Reduce memory

General Help
1

Hi everyone
Is there an app like this

one that works on Ubuntu?

2

"Linux Memory Manager

The Linux Memory Manager is a critical component of the Linux kernel, responsible for managing the system’s memory resources. It ensures efficient allocation, deallocation, and maintenance of memory for active applications, the operating system, and other system processes.

Key Components

  1. Virtual Memory Manager: The kernel’s Virtual Memory Manager (VMM) is responsible for allocating and deallocating memory pages. It uses a combination of physical memory and secondary storage (e.g., disk) to provide a larger address space for processes.
  2. Zones: Linux divides memory into logical zones, each with similar characteristics (e.g., access permissions, physical location). Zones are managed separately by the kernel and can be used for specific purposes, such as allocating memory for user processes or the kernel itself.
  3. Page Tables: Page tables are data structures that map virtual addresses used by processes to physical memory addresses. The VMM uses page tables to translate virtual addresses to physical addresses.
  4. Memory Allocation: The Linux Memory Manager provides various memory allocation mechanisms, including:
  • malloc() and free() for user-space memory allocation
  • kmalloc() and kfree() for kernel-space memory allocation
  • vmalloc() and vfree() for virtual memory allocation
  1. Memory Caches: Linux maintains several memory caches, including:
  • Page cache (stores frequently accessed file data)
  • Dentry cache (stores directory entries)
  • Inode cache (stores inode metadata)
  • Slab caches (stores kernel data structures)

Configurable Settings

Many Linux memory management settings are available via the /proc filesystem and can be queried and adjusted using sysctl. These settings include:

  • vm.drop_caches: Forces the dropping of caches (e.g., page, dentry, inode)
  • vm.overcommit_memory: Enables or disables overcommitting of memory
  • vm.swappiness: Controls the trade-off between memory usage and disk I/O

Tools and Utilities

Several tools and utilities are available to monitor and manage Linux memory:

  • free: Displays memory usage and available memory
  • top and htop: Show memory usage and allocation statistics
  • sysctl: Allows adjusting kernel parameters, including memory management settings
  • vmstat: Displays virtual memory statistics

Best Practices

To optimize Linux memory management:

  • Monitor memory usage and adjust settings as needed
  • Use vm.drop_caches to free up memory when necessary
  • Enable overcommitting only when necessary to avoid out-of-memory (OOM) situations
  • Use vm.swappiness to balance memory usage and disk I/O
  • Regularly update and maintain the system to ensure optimal memory performance

Resources

  • The Linux Kernel documentation provides detailed information on memory management, including the Documentation/admin-guide/mm/concepts.rst file.
  • The man pages for proc and sysctl provide information on configuring and querying memory management settings."

Aside all of the above, choose a distribution that uses the least amount of resources such as Antix, MX-Linux, and PCLinuxOS.

1 Like