RAM use doubles over time...

[timgood]

I don't know if this is usual, but when I reboot Kubuntu 14.04 64bit, my RAM usage (as monitored by conky) starts off at around 10%. Over the course of two days it will gradually go up to around 20% and often after this the system becomes unresponsive. I have checked my RAM and it is all good. Any idea how I can find out what is causing this? Thanks guys.

[mastablasta]

it is nothing unusual if RAM is used (that's why it's there for).

the unresponsiveness is more unusual though. did you notice any processes taking up the CPU?

how much RAM do you have in total?

[timgood]

I have 12GB RAM - looking at top I can't see any processes that are taking up the RAM. It's more like the RAM is not released after programs are closed down. Conky showing RAM use at 12% after 5 hours of up-time. Top gives me:

1564 root 20 0 203548 84196 48508 S 3.3 0.7 46:27.46 Xorg
2594 tim 20 0 528824 176652 45220 S 2.3 1.4 7:52.44 skype
13115 tim 20 0 516916 29596 19976 S 2.0 0.2 0:00.54 konsole
2634 tim 20 0 526184 54036 8980 S 1.3 0.4 4:23.90 conky
1181 root 20 0 4368 688 516 S 1.0 0.0 0:11.84 acpid
13055 tim 20 0 991504 83596 24708 S 1.0 0.7 0:02.70 chrome 1564 root 20 0 203548 84196 48508 S 3.3 0.7 46:27.46 Xorg
2594 tim 20 0 528824 176652 45220 S 2.3 1.4 7:52.44 skype
13115 tim 20 0 516916 29596 19976 S 2.0 0.2 0:00.54 konsole
2634 tim 20 0 526184 54036 8980 S 1.3 0.4 4:23.90 conky
1181 root 20 0 4368 688 516 S 1.0 0.0 0:11.84 acpid
13055 tim 20 0 991504 83596 24708 S 1.0 0.7 0:02.70 chrome
2610 tim 20 0 1232764 139428 53816 S 0.7 1.1 2:33.73 chrome
30 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.3 0.0 0:04.08 kworker/1:0
2859 tim 20 0 1107344 132600 39492 S 0.3 1.1 1:01.22 chrome
12737 tim 20 0 1195528 201344 34560 S 0.3 1.6 0:20.90 chrome
13140 tim 20 0 24988 1776 1212 R 0.3 0.0 0:00.06 top
1 root 20 0 33920 3232 1500 S 0.0 0.0 0:01.53 init
2610 tim 20 0 1232764 139428 53816 S 0.7 1.1 2:33.73 chrome
30 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.3 0.0 0:04.08 kworker/1:0
2859 tim 20 0 1107344 132600 39492 S 0.3 1.1 1:01.22 chrome
12737 tim 20 0 1195528 201344 34560 S 0.3 1.6 0:20.90 chrome
13140 tim 20 0 24988 1776 1212 R 0.3 0.0 0:00.06 top
1 root 20 0 33920 3232 1500 S 0.0 0.0 0:01.53 init

Have no idea why chrome appears multiple times? (EDIT) found chrome was running in background. Unticked box and RAM has dropped to 10% again.

[oldrocker99]

Chrome is kind of a memory hog, which is why Firefox is the default browser in Ubuntu; it was Canonical's decision.

[mcduck]

I don't know if this is usual, but when I reboot Kubuntu 14.04 64bit, my RAM usage (as monitored by conky) starts off at around 10%. Over the course of two days it will gradually go up to around 20% and often after this the system becomes unresponsive. I have checked my RAM and it is all good. Any idea how I can find out what is causing this? Thanks guys.

Your problem is definitely something else than the RAM usage.

Free RAM doesn't improve performance in any way, and RAM usage only causes issues when it's closet to 100% and there isn't enough RAM available for the processes. With 80% of RAM unused you most certainly are not there yet.

I'd recommend taking a better look at running processes and CPU usage instead.

[SeijiSensei]

Remember, too, that Linux uses available memory to cache disk operations. On the machine I'm typing on, top reports that 7.7 out of 8.1 GB are in use, but 3.4 GB of that is disk cache. That figure adjusts dynamically depending on the memory demands of the currently-running applications.