endeavourOS is using so much RAM, more than LinuxMint does

toni500 · October 1, 2023, 7:44pm

Hey. I’ll apoligize if bad english
I have switched 2/3 weeks ago from LinuxMint 20.3 to EndeavourOS and I’m getting great with the distro.
The problem that makes me kinda unconfortable it’s the amount of RAM that eos keeps eating,
I don’t have any DE installed, like KDE, GNOME, XFCE, etc.
I have installed only i3wm from the installer and that’s it, but i mainly use DWM that i patched.
When i log in to DWM, the RAM used reach to ~849/950MB on idle, which is double compared to when i was using Linuxmint that was like ~489/502MB. I have noticed that when i open brave-browser and Discord, then quit both, the RAM reach to 1,3GB and on Mint it was ~703MB.

Once i was using Dolphin emulator for playing a Wii game with only discord opened and Xorg was keeping allocating memory, even after closing the emulator and discord, until it made the whole OS crash. hope i can kinda return to the old memory usage
for example now, I had only brave-browser opened, and when i closed it, the RAM used was 2,4GB

My system:

System:
  Kernel: 6.5.5-zen1-1-zen arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.2.1
    clocksource: hpet Desktop: dwm v: 6.4 vt: 1 dm: 1: LightDM v: 1.32.0
    note: stopped 2: SDDM note: stopped Distro: EndeavourOS base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: Micro-Star model: PRO B550M-P GEN3 (MS-7D95) v: 1.0
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: 1.22
    date: 08/04/2022
CPU:
  Info: 6-core model: AMD Ryzen 5 5500 bits: 64 type: MT MCP smt: enabled
    arch: Zen 3 rev: 0 cache: L1: 384 KiB L2: 3 MiB L3: 16 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1058 high: 3197 min/max: 400/4267 cores: 1: 2913 2: 400
    3: 400 4: 400 5: 400 6: 3197 7: 400 8: 400 9: 400 10: 400 11: 2991 12: 400
    bogomips: 86235
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA TU117 [GeForce GTX 1650] vendor: Micro-Star MSI
    driver: nvidia v: 535.113.01 arch: Turing pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16
    ports: active: none off: HDMI-A-1 empty: DP-1,DVI-D-1 bus-ID: 10:00.0
    chip-ID: 10de:1f82 class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.8 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.1
    compositor: Picom v: git-b700a driver: X: loaded: nvidia
    gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 101 s-size: 483x272mm (19.02x10.71")
    s-diag: 554mm (21.82")
  Monitor-1: HDMI-A-1 mapped: HDMI-0 note: disabled model: HP V22e
    serial: <filter> res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 102
    size: 477x268mm (18.78x10.55") diag: 547mm (21.5") modes: max: 1920x1080
    min: 640x480
  API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: nvidia platforms: device: 0 drv: nvidia device: 2
    drv: swrast gbm: drv: nvidia surfaceless: drv: nvidia x11: drv: nvidia
    inactive: wayland,device-1
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: nvidia mesa v: 535.113.01
    glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650/PCIe/SSE2
Audio:
  Device-1: NVIDIA vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    pcie: speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 10:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:10fa
    class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: AMD Renoir Radeon High Definition Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16
    bus-ID: 30:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:1637 class-ID: 0403
  Device-3: AMD Family 17h/19h HD Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16
    bus-ID: 30:00.6 chip-ID: 1022:15e3 class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.5.5-zen1-1-zen status: kernel-api
  Server-1: sndiod v: N/A status: off
  Server-2: PipeWire v: 0.3.80 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
    status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
    4: pw-jack type: plugin
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s
    lanes: 1 port: e000 bus-ID: 2a:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp42s0 state: down mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: enp22s0f0u9 state: unknown speed: -1 duplex: half mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-2: virbr0 state: down mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Huawei AUM-L29 driver: rndis_host v: kernel type: USB rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-9:5 chip-ID: 12d1:108a class-ID: 0a00
    serial: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 912.89 GiB used: 298.92 GiB (32.7%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Kingston model: SNV2S500G size: 465.76 GiB
    speed: 63.2 Gb/s lanes: 4 tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: SBI02102
    temp: 30.9 C scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Crucial model: CT480BX500SSD1 size: 447.13 GiB
    type: USB rev: 3.0 spd: 5 Gb/s lanes: 1 tech: SSD serial: <filter>
    fw-rev: 3202 scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 438.08 GiB used: 298.92 GiB (68.2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 998 MiB used: 288 KiB (0.0%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 512 MiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2
    file: /swapfile
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 39.8 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 31 C
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 35%
Repos:
  Packages: 1482 pm: pacman pkgs: 1475 pm: flatpak pkgs: 7
  Active pacman repo servers in: /etc/pacman.d/endeavouros-mirrorlist
    1: https://mirror.moson.org/endeavouros/repo/$repo/$arch
    2: https://de.freedif.org/EndeavourOS/repo/$repo/$arch
    3: https://ftp.acc.umu.se/mirror/endeavouros/repo/$repo/$arch
    4: https://mirror.alpix.eu/endeavouros/repo/$repo/$arch
    5: https://md.mirrors.hacktegic.com/endeavouros/repo/$repo/$arch
    6: https://mirror.albony.xyz/endeavouros/repo/$repo/$arch
    7: https://mirror.archlinux.tw/EndeavourOS/repo/$repo/$arch
    8: https://mirror.freedif.org/EndeavourOS/repo/$repo/$arch
    9: https://endeavour.remi.lu/repo/$repo/$arch
    10: https://mirrors.gigenet.com/endeavouros/repo/$repo/$arch
    11: https://fastmirror.pp.ua/endeavouros/repo/$repo/$arch
    12: https://fosszone.csd.auth.gr/endeavouros/repo/$repo/$arch
    13: https://mirror.funami.tech/endeavouros/repo/$repo/$arch
    14: https://mirrors.nguyenhoang.cloud/endeavouros/repo/$repo/$arch
    15: https://mirrors.nxtgen.com/endeavouros-mirror/repo/$repo/$arch
    16: https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/endeavouros/repo/$repo/$arch
    17: https://mirrors.jlu.edu.cn/endeavouros/repo/$repo/$arch
    18: https://mirror.jingk.ai/endeavouros/repo/$repo/$arch
  Active pacman repo servers in: /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
    1: https://archmirror.it/repos/$repo/os/$arch
    2: https://archlinux.mirror.server24.net/$repo/os/$arch
    3: https://geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com/$repo/os/$arch
Info:
  Processes: 278 Uptime: 2h 12m wakeups: 0 Memory: total: 16 GiB
  available: 15.51 GiB used: 2.91 GiB (18.8%) Init: systemd v: 254
  default: graphical Compilers: gcc: 13.2.1 Shell: Zsh v: 5.9 running-in: st
  inxi: 3.3.30

