What is the current (2025) minimum RAM for Manjaro GNOME desktop on x64?

Support
1

I searched the downloads page and the wiki, but did not see any information on the minimum RAM to run Manjaro GNOME desktop on x64. A full inxi is below, but the short story is that I have 8 GB of soldered RAM.

The problem I have is that when running my base of applications (terminal; nautilus; evolution) and any full function browser (s/a Vivaldi; Chromium; Firefox; Brave; Edge), the browser inevitably crashes (or, more specifically, the GNOME desktop kills it because it used too much memory).

I’ll note that after a reboot, for a few hours, the RAM usage (as reported in real time by system-monitor-next) stays at or below 60 percent. But as I continue to use the computer, it increases to 95-99% and eventually crashes. I can never use both a browser and a word processing program at the same time.

I’ve tried for several months now to configure Manjaro on my laptop so that it will not run out of memory. My first attempt was just a clean install of Manjaro, then adding my desired apps. Then I tried a swap partition, swap disk, and zram. Nothing worked.

At this point, I have no option but to switch desktop environments (at a minimum), but probably to a new distro (as I actually really like GNOME). I have found that GNOME-like variants do not have the same RAM issue (e.g., Solus and Budgie).

Anyway, all that is to say: is there a minimum RAM requirement for Manjaro GNOME? And is it > 8 GB?

inxi -Fazy

System:
  Kernel: 6.12.39-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 15.1.1
    clocksource: tsc avail: hpet,acpi_pm
    parameters: root=splash
    i915.nomodeset=0 udev.log_priority=3 initrd=\initramfs-6.12-x86_64.img
  Desktop: GNOME v: 48.3 tk: GTK v: 3.24.49 wm: gnome-shell
    tools: gsd-screensaver-proxy dm: GDM v: 48.0 Distro: Manjaro base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Convertible System: LENOVO product: 80VF v: Lenovo YOGA 910-13IKB
    serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 31 v: Lenovo YOGA 910-13IKB
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: LENOVO model: Agera v: SDK0J40709 WIN serial: <superuser required>
    part-nu: LENOVO_MT_80VF_BU_idea_FM_ uuid: <superuser required> UEFI: LENOVO
    v: 2JCN39WW date: 05/31/2017
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT1 charge: 54.5 Wh (90.4%) condition: 60.3/78.0 Wh (77.3%)
    power: 8.1 W volts: 8.1 min: 7.7 model: Simplo BASE-BAT type: Li-poly
    serial: <filter> status: discharging
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Core i7-7500U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Amber/Kaby Lake
    note: check gen: core 7 level: v3 note: check built: 2017 process: Intel 14nm
    family: 6 model-id: 0x8E (142) stepping: 9 microcode: 0x5E
  Topology: cpus: 1x dies: 1 clusters: 2 cores: 2 threads: 4 tpc: 2
    smt: enabled cache: L1: 128 KiB desc: d-2x32 KiB; i-2x32 KiB L2: 512 KiB
    desc: 2x256 KiB L3: 4 MiB desc: 1x4 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 706 min/max: 400/3500 scaling: driver: intel_pstate
    governor: powersave cores: 1: 706 2: 706 3: 706 4: 706 bogomips: 23209
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 620 vendor: Lenovo driver: i915 v: kernel
    arch: Gen-9.5 process: Intel 14nm built: 2016-20 ports: active: eDP-1
    empty: DP-1,DP-2 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:5916 class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.18 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.8
    compositor: gnome-shell driver: X: loaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,vesa
    dri: iris gpu: i915 display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3072x1728 s-dpi: 120 s-size: 650x366mm (25.59x14.41")
    s-diag: 746mm (29.37")
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: AU Optronics 0x323d built: 2015 res:
    mode: 1920x1080 hz: 60 scale: 62% (1.6) to: 3072x1728 dpi: 158 gamma: 1.2
    size: 309x173mm (12.17x6.81") diag: 354mm (13.9") ratio: 16:9
    modes: 1920x1080
  API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: intel iris platforms: device: 0 drv: iris
    device: 1 drv: swrast gbm: drv: iris surfaceless: drv: iris x11: drv: iris
    inactive: wayland
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: intel mesa v: 25.1.6-arch1.1
    glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 620 (KBL GT2)
    device-ID: 8086:5916 memory: 7.33 GiB unified: yes
  Info: Tools: api: eglinfo,glxinfo x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio vendor: Lenovo
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel alternate: snd_soc_avs bus-ID: 00:1f.3
    chip-ID: 8086:9d71 class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.12.39-1-MANJARO status: kernel-api
    tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: JACK v: 1.9.22 status: off tools: N/A
  Server-2: PipeWire v: 1.4.6 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
    status: active 2: wireplumber status: active tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
    vendor: Lenovo driver: ath10k_pci v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s
    lanes: 1 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 168c:003e class-ID: 0280 temp: 58.0 C
  IF: wlp1s0 state: up mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: docker0 state: down mac: <filter>
  Info: services: NetworkManager, smbd, systemd-timesyncd, wpa_supplicant
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros QCA61x4 Bluetooth 4.0 driver: btusb v: 0.8
    type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 bus-ID: 1-8:3
    chip-ID: 0cf3:e300 class-ID: e001
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 2 state: up address: see --recommends
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 238.47 GiB used: 59.71 GiB (25.0%)
  SMART Message: Required tool smartctl not installed. Check --recommends
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Samsung model: MZVLW256HEHP-000L2
    size: 238.47 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s
    lanes: 4 tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: 1L1QCXB7 temp: 37.9 C
    scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 93.13 GiB size: 89.99 GiB (96.63%) used: 59.18 GiB (65.8%)
    fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-0 maj-min: 254:0
    mapped: luks-26569376-685f-4136-bd00-05ec10a05fa5
  ID-2: /boot raw-size: 477 MiB size: 476 MiB (99.80%) used: 304 MiB (63.9%)
    fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p5 maj-min: 259:5
  ID-3: /boot/efi raw-size: 260 MiB size: 256 MiB (98.46%)
    used: 241.2 MiB (94.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1
Swap:
  Alert: No swap data was found.
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 52.0 C pch: 44.5 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Info:
  Memory: total: 8 GiB note: est. available: 7.5 GiB used: 4.82 GiB (64.3%)
  Processes: 273 Power: uptime: 21m states: freeze,mem,disk suspend: deep
    avail: s2idle wakeups: 0 hibernate: platform avail: shutdown, reboot,
    suspend, test_resume image: 2.98 GiB services: gsd-power,
    power-profiles-daemon, upowerd Init: systemd v: 257 default: graphical
    tool: systemctl
  Packages: pm: pacman pkgs: 1398 libs: 345 tools: gnome-software,pamac
    Compilers: gcc: 15.1.1 Shell: Zsh v: 5.9 running-in: gnome-terminal
    inxi: 3.3.38
2

