcu_par_gp
  88232 ?        00:00:00 kworker/3:0-mm_percpu_wq
  88250 ?        00:00:00 kworker/u64:17-events_unbound
  88280 ?        00:00:00 kworker/1:2-events
  88912 ?        00:00:08 Isolated Web Co
  88968 ?        00:00:02 Isolated Web Co
  88991 ?        00:00:00 kworker/6:2-events
  88992 ?        00:00:00 kworker/7:2-events
  89036 ?        00:00:00 Isolated Web Co
  89073 ?        00:00:00 kworker/7:3-events
  89074 ?        00:00:00 kworker/5:2-events
  89075 ?        00:00:00 kworker/9:1-events
  89097 ?        00:00:02 Isolated Web Co
  89184 ?        00:00:00 kworker/u64:0-events_freezable_power_
  89244 ?        00:00:00 kworker/8:1-inet_frag_wq
  89245 ?        00:00:00 kworker/2:0-rcu_par_gp
  89252 ?        00:00:00 kworker/3:2-mm_percpu_wq
  89310 ?        00:00:43 Isolated Web Co
  89347 ?        00:00:00 kworker/u64:2-btrfs-endio-write
  89348 ?        00:00:00 kworker/0:2-events
  89349 ?        00:00:00 kworker/10:2-rcu_gp
  89463 ?        00:00:00 kworker/4:0-rcu_par_gp
  89551 ?        00:00:00 kworker/9:0-mm_percpu_wq
  89552 ?        00:00:00 kworker/8:0-rcu_par_gp
  89595 ?        00:00:00 Isolated Servic
  89623 ?        00:00:00 kworker/4:2-mm_percpu_wq
  89624 ?        00:00:00 kworker/2:1-events_freezable
  89688 ?        00:00:00 kworker/0:1-events
  89695 ?        00:00:00 kworker/1:1-mm_percpu_wq
  89727 ?        00:00:00 kworker/u64:4
  89730 ?        00:00:00 kioslave5
  89796 ?        00:00:00 Web Content
  89835 ?        00:00:00 Web Content
  89859 ?        00:00:00 kworker/5:1-mm_percpu_wq
  89874 ?        00:00:00 Web Content
  89896 ?        00:00:00 kworker/7:0
  89897 ?        00:00:00 kworker/11:1-mm_percpu_wq
  89899 ?        00:00:00 kworker/10:0-events
  89916 pts/1    00:00:00 ps

And my inxi -Fza output:

System:
  Kernel: 6.1.4-x64v1-xanmod1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc
    v: 12.2.0 parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/@/boot/vmlinuz-manjaro-xanmod
    root=UUID=27a6f9c0-8b45-42c5-85e1-be095307048f rw rootflags=subvol=@
    amdgpu.gpu_recovery=1 audit=0
    resume=UUID=b58bc35c-1a93-4c4c-a1ec-5eefe535dea6 udev.log_priority=3
    amd_iommu=on vfio-pci.ids=1002:6658,1002:aac0
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.26.4 tk: Qt v: 5.15.7 wm: kwin_x11 vt: 1 dm: SDDM
    Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: ASRock model: B550M Pro4 serial: <superuser required>
    UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: P2.30 date: 02/24/2022
CPU:
  Info: model: AMD Ryzen 5 5600G with Radeon Graphics bits: 64 type: MT MCP
    arch: Zen 3 gen: 4 level: v3 note: check built: 2021-22
    process: TSMC n7 (7nm) family: 0x19 (25) model-id: 0x50 (80) stepping: 0
    microcode: 0xA50000C
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 6 tpc: 2 threads: 12 smt: enabled cache:
    L1: 384 KiB desc: d-6x32 KiB; i-6x32 KiB L2: 3 MiB desc: 6x512 KiB
    L3: 16 MiB desc: 1x16 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 3746 high: 3900 min/max: 1400/4464 boost: enabled
    scaling: driver: acpi-cpufreq governor: performance cores: 1: 3900 2: 3900
    3: 3900 4: 2961 5: 3900 6: 2991 7: 3900 8: 3900 9: 3900 10: 3900 11: 3900
    12: 3900 bogomips: 93434
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via
    prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer
    sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW,
    STIBP: always-on, RSB filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Bonaire XTX [Radeon R7 260X/360] vendor: PC Partner / Sapphire
    driver: vfio-pci v: N/A alternate: radeon,amdgpu arch: GCN-2
    code: Sea Islands process: GF/TSMC 16-28nm built: 2013-17 pcie: gen: 3
    speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:6658 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: AMD Cezanne [Radeon Vega Series / Radeon Mobile Series]
    driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: GCN-5.1 code: Vega-2 process: TSMC n7 (7nm)
    built: 2018-21 pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 link-max: gen: 4
    speed: 16 GT/s ports: active: DP-1,HDMI-A-1 empty: DP-2 bus-ID: 06:00.0
    chip-ID: 1002:1638 class-ID: 0300 temp: 43.0 C
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.6 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.7
    compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X: loaded: amdgpu unloaded: modesetting,radeon
    alternate: fbdev,vesa dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 5120x1440 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 1354x381mm (53.31x15.00")
    s-diag: 1407mm (55.38")
  Monitor-1: DP-1 mapped: DisplayPort-0 pos: primary,left
    model: AOC Q3279WG5B serial: <filter> built: 2020 res: 2560x1440 dpi: 90
    gamma: 1.2 size: 725x428mm (28.54x16.85") diag: 842mm (33.1") ratio: 15:9
    modes: max: 2560x1440 min: 720x400
  Monitor-2: HDMI-A-1 mapped: HDMI-A-0 pos: right model: AOC Q3279WG5B
    serial: <filter> built: 2020 res: 2560x1440 dpi: 90 gamma: 1.2
    size: 725x428mm (28.54x16.85") diag: 842mm (33.1") ratio: 15:9 modes:
    max: 2560x1440 min: 720x400
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 22.3.1 renderer: AMD Radeon Graphics (renoir LLVM
    14.0.6 DRM 3.49 6.1.4-x64v1-xanmod1-MANJARO) direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Tobago HDMI Audio [Radeon R7 360 / R9 OEM]
    vendor: PC Partner / Sapphire driver: vfio-pci alternate: snd_hda_intel
    bus-ID: 3-2.2:4 chip-ID: 1235:8200 pcie: class-ID: 0103 speed: Unknown
    lanes: 63 link-max: gen: 6 speed: 64 GT/s bus-ID: 01:00.1
    chip-ID: 1002:aac0 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: AMD Renoir Radeon High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 link-max: gen: 4
    speed: 16 GT/s bus-ID: 06:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:1637 class-ID: 0403
  Device-3: AMD Family 17h/19h HD Audio vendor: ASRock driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 link-max: gen: 4
    speed: 16 GT/s bus-ID: 06:00.6 chip-ID: 1022:15e3 class-ID: 0403
  Device-4: Focusrite-Novation Scarlett 2i4 USB type: USB
    driver: snd-usb-audio
  Sound API: ALSA v: k6.1.4-x64v1-xanmod1-MANJARO running: yes
  Sound Interface: sndio v: N/A running: no
  Sound Server-1: JACK v: 1.9.21 running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 16.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.63 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: ASRock driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1
    port: e000 bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp4s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: virbr0 state: down mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Cambridge Silicon Radio Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode) type: USB
    driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 3-2.1:3 chip-ID: 0a12:0001 class-ID: e001
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: see --recommends
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 698.65 GiB used: 252.25 GiB (36.1%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Kingston model: SNV2S500G
    size: 465.76 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 63.2 Gb/s
    lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: SBI02102 temp: 35.9 C scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 860 EVO 250GB
    size: 232.89 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s
    type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 1B6Q scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 448.97 GiB size: 448.97 GiB (100.00%)
    used: 250.41 GiB (55.8%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%)
    used: 608 KiB (0.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1
  ID-3: /home raw-size: 448.97 GiB size: 448.97 GiB (100.00%)
    used: 250.41 GiB (55.8%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
  ID-4: /var/log raw-size: 448.97 GiB size: 448.97 GiB (100.00%)
    used: 250.41 GiB (55.8%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 30 (default 60) cache-pressure: 50 (default 100)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 16.5 GiB used: 1.84 GiB (11.2%)
    priority: -2 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3 maj-min: 259:3
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 41.0 C mobo: 36.0 C gpu: amdgpu temp: 44.0 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): fan-1: 0 fan-2: 1413 fan-3: 0 fan-4: 0 fan-5: 0 fan-6: 0
    fan-7: 0
Info:
  Processes: 356 Uptime: 1d 4h 0m wakeups: 2 Memory: 15.01 GiB
  used: 7.86 GiB (52.3%) Init: systemd v: 252 default: graphical
  tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 clang: 14.0.6 Packages: pm: pacman
  pkgs: 1767 libs: 490 tools: pamac pm: flatpak pkgs: 0 Shell: Zsh v: 5.9
  default: Bash v: 5.1.16 running-in: yakuake inxi: 3.3.24

If the high memory usage is normal, then, ok, but it doesn’t seem to be available to the system. And i’m not sure what’s using 6 giabytes of it. Especially since, the system does feel like it’s lagging a bit with such high usage. Which wasn’t happening before.