sudo systemd-analyze blame

3.172s dev-ttyS23.device
3.172s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-tty-ttyS23.device
3.172s dev-ttyS24.device
3.172s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-tty-ttyS24.device
3.171s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-tty-ttyS22.device
3.171s dev-ttyS22.device
3.170s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-tty-ttyS25.device
3.170s dev-ttyS25.device
3.170s dev-ttyS27.device
3.170s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-tty-ttyS27.device
3.170s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-tty-ttyS28.device
3.170s dev-ttyS28.device
3.169s dev-ttyS29.device
3.169s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-tty-ttyS29.device
3.169s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-tty-ttyS3.device
3.169s dev-ttyS3.device
3.169s dev-ttyS11.device
3.169s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-tty-ttyS11.device
3.169s dev-ttyS30.device
3.169s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-tty-ttyS30.device
3.168s dev-ttyS12.device
3.168s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-tty-ttyS12.device
3.168s dev-ttyS26.device
3.168s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-tty-ttyS26.device
3.168s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-tty-ttyS10.device
3.168s dev-ttyS10.device
3.168s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-tty-ttyS5.device
3.168s dev-ttyS5.device
3.168s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-tty-ttyS4.device
3.168s dev-ttyS4.device
3.167s dev-ttyS14.device
3.167s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-tty-ttyS14.device
3.167s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-tty-ttyS15.device
3.167s dev-ttyS15.device
3.167s dev-ttyS6.device
3.167s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-tty-ttyS6.device
3.167s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-tty-ttyS7.device
3.167s dev-ttyS7.device
3.166s dev-ttyS31.device
3.166s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-tty-ttyS31.device
3.166s dev-ttyS1.device
3.166s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-tty-ttyS1.device
3.165s dev-ttyS9.device
3.165s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-tty-ttyS9.device
3.165s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-tty-ttyS8.device
3.165s dev-ttyS8.device
3.165s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-tty-ttyS13.device
3.165s dev-ttyS13.device
3.164s dev-ttyS16.device
3.164s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-tty-ttyS16.device
3.164s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-tty-ttyS19.device
3.164s dev-ttyS19.device
3.163s dev-ttyS18.device
3.163s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-tty-ttyS18.device
3.163s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-tty-ttyS2.device
3.163s dev-ttyS2.device
3.163s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-tty-ttyS17.device
3.163s dev-ttyS17.device
3.162s dev-ttyS20.device
3.162s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-tty-ttyS20.device
3.162s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-tty-ttyS21.device
3.162s dev-ttyS21.device
3.157s sys-module-configfs.device
3.152s dev-ttyS0.device
3.152s sys-devices-pnp0-00:05-tty-ttyS0.device
3.042s dev-disk-by\x2did-nvme\x2dKINGSTON_SNV2S500G_50026B7784E12971\x2dpart4.device
3.042s dev-disk-by\x2did-nvme\x2dKINGSTON_SNV2S500G_50026B7784E12971_1\x2dpart4.device
3.042s dev-disk-by\x2duuid-6EA28518A284E5C5.device
3.042s dev-nvme0n1p4.device
3.042s dev-disk-by\x2ddiskseq-1\x2dpart4.device
3.042s dev-disk-by\x2dpath-pci\x2d0000:2b:00.0\x2dnvme\x2d1\x2dpart4.device