Right here in the wiki: About Manjaro - Manjaro

2 Likes
3

My machine has got 8 GB of RAM
and I run Manjaro VM’s on half of that or less
(you can assign the amount of RAM that will be available to a VM)

They all work happily with 4 GB and with 2 GB as well.

4

8 gig is not much, but enough as you noticed youself (that on fresh boot 60% is free).
That some browser leaks memory after some time is another matter. Just close it and reopen it sometimes. Like once a day.

2 Likes
5

In theory — with emphasis — 2 GiB should already do, but in practice, that will be unworkable for any modern 64-bit distribution. A minimum of 4 GiB is recommended. 8 GiB will do perfectly, but… :point_down:

You will need a swap device of at least as much capacity as your RAM, and if you plan on using suspend-to-disk (i.e. hibernation) then you should have a swap device twice the size of your RAM.

The Linux kernel can use both dedicated swap partitions — which do not have a filesystem on them, and this is the preferred way UNIX systems do it — or a swap file.

In the event of the latter, given that Manjaro now uses btrfs as the default filesystem — note: “default” does not mean that you cannot choose another type of filesystem — the swap file will have to be set up with specific properties, so that the kernel can access the raw drive blocks. The file may not support compression or copy-on-write, both of which are typical for btrfs filesystems.

You will find more information about this at the pertinent page at the Arch Wiki.

3 Likes
6

Thanks. I do try to close the browser (plural, when I am trying alternative browsers) throughout the day. But they never “give back” the full amount. So, over time, even after quitting the browser, I am hovering around 80-90% RAM usage.

7

Most of that will be cache memory, which is not permanently kept in RAM. When more RAM is needed, the kernel will drop some of its cache.

