i'm not sure if the nvidia driver is related, but i figure i'll throw it into the summary anyway, as it seems a likely culprit. X is consuming more and more memory after it's been running for a while. from a fresh start (launched from GDM), X consumes around 80MB (as reported 'VM Size' via gnome-system-monitor). now, after several days, X is reportedly using 459MB, and this is after i've closed all X apps (aside from firefox). the latest ballooning occured after i just used vmware (right before that, X memory usage was around 350MB). 'free' reports the following: total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 644448 627540 16908 0 16224 40064 -/+ buffers/cache: 571252 73196 Swap: 1004020 372492 631528 'top' reports X's resource usage as: PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 8314 root 16 0 461m 270m 51m R 17.6 43.0 678:44.95 X using/running any app results in aggressive swapping to disk. xorg-x11 is 6.7.0-r2, nvidia-kernel is 1.0.6106, and nvidia-glx is 1.0.6106-r3. the same thing happens with xfree, and i believe the version there is 4.3.0-r6 (it's my machine at work; i don't have access to it at the moment). emerge --info reports: Portage 2.0.50-r9 (default-x86-1.4, gcc-3.3.4, glibc-2.3.4.20040619-r0, 2.6.7-gentoo-r8) ================================================================= System uname: 2.6.7-gentoo-r8 i686 AMD Athlon(tm) processor Gentoo Base System version 1.5.1 ccache version 2.2 [enabled] Autoconf: sys-devel/autoconf-2.59-r4 Automake: sys-devel/automake-1.8.5-r1 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86 ~x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CFLAGS="-march=athlon-tbird -O2 -pipe -falign-functions=4 -ffast-math" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" COMPILER="gcc3" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /etc/tomcat /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3.1/share/config /usr/kde/3.2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/lib/mozilla/defaults/pref /usr/share/config /usr/share/texmf/dvipdfm/config/ /usr/share/texmf/dvips/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/generic/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/platex/config/ /usr/share/texmf/xdvi/ /var/qmail/control" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d" CXXFLAGS="-march=athlon-tbird -O2 -pipe -falign-functions=4 -ffast-math" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="autoaddcvs ccache sandbox" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://gentoo.seren.com/gentoo http://mirror.datapipe.net/gentoo http://gentoo.mirrors.pair.com/ http://mirror.datapipe.net/gentoo" MAKEOPTS="-j2" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage" SYNC="rsync://rsync.namerica.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="3dnow X aalib acpi4linux alsa apache2 apm avi berkdb bonobo cdr crypt cups curl directfb dvd dvdr encode esd fam fbcon ffmpeg flash foomaticdb gdbm gif gnome gphoto2 gpm gtk gtk2 gtkhtml guile imlib innodb java joystick jpeg kerberos krb4 ldap libg++ libwww mad mikmod mmx motif mpeg mysql ncurses nls nvidia oggvorbis opengl oss pam pdflib perl pic png python qt quicktime readline samba sasl sdl slang spell ssl stencil-buffer svga tcltk tcpd tetex theora tiff truetype ungif usb v4l2 x86 xchattext xfs xml xml2 xmms xv xvid zlib"
ok, i just restarted X, and it looks like i was mistaken on the initial memory usage, as it's a bit lower than i thought. from 'top': PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 9831 root 15 0 53480 17m 45m S 0.7 2.7 0:09.20 X and 'free' reports: total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 644448 377588 266860 0 25972 169796 -/+ buffers/cache: 181820 462628 Swap: 1004020 32424 971596 (note that i ran a quick update/recompile of my session manager while X was sitting at the GDM login screen, hence the high buffer/cache value.)
Try something cool like x11-misc/xrestop over time.