3.042s dev-disk-by\x2did-nvme\x2deui.00000000000000000026b7784e129715\x2dpart4.device
3.042s sys-devices-pci0000:00-0000:00:02.2-0000:2b:00.0-nvme-nvme0-nvme0n1-nvme0n1p4.device
3.042s dev-disk-by\x2dpartuuid-51b16819\x2d7370\x2d4493\x2db936\x2d98ecda09f9d1.device
3.040s sys-devices-pci0000:00-0000:00:02.2-0000:2b:00.0-nvme-nvme0-nvme0n1-nvme0n1p2.device
3.040s dev-disk-by\x2did-nvme\x2dKINGSTON_SNV2S500G_50026B7784E12971_1\x2dpart2.device
3.040s dev-disk-by\x2dpath-pci\x2d0000:2b:00.0\x2dnvme\x2d1\x2dpart2.device
3.040s dev-disk-by\x2ddiskseq-1\x2dpart2.device
3.040s dev-disk-by\x2did-nvme\x2dKINGSTON_SNV2S500G_50026B7784E12971\x2dpart2.device
3.040s dev-disk-by\x2dpartlabel-Microsoft\x5cx20reserved\x5cx20partition.device
3.040s dev-nvme0n1p2.device
3.040s dev-disk-by\x2dpartuuid-e15514f6\x2d4ea8\x2d44fe\x2d84c2\x2dd7a35f4e223b.device
3.040s dev-disk-by\x2did-nvme\x2deui.00000000000000000026b7784e129715\x2dpart2.device
3.039s dev-disk-by\x2did-nvme\x2dKINGSTON_SNV2S500G_50026B7784E12971_1\x2dpart3.device
3.039s dev-disk-by\x2dpath-pci\x2d0000:2b:00.0\x2dnvme\x2d1\x2dpart3.device
3.039s sys-devices-pci0000:00-0000:00:02.2-0000:2b:00.0-nvme-nvme0-nvme0n1-nvme0n1p3.device
3.039s dev-disk-by\x2did-nvme\x2deui.00000000000000000026b7784e129715\x2dpart3.device
3.038s dev-nvme0n1p3.device
3.038s dev-disk-by\x2ddiskseq-1\x2dpart3.device
3.038s dev-disk-by\x2dpartuuid-6580529e\x2d9e93\x2d456a\x2d92a3\x2db70934936e0c.device
3.038s dev-disk-by\x2duuid-7CDA3609DA35BFE6.device
3.038s dev-disk-by\x2dpartlabel-Basic\x5cx20data\x5cx20partition.device
3.038s dev-disk-by\x2did-nvme\x2dKINGSTON_SNV2S500G_50026B7784E12971\x2dpart3.device
3.037s sys-devices-pci0000:00-0000:00:02.2-0000:2b:00.0-nvme-nvme0-nvme0n1.device
3.037s dev-nvme0n1.device
3.037s dev-disk-by\x2did-nvme\x2deui.00000000000000000026b7784e129715.device
3.037s dev-disk-by\x2did-nvme\x2dKINGSTON_SNV2S500G_50026B7784E12971_1.device
3.037s dev-disk-by\x2dpath-pci\x2d0000:2b:00.0\x2dnvme\x2d1.device
3.037s dev-disk-by\x2ddiskseq-1.device
3.037s dev-disk-by\x2did-nvme\x2dKINGSTON_SNV2S500G_50026B7784E12971.device
3.037s dev-nvme0n1p1.device
3.037s dev-disk-by\x2ddiskseq-1\x2dpart1.device
3.037s dev-disk-by\x2did-nvme\x2dKINGSTON_SNV2S500G_50026B7784E12971_1\x2dpart1.device
3.037s dev-disk-by\x2dpartuuid-57307908\x2d50e7\x2d48c2\x2da340\x2d9a6b96d8dca8.device
3.037s dev-disk-by\x2did-nvme\x2deui.00000000000000000026b7784e129715\x2dpart1.device
3.037s dev-disk-by\x2duuid-7C34\x2dCC4C.device
3.037s dev-disk-by\x2did-nvme\x2dKINGSTON_SNV2S500G_50026B7784E12971\x2dpart1.device
3.037s dev-disk-by\x2dpartlabel-EFI\x5cx20system\x5cx20partition.device
3.037s dev-disk-by\x2dpath-pci\x2d0000:2b:00.0\x2dnvme\x2d1\x2dpart1.device
3.037s sys-devices-pci0000:00-0000:00:02.2-0000:2b:00.0-nvme-nvme0-nvme0n1-nvme0n1p1.device
2.671s dev-sda1.device
2.671s sys-devices-pci0000:00-0000:00:08.1-0000:30:00.4-usb6-6\x2d1-6\x2d1:1.0-host6-target6:0:0-6:0:0:0-block-sda-sda1.device
2.671s dev-disk-by\x2did-wwn\x2d0x500a0751e4f5badd\x2dpart1.device
2.670s dev-disk-by\x2duuid-2AE2\x2dCF4F.device
2.670s dev-disk-by\x2did-ata\x2dCT480BX500SSD1_2106E4F5BADD\x2dpart1.device
2.670s dev-disk-by\x2dpath-pci\x2d0000:30:00.4\x2dusbv3\x2d0:1:1.0\x2dscsi\x2d0:0:0:0\x2dpart1.device
2.670s dev-disk-by\x2dpartuuid-0ce4ea94\x2d85df\x2d44e3\x2dbebf\x2dcea5644deb93.device
2.670s dev-disk-by\x2dpath-pci\x2d0000:30:00.4\x2dusb\x2d0:1:1.0\x2dscsi\x2d0:0:0:0\x2dpart1.device
2.670s dev-disk-by\x2ddiskseq-2\x2dpart1.device
2.670s dev-disk-by\x2did-usb\x2dJMicron_Tech_210654652144\x2d0:0\x2dpart1.device
2.670s dev-sda2.device