1 Like
8

When you say multiple VMs, I assume you are talking about Virtual Machines – not bare metal. That is a little different scenario, as I am running Manjaro GNOME directly on a physical machine. I am not sure if the difference directly bears on the issue. But my machine definitely is not happy with the 8 GB of RAM.

9

That’s because you don’t have a swap device.

2 Likes
10

Thanks @Aragorn . I have tried a swap device, using several approaches. It did not improve the situation. I just set it up again now (I created a 13.2 GB swap partition, as you suggest and indicate is the preferred UNIX way) so that I can be live with this thread.

1 Like
11

This is my machine.
A Notebook.
I have it since ~2015.
It was far from being new or cutting edge even then.
Never had a problem.
Make of that what you will.

Sony Vajo SVE14

inxi -zv8

System:
  Kernel: 6.8.0-64-generic arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.3.0
    clocksource: tsc avail: hpet,acpi_pm
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-6.8.0-64-generic
    root=/dev/mapper/vgmint-root ro quiet splash mitigations=off nowatchdog
    audit=0
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.18.1 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.41 wm: xfwm4 v: 4.18.0
    with: xfce4-panel tools: light-locker vt: 7 dm: LightDM v: 1.30.0
    Distro: Linux Mint 22.1 Xia base: Ubuntu 24.04 noble
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Sony product: SVE14A2M6EB v: C60BCWQA
    serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Sony model: VAIO serial: <superuser required> part-nu: 54512066
    uuid: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends v: R0202V5
    date: 03/14/2013
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 26.2 Wh (100.0%) condition: 26.2/62.6 Wh (41.9%)
    volts: 12.3 min: 10.8 model: Sony Corp. type: Li-ion serial: N/A
    status: full
Memory:
  System RAM: total: 8 GiB available: 7.63 GiB used: 3.22 GiB (42.2%)
  Message: For most reliable report, use superuser + dmidecode.
  Array-1: capacity: N/A slots: 2 modules: 2 EC: None max-module-size: N/A
  Device-1: SODIMM1 type: DDR3 detail: N/A size: 4 GiB speed: N/A volts: N/A
    width (bits): data: 64 total: 64 manufacturer: N/A part-no: N/A serial: N/A
  Device-2: SODIMM2 type: DDR3 detail: N/A size: 4 GiB speed: N/A volts: N/A
    width (bits): data: 64 total: 64 manufacturer: N/A part-no: N/A serial: N/A
PCI Slots:
  Permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required.
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Core i3-3110M bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Ivy Bridge
    gen: core 3 level: v2 built: 2012-15 process: Intel 22nm family: 6
    model-id: 0x3A (58) stepping: 9 microcode: 0x21
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 2 tpc: 2 threads: 4 smt: enabled cache:
    L1: 128 KiB desc: d-2x32 KiB; i-2x32 KiB L2: 512 KiB desc: 2x256 KiB
    L3: 3 MiB desc: 1x3 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1647 high: 2095 min/max: 1200/2400 scaling:
    driver: intel_cpufreq governor: schedutil cores: 1: 1200 2: 2095 3: 2095
    4: 1200 bogomips: 19157
  Flags: acpi aperfmperf apic arat arch_perfmon avx bts clflush cmov
    constant_tsc cpuid cpuid_fault cx16 cx8 de ds_cpl dtes64 dtherm dts epb
    ept erms est f16c flexpriority flush_l1d fpu fsgsbase fxsr ht ibpb ibrs
    lahf_lm lm mca mce md_clear mmx monitor msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl nx pae
    pat pbe pcid pclmulqdq pdcm pebs pge pln pni popcnt pse pse36 pts rdtscp
    rep_good sep smep ss ssbd sse sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 stibp syscall tm
    tm2 tpr_shadow tsc tsc_deadline_timer vme vmx vnmi vpid x2apic xsave
    xsaveopt xtopology xtpr
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled
  Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: vulnerable
  Type: mds status: Vulnerable; SMT vulnerable
  Type: meltdown status: Vulnerable
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Unknown: No mitigations
  Type: reg_file_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass status: Vulnerable
  Type: spectre_v1 status: Vulnerable: __user pointer sanitization and
    usercopy barriers only; no swapgs barriers
  Type: spectre_v2 status: Vulnerable; IBPB: disabled; STIBP: disabled;
    PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected; BHI: Not affected
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics vendor: Sony driver: i915
    v: kernel arch: Gen-7 process: Intel 22nm built: 2012-13 ports:
    active: VGA-1 off: LVDS-1 empty: DP-1,HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 00:02.0
    chip-ID: 8086:0166 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Foxconn / Hon Hai USB2.0 Camera driver: uvcvideo type: USB
    rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 1-1.3:3
    chip-ID: 0489:d600 class-ID: 0e02
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.11 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.6
    compositor: xfwm4 v: 4.18.0 driver: X: loaded: modesetting
    unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: crocus gpu: i915 display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1440x900 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 381x238mm (15.00x9.37")
    s-diag: 449mm (17.69")
  Monitor-1: LVDS-1 note: disabled model: LG Display 0x033f built: 2011
    res: N/A dpi: 112 gamma: 1.2 chroma: red: x: 0.584 y: 0.345 green: x: 0.341
    y: 0.561 blue: x: 0.161 y: 0.125 white: x: 0.314 y: 0.329
    size: 309x174mm (12.17x6.85") diag: 355mm (14") ratio: 16:9
    modes: 1366x768
  Monitor-2: VGA-1 pos: primary model: HannSpree/HannStar HW191D
    serial: <filter> built: 2008 res: 1440x900 hz: 60 dpi: 90 gamma: 1.2 chroma:
    red: x: 0.643 y: 0.325 green: x: 0.294 y: 0.616 blue: x: 0.141 y: 0.078
    white: x: 0.310 y: 0.329 size: 408x255mm (16.06x10.04")
    diag: 481mm (18.9") ratio: 16:10 modes: 1440x900, 1280x1024, 1280x960,
    1152x864, 1024x768, 832x624, 800x600, 640x480, 720x400
  API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: intel crocus platforms: device: 0 drv: crocus
    device: 1 drv: swrast gbm: drv: crocus surfaceless: drv: crocus x11:
    drv: crocus inactive: wayland
  API: OpenGL v: 4.5 compat-v: 4.2 vendor: intel mesa
    v: 24.2.8-1ubuntu1~24.04.1 glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: Mesa
    Intel HD Graphics 4000 (IVB GT2) device-ID: 8086:0166 memory: 1.46 GiB
    unified: yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 7 Series/C216 Family High Definition Audio vendor: Sony 7
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:1e20
    class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.8.0-64-generic status: kernel-api
    tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.5 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
    status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2230 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel pcie:
    gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:0887
    class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp1s0 state: up mac: <filter>
  IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
    broadcast: <filter>
  IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: global
  IP v6: <filter> type: temporary dynamic scope: global
  IP v6: <filter> type: mngtmpaddr noprefixroute scope: global
  IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: Sony RTL8111/8168/8411 driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: gen: 1
    speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: e000 bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168
    class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp3s0 state: down mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: virbr0 state: down mac: <filter>
  IP v4: <filter> scope: global broadcast: <filter>
  Info: services: NetworkManager, systemd-timesyncd, wpa_supplicant
  WAN IP: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel Centrino Bluetooth Wireless Transceiver driver: btusb v: 0.8
    type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 bus-ID: 1-1.6:4
    chip-ID: 8087:07da class-ID: e001
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 2 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 4.0
    lmp-v: 6 sub-v: fc00 hci-v: 6 rev: 1ebd class-ID: 7c010c
  Info: acl-mtu: 310:10 sco-mtu: 64:8 link-policy: rswitch hold sniff park
    link-mode: peripheral accept service-classes: rendering, capturing, object
    transfer, audio, telephony
Logical:
  Message: Unable to run lvs. Root privileges required.
  Device-1: sda3_crypt maj-min: 252:0 type: LUKS dm: dm-0 size: 929.33 GiB
  Components:
  p-1: sda3 maj-min: 8:3 size: 929.34 GiB
RAID:
  Message: No RAID data found.
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 931.51 GiB used: 300.24 GiB (32.2%)
  SMART Message: Required tool smartctl not installed. Check --recommends
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Samsung model: ST1000LM024 HN-M101MBB
    size: 931.51 GiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s
    tech: HDD rpm: 5400 serial: <filter> fw-rev: 0001 scheme: GPT
  Optical-1: /dev/sr0 vendor: TSSTcorp model: CDDVDW TS-U633J rev: SN01
    dev-links: cdrom
  Features: speed: 24 multisession: yes audio: yes dvd: yes
    rw: cd-r,cd-rw,dvd-r,dvd-ram state: running
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 927.41 GiB size: 911.78 GiB (98.31%)