Now, i ordered another 16 GB memory stick to have more memory available when i’m using my virtual machine, but i don’t want Manjaro to eat that up as well. I mean, even typing this feels laggy, text lags behind typing and typing free -h again in the terminal tells me i have 300 Mi free memory…

Which leas me to believe something’s not right but i don’t know how to troubleshoot it.
Like, can i check somehow it htop or top? I don’t know how to navigate those programs though…

2

Nope. :stuck_out_tongue:

Always remember, unused RAM is wasted RAM. :wink: Besides, that memory will be freed again if needed by something else. :slight_smile:

3

I have the memory and no swap with no problems. So turn off all your programs and see what you have. Then turn them on one at a time and see what changes. It’s simple diagnostics, do one thing and see the results.

4

So what does buff/cache do exactly? I remember hearing something like that way back, so i know linux uses memory differently. But when i had 500 or 300 Mb free, the whole system lagged. So it’s either not freeing the memory, or not sure what…

Yeah i’ve put Swap in case i ever needed the system to hybernate. Next time i install, i’ll do it swapless, i can se it’s not used much…

Well, Firefox seems to be one culprit…

Before firefox:

               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:            15Gi       3,3Gi       3,4Gi       591Mi       8,2Gi        10Gi
Swap:           16Gi       1,1Gi        15Gi
    ~/looking-glass  free -h

Firefox and 9 tabs open:

               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:            15Gi       5,2Gi       1,4Gi       669Mi       8,4Gi       8,8Gi
Swap:           16Gi       1,1Gi        15Gi

Browsing has gotten really memory intensive lately it seems.

  PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU  %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND                                                                                                                                                                                                              
  92724 veprovi+  20   0   12,4g 575968 257688 S   2,0   3,7   1:24.05 firefox                                                                                                                                                                                                              
  93051 veprovi+  20   0 3251560 548476 136528 S   0,0   3,5   0:39.35 Isolated Web Co                                                                                                                                                                                                      
  93160 veprovi+  20   0 3124408 447668 141404 S   0,0   2,8   0:26.80 Isolated Web Co                                                                                                                                                                                                      
  91603 veprovi+  20   0 3840912 428176 170280 S   2,0   2,7   2:09.69 plasmashell                                                                                                                                                                                                          
  92897 veprovi+  20   0 2846268 285676  97208 S   0,0   1,8   0:05.17 WebExtensions                                                                                                                                                                                                        
   2853 veprovi+  20   0 5097852 276448 124264 S   0,0   1,8   5:49.53 steamwebhelper                                                                                                                                                                                                       
  93054 veprovi+  20   0 2934892 264124 123060 S   0,0   1,7   0:04.82 Isolated Web Co                                                                                                                                                                                                      
  93432 veprovi+  20   0 2695640 253224 114632 S   0,3   1,6   0:12.24 Isolated Web Co                                                                                                                                                                                                      
  94033 veprovi+  20   0 2672068 243384 121996 S   0,7   1,5   0:29.79 Isolated Web Co                                                                                                                                                                                                      
   2585 veprovi+  20   0  852172 195164 139300 S   0,0   1,2   2:14.11 steamwebhelper                                                                                                                                                                                                       
  93167 veprovi+  20   0 2550720 177000 115960 S   0,0   1,1   0:01.14 Isolated Web Co                                                                                                                                                                                                      
  94844 veprovi+  20   0 2543408 172152 108348 S   0,0   1,1   0:00.92 Isolated Web Co                                                                                                                                                                                                      
  93011 veprovi+  20   0 2543420 155880 104140 S   0,0   1,0   0:00.67 Isolated Web Co                                                                                                                                                                                                      
   2551 veprovi+  20   0  788304 155020 136164 S   0,0   1,0   0:51.27 steamwebhelper                                                                                                                                                                                                       
  92960 veprovi+  20   0 2527636 150372 106532 S   0,0   1,0   0:02.02 Isolated Web Co                                                                                                                                                                                                      
   2475 veprovi+  10 -10 1273976 149132 108544 S   0,3   0,9  10:10.94 steam                                                                                                                                                                                                                
  94929 veprovi+  20   0 2512220 143760 104488 S   0,0   0,9   0:00.49 Isolated Web Co                                                                                                                                                                                                      
  93736 veprovi+  20   0 2524392 134916  94880 S   0,0   0,9   0:00.44 Isolated Web Co                                                                                                                                                                                                      
  93342 veprovi+  20   0 2520296 132520  94796 S   0,0   0,8   0:00.45 Isolated Web Co                                                                                                                                                                                                      
  93846 veprovi+  20   0 2534936 130008 103980 S   0,3   0,8   0:00.73 Isolated Web Co                                                                                                                                                                                                      
  92843 veprovi+  20   0 2498564 128716 101212 S   0,3   0,8   0:00.48 Privileged Cont                                                                                                                                                                                                      
  90625 veprovi+  20   0 4661276 126444  86252 S   0,0   0,8   0:02.38 steamwebhelper                                                                                                                                                                                                       
   1327 veprovi+   9 -11 3413624 124624 120216 S   0,3   0,8   8:28.31 pulseaudio                                                                                                                                                                                                           
    957 veprovi+  20   0 2692500 117872  76352 S   2,0   0,7  22:10.57 kwin_x11                                                                                                                                                                                                             
  93899 veprovi+  20   0 2490892 115988  94060 S   0,0   0,7   0:00.28 Isolated Web Co                                                                                                                                                                                                      
  93289 veprovi+  20   0  565352 115360 103192 S   0,0   0,7   0:00.62 RDD Process                                                                                                                                                                                                          
  93654 veprovi+  20   0 2489604 113904  93084 S   0,3   0,7   0:00.28 Isolated Web Co                                                                                                                                                                                                      
  93596 veprovi+  20   0 2484504 113132  93164 S   0,0   0,7   0:00.29 Isolated Web Co                                                                                                                                                                                                      
   5245 veprovi+  20   0 4359400 112732  76284 S   0,3   0,7   0:30.55 krunner                                                                                                                                                                                                              
  93513 veprovi+  20   0 2482436 110744  91944 S   0,0   0,7   0:00.24 Isolated Web Co