2.669s dev-disk-by\x2did-usb\x2dJMicron_Tech_210654652144\x2d0:0\x2dpart2.device
2.669s dev-disk-by\x2ddiskseq-2\x2dpart2.device
2.669s dev-disk-by\x2dlabel-endeavouros.device
2.669s dev-disk-by\x2dpartuuid-cb91a95c\x2dfb54\x2d4e76\x2d8716\x2d5f1ac8afc037.device
2.669s dev-disk-by\x2dpartlabel-endeavouros.device
2.669s dev-disk-by\x2dpath-pci\x2d0000:30:00.4\x2dusb\x2d0:1:1.0\x2dscsi\x2d0:0:0:0\x2dpart2.device
2.669s dev-disk-by\x2did-ata\x2dCT480BX500SSD1_2106E4F5BADD\x2dpart2.device
2.669s sys-devices-pci0000:00-0000:00:08.1-0000:30:00.4-usb6-6\x2d1-6\x2d1:1.0-host6-target6:0:0-6:0:0:0-block-sda-sda2.device
2.669s dev-disk-by\x2dpath-pci\x2d0000:30:00.4\x2dusbv3\x2d0:1:1.0\x2dscsi\x2d0:0:0:0\x2dpart2.device
2.669s dev-disk-by\x2did-wwn\x2d0x500a0751e4f5badd\x2dpart2.device
2.669s dev-disk-by\x2duuid-a9564977\x2d6fc3\x2d43ab\x2d9471\x2db757f4f79ca6.device
2.652s sys-devices-pci0000:00-0000:00:08.1-0000:30:00.4-usb6-6\x2d1-6\x2d1:1.0-host6-target6:0:0-6:0:0:0-block-sda.device
2.652s dev-disk-by\x2dpath-pci\x2d0000:30:00.4\x2dusbv3\x2d0:1:1.0\x2dscsi\x2d0:0:0:0.device
2.652s dev-disk-by\x2dpath-pci\x2d0000:30:00.4\x2dusb\x2d0:1:1.0\x2dscsi\x2d0:0:0:0.device
2.652s dev-sda.device
2.652s dev-disk-by\x2did-wwn\x2d0x500a0751e4f5badd.device
2.652s dev-disk-by\x2ddiskseq-2.device
2.652s dev-disk-by\x2did-usb\x2dJMicron_Tech_210654652144\x2d0:0.device
2.652s dev-disk-by\x2did-ata\x2dCT480BX500SSD1_2106E4F5BADD.device
1.326s eos-reboot-required.service
 736ms initrd-switch-root.service
 417ms firewalld.service
 387ms NetworkManager.service
 228ms systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service
 202ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
 200ms systemd-journal-flush.service
 194ms systemd-udev-trigger.service
 183ms ldconfig.service
 179ms user@1000.service
 151ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev-early.service
 150ms lvm2-monitor.service
 131ms systemd-remount-fs.service
 125ms power-profiles-daemon.service
 119ms libvirtd.service
 116ms systemd-random-seed.service
 115ms systemd-modules-load.service
 112ms systemd-binfmt.service
 103ms systemd-journald.service
  88ms modprobe@fuse.service
  87ms systemd-sysctl.service
  79ms upower.service
  75ms dracut-cmdline.service
  72ms avahi-daemon.service
  69ms udisks2.service
  68ms systemd-logind.service
  67ms modprobe@drm.service
  61ms polkit.service
  58ms systemd-sysusers.service
  53ms systemd-udevd.service
  49ms systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2duuid-2AE2\x2dCF4F.service
  47ms swapfile.swap
  43ms systemd-journal-catalog-update.service
  42ms dracut-shutdown.service
  42ms systemd-oomd.service
  41ms systemd-timesyncd.service
  37ms kmod-static-nodes.service
  34ms systemd-vconsole-setup.service
  31ms alsa-restore.service
  31ms cockpit.socket
  30ms uresourced.service
  30ms systemd-machined.service
  30ms systemd-user-sessions.service
  30ms boot-efi.mount
  29ms user-runtime-dir@1000.service
  28ms dbus-broker.service
  27ms NetworkManager-wait-online.service
  26ms modprobe@loop.service
  25ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service
  24ms sys-fs-fuse-connections.mount
  21ms systemd-update-utmp.service
  21ms systemd-fsck-root.service
  21ms proc-sys-fs-binfmt_misc.mount
  18ms initrd-cleanup.service
  18ms dev-hugepages.mount
  17ms dev-mqueue.mount
  17ms sys-kernel-debug.mount
  16ms sys-kernel-tracing.mount
  14ms cockpit-motd.service
  13ms systemd-update-done.service
  11ms initrd-parse-etc.service
   5ms initrd-udevadm-cleanup-db.service
   5ms rtkit-daemon.service
   5ms cni-dhcp.socket
   2ms modprobe@configfs.service
   2ms modprobe@dm_mod.service
   1ms tmp.mount