    used: 299.84 GiB (32.9%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-1 maj-min: 252:1
    mapped: vgmint-root label: N/A uuid: N/A
  ID-2: /boot raw-size: 1.67 GiB size: 1.61 GiB (96.26%)
    used: 400.4 MiB (24.3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2 label: N/A
    uuid: 4fde4947-4f36-48f9-9c43-06044207d9c4
  ID-3: /boot/efi raw-size: 512 MiB size: 511 MiB (99.80%)
    used: 6.1 MiB (1.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 label: N/A
    uuid: F3CA-9904
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache-pressure: 100 (default) zswap: no
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 1.91 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%)
    priority: -2 dev: /dev/dm-2 maj-min: 252:2 mapped: vgmint-swap_1 label: N/A
    uuid: 4cc51f08-1d9f-44d1-82d9-e86e3f52d4a9
  ID-2: swap-2 type: zram size: 1.91 GiB used: 497.5 MiB (25.5%)
    priority: 100 comp: lzo-rle avail: lzo,lz4,lz4hc,842,zstd max-streams: 4
    dev: /dev/zram0
Unmounted:
  Message: No unmounted partitions found.
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: full speed or root hub ports: 2 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
    class-ID: 0900
  Hub-2: 1-1:2 info: Intel Integrated Rate Matching Hub ports: 6 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 chip-ID: 8087:0024
    class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 1-1.3:3 info: Foxconn / Hon Hai USB2.0 Camera type: video
    driver: uvcvideo interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s)
    lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 power: 500mA chip-ID: 0489:d600 class-ID: 0e02
  Device-2: 1-1.6:4 info: Intel Centrino Bluetooth Wireless Transceiver
    type: bluetooth driver: btusb interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0
    speed: 12 Mb/s (1.4 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 chip-ID: 8087:07da
    class-ID: e001
  Hub-3: 2-0:1 info: full speed or root hub ports: 2 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
    class-ID: 0900
  Hub-4: 2-1:2 info: Intel Integrated Rate Matching Hub ports: 6 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 chip-ID: 8087:0024
    class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 2-1.5:3 info: Shenzhen Rapoo 2.4G Wireless Device
    type: keyboard,mouse driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 2 rev: 1.1
    speed: 12 Mb/s (1.4 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 power: 100mA
    chip-ID: 24ae:2015 class-ID: 0301
  Hub-5: 3-0:1 info: hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 4 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
    class-ID: 0900
  Hub-6: 4-0:1 info: super-speed hub ports: 4 rev: 3.0
    speed: 5 Gb/s (596.0 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 3.2 gen-1x1 chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
    class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 44.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 2367 libs: 1314 tools: apt,apt-get,aptitude
    pm: flatpak pkgs: 0
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
    1: deb http://linux-mint.froonix.org xia main upstream import backport
    2: deb http://mirror.kamp.de/ubuntu noble main restricted universe multiverse
    3: deb http://mirror.kamp.de/ubuntu noble-updates main restricted universe multiverse
    4: deb http://mirror.kamp.de/ubuntu noble-backports main restricted universe multiverse
    5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ noble-security main restricted universe multiverse
Processes:
  CPU top: 5 of 242
  1: cpu: 33.3% command: ps pid: 81472 mem: 4.00 MiB (0.0%)
  2: cpu: 15.7% command: firefox pid: 2299 mem: 496.7 MiB (6.3%)
  3: cpu: 6.1% command: firefox-bin pid: 2436 mem: 87.4 MiB (1.1%)
  4: cpu: 3.7% command: firefox-bin pid: 2864 mem: 623.8 MiB (7.9%)
  5: cpu: 3.3% command: Xorg pid: 1168 mem: 80.0 MiB (1.0%)
  Memory top: 5 of 242
  1: mem: 623.8 MiB (7.9%) command: firefox-bin pid: 2864 cpu: 3.7%
  2: mem: 496.7 MiB (6.3%) command: firefox pid: 2299 cpu: 15.7%
  3: mem: 395.2 MiB (5.0%) command: firefox-bin pid: 73083 cpu: 2.2%
  4: mem: 389.1 MiB (4.9%) command: firefox-bin pid: 9721 cpu: 2.4%
  5: mem: 259.5 MiB (3.3%) command: firefox-bin pid: 2418 cpu: 0.2%
Info:
  Processes: 242 Power: uptime: 1d 9h 7m states: freeze,mem,disk suspend: deep
    avail: s2idle wakeups: 2 hibernate: platform avail: shutdown, reboot,
    suspend, test_resume image: 3.02 GiB services: power-profiles-daemon,
    thermald, upowerd, xfce4-power-manager Init: systemd v: 255
    target: graphical (5) default: graphical tool: systemctl
  Compilers: gcc: 13.3.0 Shell: Bash v: 5.2.21 running-in: xfce4-terminal
    inxi: 3.3.34
12

