GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 665678
Why does gnome-shell use 3.5+ gigs of memory?
Last modified: 2012-11-27 21:53:04 UTC
Created attachment 202920 [details] screenshot of memory leak The most I ever let it go to was 5.6 gigs, them my computer ran out of memory. It does this pretty regularly, and the only way I've found to fix it is to log out and back in. It was slowing down as well - requiring a re-login. That has gone away, but the memory leak remains. <code> ~$ lspci 00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS880 Host Bridge 00:02.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (ext gfx port 0) 00:05.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 1) 00:06.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 2) 00:11.0 SATA controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 SATA Controller [IDE mode] (rev 40) 00:12.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller 00:12.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller 00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller 00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller 00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 SMBus Controller (rev 41) 00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 IDE Controller (rev 40) 00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) (rev 40) 00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 LPC host controller (rev 40) 00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge (rev 40) 00:14.5 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI2 Controller 00:15.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800/SB900 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 0) 00:16.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller 00:16.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller 00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor HyperTransport Configuration 00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor Address Map 00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor DRAM Controller 00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor Miscellaneous Control 00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor Link Control 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GF108 [GeForce GT 430] (rev a1) 01:00.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation GF108 High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1) 02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 03) 03:00.0 USB Controller: NEC Corporation uPD720200 USB 3.0 Host Controller (rev 03) 05:00.0 IDE interface: JMicron Technology Corp. JMB368 IDE controller </code> ~$ gnome-shell --version GNOME Shell 3.2.1 Any suggestions?
Are you using the nvidia driver?
Hi, yes nvidia-current 280.13-0ubuntu6
Created attachment 202923 [details] nvidia drivers in synaptic
Could you try the nouveau driver? Perhaps using a live CD if you don't want to mess with your installation? The Fedora 16 live CD would be a good way to try. I'm not sure if Ubuntu uses nouveau by default.
Hi, how can I do this with apt-get?
(In reply to comment #5) > Hi, how can I do this with apt-get? I think you just need to disable the NVidia proprietary driver in the Restricted drivers config tool. Or if you can try a LiveCD, just burn it as you did to install Ubuntu.
Hi, the nouveau drivers work but for two things: - Gnome reverts to Gnome Classic (can't test Gnome-shell) - The "Display" setting doesn't detect my monitors correctly, so the resolution is off. So, nouveau is no good.
You may want to try installing the latest drivers from NVidia's website, as bugs with the Shell are likely to have been fixed recently.
Indeed gnome-shell seems to have a memory leak. Memory usage increases and is never released (checking through "top"). I have a nvidia proprietary driver too.
This doesn't happen when I use compiz, I have properitary Nvidia drivers too. After using GNOME Shell for some time it works slower and slower. tommy@TommyPC:~$ gnome-shell --version GNOME Shell 3.2.1
Is this still a problem in 3.6?
Yes, this is still a problem in Gnome 3.6.x
This is a known bug with NVIDIA: their engineers are aware of it, and have it on their TODO lists. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 685513 ***