all right, here goes. shortly after X startup. running: * thunderbird * 2 Eterms (one with top, other with xrestop) * gaim * xchat * gedit * xfce4-cvs top says: PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 23066 root 15 0 55452 19m 46m S 7.3 3.0 0:12.94 X xrestop says: xrestop - Display: localhost:0 Monitoring 16 clients. XErrors: 0 Pixmaps: 13190K total, Other: 158K total, All: 13349K total res-base Wins GCs Fnts Pxms Misc Pxm mem Other Total PID Identifier 1000000 107 38 0 3 28 7884K 4K 7888K ? Desktop 0c00000 141 28 1 191 3855 1431K 95K 1526K 23128 xfwm4 1e00000 42 29 8 38 9 610K 9K 620K ? brian@kelnos:~ 1200000 86 41 0 32 23 478K 3K 481K ? Xfce Panel 1800000 85 34 1 45 39 420K 4K 425K ? Inbox for bjt2 1600000 42 29 8 28 9 403K 9K 413K ? brian@kelnos:~ 1c00000 72 49 1 6 24 407K 4K 411K ? X-Chat [2.0.10 1a00000 49 22 1 4 13 393K 2K 396K ? Untitled 1 (mo 1400000 23 21 1 4 14 393K 2K 395K ? Buddy List 0800000 2 1 1 1 35 384K 1K 385K 23093 xfce4-session 0e00000 20 20 0 2 27 384K 1K 385K ? Task List 0400000 1 1 0 0 679 0B 15K 15K ? screensaver 0200000 0 1 1 0 0 0B 1K 1K ? <unknown> 0a00000 4 1 0 0 19 0B 576B 576B 23124 xfce-mcs-manag 0600000 2 1 0 0 20 0B 552B 552B 23119 devilspie 2000000 1 1 0 0 0 0B 48B 48B ? xrestop next, we add: * another 15 Eterms * anjuta (3 instances, each with 10-20 files open) * pan, viewing a newsgroup with several thousand articles top says: PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 23066 root 15 0 242m 70m 49m S 34.1 11.2 1:15.04 X xrestop says: xrestop - Display: localhost:0 Monitoring 35 clients. XErrors: 0 Pixmaps: 178840K total, Other: 718K total, All: 179559K total res-base Wins GCs Fnts Pxms Misc Pxm mem Other Total PID Identifier 4400000 286 146 1 130 3950 73602K 103K 73706K ? Anjuta: /munch 2c00000 202 86 1 70 1133 38487K 34K 38522K ? Anjuta: /munch 3800000 202 86 1 70 1130 38468K 34K 38502K ? Anjuta: /munch 1000000 107 38 0 3 51 7884K 4K 7888K ? Desktop 0c00000 426 28 1 475 11645 5794K 284K 6079K 23128 xfwm4 2800000 42 29 8 28 9 1901K 9K 1911K ? brian@kelnos:~ 3600000 42 29 8 26 9 1885K 9K 1895K ? brian@kelnos:~ 2e00000 42 29 8 26 9 847K 9K 857K ? brian@kelnos:~ 3200000 42 29 8 26 9 804K 9K 814K ? brian@kelnos:~ 1e00000 42 29 8 42 9 711K 9K 721K ? brian@kelnos:~ 2a00000 42 29 8 26 9 606K 9K 616K ? brian@kelnos:~ 4a00000 167 28 1 39 33 591K 6K 597K ? alt.binaries.s 4200000 42 29 8 46 9 484K 9K 494K ? brian@kelnos:~ 1200000 88 41 0 32 23 478K 3K 481K ? Xfce Panel 1600000 42 29 8 32 9 423K 9K 433K ? brian@kelnos:~ 1800000 85 34 1 45 39 420K 4K 425K ? Inbox for bjt2 1c00000 72 49 1 6 24 407K 4K 411K ? X-Chat [2.0.10 3c00000 42 29 8 26 9 399K 9K 409K ? brian@kelnos:~ 3a00000 42 29 8 26 9 399K 9K 409K ? brian@kelnos:~ 3400000 42 29 8 26 9 399K 9K 409K ? brian@kelnos:~ 2600000 42 29 8 26 9 399K 9K 409K ? brian@kelnos:~ 2200000 42 29 8 26 9 399K 9K 409K ? brian@kelnos:~ 1a00000 49 22 1 4 13 393K 2K 396K ? Untitled 1 (mo 1400000 23 21 1 4 14 393K 2K 395K ? Buddy List 0800000 2 1 1 1 58 384K 2K 386K 23093 xfce4-session 0e00000 20 20 0 2 50 384K 2K 386K ? Task List 4000000 42 29 8 28 9 373K 9K 383K ? brian@kelnos:~ 3e00000 42 29 8 26 9 371K 9K 381K ? brian@kelnos:~ 3000000 42 29 8 26 9 371K 9K 381K ? brian@kelnos:~ 2400000 42 29 8 26 9 371K 9K 381K ? brian@kelnos:~ 0400000 1 1 0 0 2454 0B 57K 57K ? screensaver 0a00000 4 1 0 0 42 0B 1K 1K 23124 xfce-mcs-manag 0600000 2 1 0 0 43 0B 1K 1K 23119 devilspie 0200000 0 1 1 0 0 0B 1K 1K ? <unknown> 2000000 1 1 0 0 0 0B 48B 48B ? xrestop next i close all the new stuff so i'm left with the same setup as i have with the first set of apps running. top says: PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 23066 root 15 0 94144 56m 46m S 12.3 9.0 1:44.59 X xrestop says: xrestop - Display: localhost:0 Monitoring 16 clients. XErrors: 21 Pixmaps: 13411K total, Other: 158K total, All: 13570K total res-base Wins GCs Fnts Pxms Misc Pxm mem Other Total PID Identifier 1000000 107 38 0 3 28 7884K 4K 7888K ? Desktop 0c00000 141 28 1 191 3855 1488K 95K 1584K 23128 xfwm4 1e00000 42 29 8 46 9 754K 9K 764K ? brian@kelnos:~ 1200000 88 41 0 32 23 478K 3K 481K ? Xfce Panel 1600000 42 29 8 32 9 423K 9K 433K ? brian@kelnos:~ 1800000 85 34 1 45 39 420K 4K 425K ? Inbox for bjt2 1c00000 72 49 1 6 24 407K 4K 411K ? X-Chat [2.0.10 1a00000 49 22 1 4 13 393K 2K 396K ? Untitled 1 (mo 1400000 23 21 1 4 14 393K 2K 395K ? Buddy List 0800000 2 1 1 1 35 384K 1K 385K 23093 xfce4-session 0e00000 20 20 0 2 27 384K 1K 385K ? Task List 0400000 1 1 0 0 682 0B 16K 16K ? screensaver 0200000 0 1 1 0 0 0B 1K 1K ? <unknown> 0a00000 4 1 0 0 19 0B 576B 576B 23124 xfce-mcs-manag 0600000 2 1 0 0 20 0B 552B 552B 23119 devilspie 2000000 1 1 0 0 0 0B 48B 48B ? xrestop so, X memory usage (as reported by top) has gone from 55MB -> 242MB -> 94MB. xrestop, however, reports almost the exact same data in the first run as in the last run. 