Hi Mélodie, I'll reply inline Best regards Nio On 2013-10-11 13:23, JM wrote: > On Fri, 11 Oct 2013 10:47:21 +0200 > Nio Wiklund <nio.wikl...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> [Results after installation at the end] >> >> -------- Original Message -------- >> Subject: final Lubuntu i386 desktop live >> Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2013 09:06:30 +0200 >> From: Nio Wiklund <nio.wikl...@gmail.com> >> To: lubuntu-qa@lists.launchpad.net <lubuntu-qa@lists.launchpad.net> >> >> Hi! >> >> I have started testing the final Lubuntu i386 desktop live session, and >> found the bugs 940919 and 1213837. >> >> Slow but no freeze with low RAM >> >> I limited RAM to 256 MB, and it worked. no freeze while I installed htop >> at the same time as I opened Firefox. I could run htop and watch >> swapping. Firefox was extremely slow, and you hardly browse to >> ubuntu.com (I saw the top of the page but could not scroll, even after >> waiting for minutes). So live session with 256 MB is no go with this >> version in this computer >> >> http://www.toshiba.se/laptops/satellite-pro/c850/satellite-pro-c850-19w/ >> >> if you want to browse the internet. I could close Firefox and see the >> RAM being released. >> >> Maybe old hardware and an installed system eats less RAM, so it might >> work better with low RAM, but the main reason of this test was to >> stress-test zRAM. >> >> Best regards >> Nio >> ------------------------ >> Hi again, >> >> Installation worked with 512 MB RAM. Not the same freeze as with beta2, >> but the restart after installation was not clean. It froze with only >> back-light on, and I had to shut off with the button. After booting the >> installed system worked as it should. >> >> Firefox offered to install flash 'Plugin Finder Service 2', but it got >> stuck forever (a bug?). But sudo apt-get flashplugin-installer works and >> lets me watch youtube videos. Firefox works reasonably well as installed >> with 256 MB RAM (much better than live in the same computer). >> >> I did not identify any of the old bugs. >> >> Best regards >> Nio > > Hi, > > I would have liked to read from your tests if the machine slows down by > swapping too early > while some memory is still available or if it uses most of the physical RAM > before doing > so. You could see it by having htop running in a console and keep on eye on > proc and ram > use at the top of the console while starting and using applications.
I *was* watching the memory usage and process activity with htop :-) It was swapping before the memory was fully used (Lubuntu is always doing that, with or without zRAM). I have not changed the swappiness from the default value. > I have done tests with ZRAM, in an iso I am doing (a personal remix done with > ubuntu-builder) and have not finished yet. It consists in once having the > configuration > default provided by the zram-config package, then in another ISO switch to the > configuration I have described before. > > I still have one test to do which could make a difference. > > Linux kernels have been known to swap to disk too early since many years, and > the > following configuration is a mean to limit the too early swappiness. I think some (or many) people want it that way, to have a margin, when a large chunk of RAM is needed, and I have followed discussion threads about swappiness. Some people claim there should be different settings for servers compared to desktops & laptops (more swappiness for servers). I have not tested with different swappiness, so I have no own experience. > So the test I want to do at last will consist in using the default zram-config > configuration and add just this: > > > ********** > vm.swappiness=0 > vm.vfs_cache_pressure=50 > > # Uncomment the next line if we are running a laptop > # vm.laptop_mode = 1 > > ********** > > as a file such as 50-local.conf in /etc/sysctl.d. > > I wanted to try in Lubuntu but ubuntu-builder has not been able to redo a > bootable ISO > from from the build directory after I added the file in the Lubuntu > filesystem and > generated a new ISO. I can try it in an installed system. It is easier and also more interesting for me :-P -o- I think the ramdisk makes it harder for the memory management in the live system, which could explain why it choked earlier than the installed system with 256 MB RAM. > If you have some means of testing this setup in your machine it could be > interesting. (As > live I fancy it could be done with an install to USB with USB Creator and > then having a > persistant mode, add the file, and reboot to the persistant mode once more to > test the > setup, in your install you could just add the setup and see while using and > with htop if > that makes a difference after some time using Firefox or else?) > > What I don't know yet either is if having zram module loaded and at work > increases the > linux kernel swappiness tendency or if it is totally unrelated : I had never > wondered > about it so far. > > Regards, > Mélodie > -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~lubuntu-qa Post to : lubuntu-qa@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~lubuntu-qa More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
