slow karmic system

[NoOp]

On 06/29/2010 02:46 PM, Joep L. Blom wrote:
> NoOp wrote:
...
>> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwapFaq
>> 
>> But it sounds to me like you have an app that has a memory leak. I'd run
>> top or htop in a terminal over the 5 days and monitor your memory usage.
>> 
>> 
>> 
> Garry,
> As usual your suggestions are invaluable!
> I looked in the link you gave and found there a little script to empty 
> your swap and bring it all in memory. The amazing thing is  that using 
> that script my free memory goes to 50 % and my free swap space is 100 %.
> The system is quick. The only thing is the eventual memory leakage. I 
> will not yet run ntop or htop continuously as it takes gives an overhead 
> and it is more useful - in my eyes - to use free and record its output 
> over a longer time. That gives you memory 'snapshots' and it can easily 
> be implemented in a cron job.
> After I started VMware player free memory drops to 25 % and Free swap 
> drops to 99 %. I will see if that is the process with memory leaks.
> But thanks very much for the link,
> Joep
> 
> 

Another quick & easy way to clear swap is:

$ sudo swapoff -a
$ free
[you'll see it clear]
$ sudo swapon -a
[that will turn it back on]

I've had cases where swap was used (primarily when using virtualbox) and
then doesn't seem to clear after the app is closed. Can't pin it down
just yet, but swapoff/swapon seems to do the trick.