How to free up RAM space?

**onebonetune** · April 24th, 2012

The normal thing is... when you close the aplications they must immediately free space on the ram. Isn't that true? But it seems it is not happening in my computer...

gilmar@gilmar-desktop:~$ free -tom
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 3962 3869 93 0 53 375
Swap: 5884 24 5860
Total: 9847 3893 5953

System Monitor

**GreatDanton** · April 24th, 2012

Some applications like Open office, or Libre office has the function to enable that the application immediately free the ram space. In Open office that option is under : Tools/Options/Memory. Then look for the option: remove from memory after.
However this is not the solution of your problem, but it can save you little ram especially if you are working on old computer.

Cheers

Edit: I didn't see the picture you provided. As far as i can see you didn't close the programs (they are still running in the background). Right click on the the little icons on the top of the screen and chose exit from the menu.

**onebonetune** · April 24th, 2012

I have 4gb Ram and after a little in the startup the amount of used memory reachs 90%...
Help please!

**Cheesemill** · April 24th, 2012

What is the output of:

Code:

free -m

You may be getting confused between used RAM and cached RAM.
Unused RAM is wasted RAM!!

http://www.linuxatemyram.com/

**onebonetune** · April 25th, 2012

Code:

gilmar@gilmar-desktop:~$ free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 3962 3684 277 0 54 337
-/+ buffers/cache: 3292 669
Swap: 5884 197 5687
gilmar@gilmar-desktop:~$

It says I have a total of 3962, 3684 being used and just 277 are free...

**JC Cheloven** · April 25th, 2012

Hi,

From your former picture, it's evident, at least in my opinion, that you have a problem. Gnome panel using about 1Gb ram is crazy. Nautilus and firefox also use much more ram than expected (well for normal usage). And it's not about using as cache, which would be fine.

And that wnck-applet ... it has a known memory leak bug:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...el/+bug/576751

It probably has the culprit. You may try to turn it off. Or at least take that as a starting point for further investigation.

Hope this helps
JC

**MonkeyPaw** · April 25th, 2012

It does appear you have an issue with something leaking memory. Especially if a reboot doesn't cure you.

As others have said, Ubuntu (and other distros) caches previous data in RAM for later (re)use. This is why Firefox takes a few seconds to open after a reboot, but only 1/2 second the next time you open it. In the event a new application needs the RAM, the cached data is dumped as needed. It's totally a good thing, or otherwise you'd never see the advantages of more RAM unless you dealt with really really large files or had 20 things open at once.

**onebonetune** · April 25th, 2012

I have just turned on the computer, closed the applications that started with the system and see how it appears:

Code:

gilmar@gilmar-desktop:~$ free -tom
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          3962       1959       2003          0        348        730
Swap:         5884          0       5884
Total:        9847       1959       7888
gilmar@gilmar-desktop:~$ free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          3962       1955       2006          0        348        730
-/+ buffers/cache:        877       3085
Swap:         5884          0       5884
gilmar@gilmar-desktop:~$

**JC Cheloven** · April 25th, 2012

That's much closer to normal, 877Mb of true 'use'.

Is it wnck-applet among those apps 'that started with the system', which you closed?

Does that figure (877Mb, which is that matter, in red below) evolve significantly after opening and then closing applications?

Code:

             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          3962       1955       2006          0        348        730
-/+ buffers/cache:        877       3085
Swap:         5884          0       5884

**onebonetune** · April 25th, 2012

I disabled transparency on the gnome panel... I am using system color now...

Code:

gilmar@gilmar-desktop:~$ free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          3962       3876         85          0        299       1344
-/+ buffers/cache:       2232       1729
Swap:         5884          0       5884
gilmar@gilmar-desktop:~$ free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          3962       3867         94          0        210       1246
-/+ buffers/cache:       2411       1551
Swap:         5884          0       5884
gilmar@gilmar-desktop:~$

It seems things are better now:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/79416317@N03/6966701154/