Thanks @Nachlese , but aren’t you running Xfce?

13

Yes, I do.
That is what I like to use - and not because of hardware constraints.

And I run every flavor of Manjaro as a Virtual machine with half the memory (4 GB) on this machine. :man_shrugging:
One at a time - not all at once, of course.

14

You have no swap space configured.

Clearly your physical RAM alone is insufficient, once you begin using more of your system resources; opening a browser atop everything else in memory, for example.

The suggestion given by @Aragorn is to create some swap space; preferably a swap partition, but a swap file could also be used.

A more performant system might benefit from a combination of both; using zswap.

It certainly won’t help to leave it disabled. :wink:

Anecdotal:-

I usually prefer a minimum of 16 GB RAM, on any older machine, where possible, but it does depend on other factors; not the least of which, is the intended use case.

15

8 GB is totaly fine.

My old computer, which I used until just under two months ago, also only had 8GB RAM and an i7-860 with HDDs.

Manjaro with KDE ran flawlessly, even I assigned 3GB and 3 cores to a VM. :wink:

3 Likes
16

Although gnome is more resource hungry than xfce, 8 GB schould still be enough for browsing. Swap is of course important and more or less obligatory, esp. with 8GB.

In the inxi the available ram is 7.5 GB, and used is around 5, so most of it is cache.
You can also see what is really free and what is cache with free -m.

I suspect something else is going on. And i say it as someone with 8 Gb on my daily driver laptop, opening 30 Tabs in chromium while browsing. I have never seen crashes or force closes or unreleased memory.

17

Thanks @Teo . The inxi was my most recent effort, with no swap. But I had previously been using a swap partition for years and kept running into browser crashes. That led me to zram, which I tried for about 3 months. And when it failed, I moved back to no swap. During that time, I did look at free h often. I also used top, bpytop, and gnome-system-monitor to watch what was happening. Mostly it seemed that any browser – be it Gecko-based or Chromium-based – spawned a ton of child processes that overwhelmed my RAM. Like you, I usually have about 20-30 tabs open at one time.

Below is an example of what gnome-system-monitor shows while using vivaldi. But it is the same with any of the browsers I’ve mentioned.

image
image1920Ă—1173 205 KB

19

There is a few things to consider with relation to RAM.

  • Manjaro default to use zswap which may occupy as much 20% of your RAM.

  • zswap is best when a physical backing is available to offload to.

  • Also /tmp is on tmpfs which is also using RAM.

I have tested with the latest Gnome 25.0.5 ISO to be able to see what a running system uses.

Using a default manjaro VM qemu/libvirt 4GB ram and 2VCPU and 25G disk.

After installation, reboot and login the system idles at 933MB RAM with htop and a terminal open.

Summary

image
image1136Ă—872 248 KB

1 Like
20

True, but tmpfs is a virtual-memory-based filesystem, which means that its contents can be paged out to the swap device if necessary.

The same is true for /run, by the way. :point_down:

[nx-74205:/dev/pts/3][/home/aragorn]
[aragorn] >  df | grep tmpfs
devtmpfs        4.0M     0  4.0M   0% /dev
tmpfs           7.8G   55M  7.7G   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs           3.1G  1.6M  3.1G   1% /run
tmpfs           7.8G   17M  7.8G   1% /tmp
tmpfs           1.0M     0  1.0M   0% /run/credentials/systemd-journald.service
tmpfs           1.6G  308K  1.6G   1% /run/user/1000

[nx-74205:/dev/pts/3][/home/aragorn]
[aragorn] >
1 Like
21

Hi @soundofthunder , I didn’t see (and can’t find) a post of yours above. Did I miss something? If so, I apologize: please repost.