Re: debian-5.0.3 on ThinkPad A21e : dude, where's my RAM ?

[Ionreflex <ionreflex@gmail.com>]

Thanks for your inputs, I'll proceed with Xfce installation for now... if I end up with another choking slug, I'll come back to haunt you! :o)

2009/11/14 Sven Joachim <svenjoac@gmx.de>

On 2009-11-14 06:21 +0100, Ionreflex wrote:

> I've just installed a fresh debian on an old IBM ThinkPad A21e (see cpuz
> info in attachement) and I'm kinda bedazzled - in the wrong sense! - at how
> much an idle system seems to hog RAM : out of 256, half of it is always
> used...

It is used as a cache for files from the hard disk.  The services
running on the system take only 17 Megabyte, as can be seen in the third
line of the "free" output:

> frosties:~# free
>              total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
> Mem:        256396     125280     131116          0       7908      99752
> -/+ buffers/cache:      17620     238776
> Swap:       369452          0     369452

This is absolutely fine.

Sven

2009/11/14 Andrei Popescu <andreimpopescu@gmail.com>

On Sat,14.Nov.09, 00:21:58, Ionreflex wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I've just installed a fresh debian on an old IBM ThinkPad A21e (see cpuz
> info in attachement) and I'm kinda bedazzled - in the wrong sense! - at how
> much an idle system seems to hog RAM : out of 256, half of it is always
> used...

If the system is idle than you don't really need the RAM, don't you?
Watch the swap usage, because it's a better indicator.

Regards,
Andrei