System Cleanup and Memory Availability

**LinuXofArabiA** · February 4th, 2012

Thanks. Appreciate your time.

**dagroves** · February 4th, 2012

I know most of this has been said before but this is what I do and in the exact order that I do them in. (Make sure Ubuntu Tweak and Bleachbit and the Bleachbit Bonus Pack are installed)

Open a terminal and type this in

Code:

sudo apt-get clean && sudo apt-get autoclean && sudo apt-get autoremove

Then, open up Ubuntu Tweak as root (in terminal)

Code:

 sudo ubuntu-tweak

and run the janitor, then open up Bleachbit as root (in terminal)

Code:

 sudo bleachbit

and run all the cleaners.

Enjoy a squeaky clean system!

**Linux Dutchman** · February 4th, 2012

Ubuntu Tweak is a tool i don't recommend to new users or inexperienced users. The reason not using Ubuntu Tweak is that it can add packages/repositories of sites which bypasses the rights management system of Ubuntu which verifies the repositories. Like this, there's a big change that users add unstable or corrupt packages which can destroy a good working system.

And also, with Ubuntu Tweak an inexperienced user can remove things which also can destroy a good running system.

Only if you know what you're doing (experienced users) you could use Ubuntu Tweak.

**Kixtosh** · February 4th, 2012

LinuXofArabiA, I don't remember your system specifications from some of your other threads, but I agree with what has been suggested already: Ubuntu is already very efficient with memory and does not slow down over time either. If you want a snappier system, probably the two best options available to you are:

Try lightweight alternatives, although I have found these make very little difference in real performance for machines with even moderate specifications (they are most useful for machines with very modest specifications).
Add a Solid State Hard Drive to your computer.

With my simple Core 2 Duo 1.2 GHz CPU, 2 GB of RAM and integrated graphics laptop with a SSD, I boot Ubuntu in twenty seconds, and shut down in three. I can open my first Firefox session from a cold boot in two or three seconds, and just one second after that. This is much better than Windows, but there is some lag with some applications from a cold boot.

Adding extra RAM and attempting to clean things up are solutions that can help significantly with Windows, but that are unlikely to help revolutionize your performance with Ubuntu in my opinion. My system almost never uses even 0.5 GB of RAM, and I've never caught it making use of Swap either, for instance. If you're unhappy with performance currently and/or expecting everything to happen within one second, your only solution is probably to get a new computer with appropriate specifications ... preferably including a SSD.

**LinuXofArabiA** · February 5th, 2012

[QUOTE=Kixtosh;11663871

Adding extra RAM and attempting to clean things up are solutions that can help significantly with Windows, but that are unlikely to help revolutionize your performance with Ubuntu in my opinion. My system almost never uses even 0.5 GB of RAM, and I've never caught it making use of Swap either, for instance. If you're unhappy with performance currently and/or expecting everything to happen within one second, your only solution is probably to get a new computer with appropriate specifications ... preferably including a SSD.[/QUOTE]

Thanks Kixtosh. Acutally, I am not complaining at all, im just wondering about the level of control I can get out of Ubuntu on system resources. I have a question which havent been answer so far, which is how to learn more about a specific process once I use 'top' in the CLI. There are many processes and simply typing 'man' infront of their names doesnt necessarily show up a manual for them. This works for Firefox, but not others.

Also, how did you know that you system uses 0.5 GB of RAM. could you be more specific as to how you found out that number. Like exact details as to where I could find that number on my system?

Thanks

**cryptotheslow** · February 5th, 2012

To find current memory usage:

In the terminal:

Code:

free -m

This will output a display like this:

Code:

             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          3858       1366       2491          0         87        727
-/+ buffers/cache:        551       3306
Swap:         2519          0       2519

That is showing memory usage in MB. It can be slightly confusing but the number of interest is the first one on the 2nd line - in my case here 551. The "used" on the 1st line includes memory that is used for disk cache / buffered for applications but not actually in use so could be released immediately for other use if required.

There's a good explanation here:
http://www.linuxatemyram.com/

As for the processes you can't find man pages for - either ask away here or resort to your favourite search engine.

Enjoy

**ikt** · February 5th, 2012

Generally 3 types of desktop distro's.

Fat - try to do everything and then some
Thin - try to do just enough while using the least amount of resources possible
You decide - Distro's like Arch, Gentoo, Slackware etc which give you complete control from the start, though installation time, difficulty and learning curve go through the roof.

When it comes to older style laptops Xubuntu and Lubuntu are definitely the kings here, tweaking Ubuntu will only get you so far.

**Kixtosh** · February 5th, 2012

Originally Posted by cryptotheslow

To find current memory usage:

In the terminal:

Code:

free -m

... the number of interest is the first one on the 2nd line - in my case here 551. ...

This "number of interest" also matches what is shown in the System Monitor:

There is a System tab which will give a brief description of the system, similar to Pause+Break in Windows.
There is a "Processes" Tab which currently indicates that most memory on my system is being used by Firefox (162 MiB, which is what I would expect).
The "Resources" tab shows CPU load, Memory and Swap usage, and Network history. My memory usage is currently 366 MiB with three browser Windows open on two desktops, totaling eight open browser tabs altogether. This is the number which matches the second line result of the Terminal command above.
The "File Systems" tab gives a brief description of the drives currently in use.

In Lucid Lynx 10.0 LTS, the System Monitor is by default in the System > Administration Menu, from the Top Panel. It's very simple, and equates to the Task Monitor in Windows, more or less. Another, more complete option is the System Profiler and Benchmark. It's included by default in some distros, in fact:

Can be installed very simply from the Ubuntu Software Center. Just type "System Profiler" in the USC search box, and then click install.
Will install by default in Lucid Lynx in the Applications Menu.