'free' reports about 265MB used (this is _without_ buffers/cache included). on a hunch, i checked out opengl. i opened up the xscreensaver settings panel, and clicked 'preview' for GLmatrix. top reported X memory jumped up to 110MB, but only dropped down to about 98MB after i closed the settings panel. however, repeatedly opening and closing the panel and clicking preview didn't cause any more of an increase (the final value was always 98MB). i'll report back in a day or two after i have some "real-world" usage.
You know I think you might find that things are normal This is top for my machine right now (firefox two tabs, amsn, two aterms, irssi in one aterm top in the other, xmms playing 128kbps, kmail, fluxbox, and an xterm) PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 8794 root 15 0 211m 78m 139m S 0.7 8.9 18:58.63 X See my reading of this is that X currently NEEDS 78M which is reasonablish i think, and that it has 139M (78 + 139 = 217 ie the two make the virtual) in buffer/cache total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 906320 336712 569608 0 18016 131596 -/+ buffers/cache: 187100 719220 Swap: 996020 2508 993512 Apparently I have currently got 330M used up RAM wise, but thats with 180M in cache/buffering so thats about 150M for current usage. xrestop - Display: localhost:0 Monitoring 19 clients. XErrors: 0 Pixmaps: 65701K total, Other: 127K total, All: 65829K total <snipped for berevity kmail is fun> Which more or less agrees with the top values.. Now my system has been up for 20hours or so 18 with X running, ive done several screensaver (opengl / nvidia) sessions, played few tunes and done some uni course work ... so ive done basically the same stuff as you... Yet my buffers are no where near as high as yours... like yours are 500+M ish But we can also see that the actual non buffered memory does drop down again.. if it truly were a leak you wouldnt recover the memory (i think) it would stay in the USED section... So you must have a run-a-way process or something that is doing it in my oppinion no idea what to be honest though...
annoyingly, now that i try to reproduce it for bugzilla, i'm not having a problem. i've been using the machine for the past day and a half as usual, and i just went and closed all apps (except gaim and xchat), and X memory usage dropped back down to 98MB. i'm not really sure that your reaing of the top output is correct. i don't think that processes have buffer/cache memory. the kernel does, but the VIRT column should be a count of all RAM that the process has allocated. RES is the amount that's actually resident in non-swapped memory. SHR should be the amount of RAM shared with other processes (e.g., non-writeable sections of shared libraries, etc.). of course i could be wrong, but i don't think so. now, before, when i could actually reproduce this, i'd get to the point that if i closed all X apps (except for the desktop), my memory usage (as reported by 'free') would be only 10MB short of all my phys RAM, a very small amount (<20MB) as buffers/cache. in addition, half of my swap was full. at that point, simply opening an Eterm would cause a lot of HD thrashing and would take between 10 and 20 seconds (a bit much on an athlon 1.33 with 640MB of ram). at that point, looking at top would tell me that X was indeed consuming most of my RAM (via the VIRT column). restarting X brought everything back to normal. as for a runaway process, i don't think so. when i was having problems, X clearly was consuming all of my RAM, and no other processes came even close (the #2 spot was claimed by an app using 18MB). now, before i reported this, i did a couple google searches, and found something that mentioned that after installing a newer version of xfree, they experienced memory leaks until they recompiled fontconfig. this seemed a bit out there and strange, but i said "hey, can't hurt" and reemerged fontconfig. so, if that was indeed the issue, that could be why i'm not seeing any problems now.
Well if it re-occurs reopen the bug.