What’s “Isolated Web co”? there’s tons of it and they’re the most hoggers of memory…
Time to search for another browser - i think this is Firefox’ doing…

5

part of your Ram is for VIDEO RAM - APU ( cpu 5600G )

1 Like
6

Isolated Web Co are separate firefox related processes.

1 Like
7

Oh my god, you’re right! I completely forgot about that!
That makes sense, the OS is using it for displaying the image! :smiley:
And with everything else loaded into memory, and Firefox being a hog, no wonder it runs out.

Thanks! I think that’s it! I just need another memory stick. It should be better then.
It’s 1 stick of 16 GB DDR4, so it’s not even running in dual channel, i planned on getting another one anyway. And it’ll be handy for running that VM. Looking glass and the VM take a lot of it, it’ll be more stable then.

Indeed! I installed Brave browser - so far, it’s faster and uses less ram. It too has it’s own i assume equivalent to that Web Co process, but with the same amount of tabs open, there’s way less processes of Brave in memory so i’m happy with that.

Thank you everyone! Since nothing’s out of the ordinary then, i’ll mark this as solved! :smiley:

8

Buffering and caching. :stuck_out_tongue:

Buffers are data in memory that still needs to be written to disk. Cache is data that is read and kept into memory so that it wouldn’t need to be read from disk.

Reading from and writing to RAM is faster than reading from or writing to disk, plus that all disk I/O is a high-priority process that locks up the kernel until the data transfer is complete. Therefore, caching and buffering is more efficient, given that it does the I/O in the background, when the processor is idle.

They are isolated containers in memory, each container holding the contents of each individual tab you have open in your browser. It uses up a lot of memory, but it’s more crash-proof.

No, the video memory buffer is not included in the output of free, because the video memory buffer is reserved by the BIOS or UEFI firmware and is not available to any other process.

On a system with an onboard graphics processor, the amount of reserved video RAM is already deducted from the amount of installed memory. As an example, this is from my own system… :arrow_down:

[nx-74205:/dev/pts/3][/home/aragorn]
[aragorn] >  free -m
               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           15881        2769        8187        1441        4924       11337
Swap:              0           0           0

[nx-74205:/dev/pts/3][/home/aragorn]
[aragorn] >

As you can see, it says that I have 15’881 MiB of RAM, which is 15.5 GiB, but my system has 16 GiB of RAM. In other words, about 0.5 GiB of RAM worth of video memory is already deducted from the total amount of available RAM, and this amount is therefore not included in the number for the buffers and cache.

1 Like
9

Oh, i think you just answered my question in another thread! :smiley:

The free program sees 27Gi, so i’m assuming since bios is seeing 32GB and free only 27, that the missing 5 is the video memory? I mean, it used to have the same as yours 15Gi out of 16, but now, it suddenly took 5 GB? I mean, if it’s being used for video memory, i’m ok with that cause i’ll be using it, looking glass uses a bunch to display the VM stream and i play games, so if that’s dedicated 5Gi used for video memory, that’s ok with me.

I worried it might be corrupted or faulty RAM.

Ah, i see, thank you for explaining! It’s good then that it’s using the memory efficiently. :slight_smile:

Yes, brave has something similar although, Brave’s processes take up less RAM by a bit, and the browser seems faster so, i’ll use Brave for now.

1 Like
10

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