BluishHumility · October 2, 2023, 1:31am

In general, a more efficient machine will use as much RAM as it can without swapping or pushing processes OOM. It’s possible your Linux Mint installation was not using RAM effectively because it runs on a much older kernel.

This article may be helpful if you are not familiar with how Linux uses RAM:

https://www.linuxatemyram.com/

In general, if all or nearly all of your RAM is in use that is a good thing, as long as there is plenty of available RAM as well.

This is sort of the TL;DR of the article:

A healthy Linux system with more than enough memory will, after running for a while, show the following expected and harmless behavior:

free memory is close to 0

used memory is close to total

available memory (or “free + buffers/cache”) has enough room (let’s say, 20%+ of total)

swap used does not change

From your inxi it looks like you haven’t used any swap:

Most likely you have nothing to worry about. Unused RAM is wasted RAM!

fbodymechanic · October 2, 2023, 1:48am

I also want to point out, you are using the zen kernel which is made specifically to be as resource unfriendly as possible to have power on demand. It’s usually used for gaming and what not, where the latest, and lts kernels are much more geared towards energy efficiency in comparison. Zen will likely cache even more RAM than the normal kernels for instance.

Also, for whatever it’s worth Mint MATE if you were using it, is really slim. MATE as a DE is as light as most, if not all WM’s. Cinnamon is likely a bit higher.

mbod · October 2, 2023, 6:28am

I just want to second what has already been said here.

Your comparison is not valid because you are comparing different software versions. You are not only comparing different kernel versions but also different versions of all kinds of libraries.

Also, a higher RAM consumption is not necessarily a bad thing. If it is the cache or buffer size that is going up, it is a good thing. Because it helps to speed up the system. You do not want your RAM to sit idle.

toni500 · October 2, 2023, 1:07pm

ohh i see, thanks for sharing it. i’m really enjoying this distro and hope it gets the deserved attention