system tweak by Firefox+Evolution+MSTeams and RAM=4G ?

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Can anyone advise on how to configure the system to run Firefox,
Evolution + MS Teams on the system when there is little RAM(4G ram)?

With the simultaneous loading of these applications and working with heavy sites,
the system begins to go into swap.
And does not respond to anything for 15 … 50 minutes

as a temporary solution: I disabled swap and configured earlyoom

Perhaps there are other options to achieve stable system operation
under such a load (without adding RAM and without using earlyoom)?

2

Do not use BTRFS, use ext4 or XFS.

Use SSD for swap.
Make swap big enough, 8-16 GiB or more.
It is better to use NVME or Intel Optane for swap.
You may get 16-32 GiB Intel Optane M.2 modules on a second market. You may use adapters to install M.2 disks (modules, really) in a PCI-E slots.

Of course, adding RAM is much better. Or upgrade system - change motherboard.

3

Thank you.
used and is now ext4.
I’m looking for recommendations on what can be changed in the OS settings, not the hardware.

About my old hardware:

> inxi -Fxz
System:
  Kernel: 5.3.18-lp152.63-default x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 7.5.0 
  Desktop: Xfce 4.14.2 Distro: openSUSE Leap 15.2 
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Hewlett-Packard 
  product: HP Compaq nx7300 (RU604ES#ACB) v: F.0A serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 30A2 v: KBC Version 40.17 serial: <filter> 
  BIOS: Hewlett-Packard v: 68YGU Ver. F.0A date: 12/18/2006 
Battery:
  ID-1: C1BE charge: 0.0 Wh condition: 0.0/0.0 Wh (100%) 
  model: Hewlett-Packard Primary status: Full 
CPU:
  Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core2 T7400 bits: 64 type: MCP 
  arch: Core Merom rev: 6 L2 cache: 4096 KiB 
  flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 8645 
  Speed: 2161 MHz min/max: 1000/2167 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1896 2: 2022 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Mobile 945GM/GMS 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics 
  vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.3 driver: intel 
  unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa resolution: 1280x800~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel 945GM v: 1.4 Mesa 19.3.4 
  direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio 
  vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.3.18-lp152.63-default 
Network:
  Device-1: Broadcom and subsidiaries BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX 
  vendor: Hewlett-Packard NX7300 laptop driver: b44 v: 2.0 port: 40d0 
  bus ID: 02:0e.0 
  Device-2: Broadcom and subsidiaries BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN 
  vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: b43-pci-bridge v: N/A port: 40d0 
  bus ID: 10:00.0 
  IF-ID-1: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
  IF-ID-2: wg0 state: unknown speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: N/A 
  IF-ID-3: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 149.05 GiB used: 67.87 GiB (45.5%) 
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST9160821AS size: 149.05 GiB 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 24.48 GiB used: 9.00 GiB (36.8%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda3 
  ID-2: /boot size: 435.8 MiB used: 84.3 MiB (19.3%) fs: ext2 dev: /dev/sda1 
  ID-3: /home size: 116.25 GiB used: 58.78 GiB (50.6%) fs: ext4 
  dev: /dev/sda4 
Swap:
  Alert: No Swap data was found. 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 84.0 C mobo: N/A 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:
  Processes: 187 Uptime: 2h 41m Memory: 2.84 GiB used: 1.97 GiB (69.2%) 
  Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 7.5.0 Shell: bash v: 4.4.23 
  inxi: 3.1.00
4

You are only talking about the applications, but not which D yo use. Can I assume you already have a slim one?

And in the end, when your hardware can’t cope with the load you ask from it, then it can’t. I am not sure, but I thought that 8 GB RAM is recommended as the minimum for desktop usage of openSUSE. Thus when you have only half of it, what do you expect?

5

That does not look normal, unless you tweaked your system. Please show the result of:

# sysctl --values vm.swappiness vm.vfs_cache_pressure

I still have a test install of Gnome Leap on 2GB RAM and swap on rotating rust and while not blazing fast it is still usable with FF and Evolution (well, not with 50 tabs open…).
It is true that Gnome became a memory hog over the years though and XFCE or LXQT or even Plasma might be better choices with 4GB RAM.

6

Possibly you are using some indexing software - stop it.
Change HDD to a fast SSD (256 GiB or more with 256 MiB or more DRAM buffer on it).
Use swap big enough.
Try to update BIOS.
Try to use KDE (without indexing files) and other DEs. XFCE maybe not so slim in our days.
You may change CPU to Core 2 Duo T7800: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_processors .

7

Systems with 4 GiB RAM works Ok after tuning. Of course, 8 GiB is much better.
Leap may work good enough with 2-3 GiB RAM when using NVME SSD for swap.

https://en.opensuse.org/Hardware_requirements

Main memory: 1 GB physical RAM (at least 1.5 GB when using online repos, 2 GB recommended)

https://en.opensuse.org/Hardware_requirements_15.2

Main memory: 1 GB physical RAM (at least 1.5 GB with online repos, 4 GB recommended)

8

Thanks everyone for the answers.
I understand that the hardware resources are insufficient.
Trying to configure in an existing environment.
Found this article:
https://dev.to/msugakov/taking-firefox-memory-usage-under-control-on-linux-4b02

and have:

systemd-run --unit=my-firefox --user --scope -p MemoryHigh=600M -p MemoryMax=700M -p MemorySwapMax=0 firefox
Job for my-firefox3.scope failed.
See "systemctl status my-firefox.scope" and "journalctl -xe" for details.

in the log file i see:

2021-02-18T15:51:48.203262+03:00 localhost polkitd[1040]: Registered Authentication Agent for unix-process:3742:17605 (system bus name :1.72 [/usr/bin/pkttyagent --notify-fd 5 --fallback], object path /org/freedesktop/PolicyKit1/AuthenticationAgent, locale en_US.utf8)
2021-02-18T15:51:48.207002+03:00 localhost systemd[2640]: -.slice: Failed to enable controllers on cgroup /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service, ignoring: Permission denied
2021-02-18T15:51:48.207436+03:00 localhost systemd[2640]: my-firefox.scope: Failed to add PIDs to scope's control group: Permission denied
2021-02-18T15:51:48.211632+03:00 localhost systemd[2640]: Failed to start /usr/bin/firefox.
2021-02-18T15:51:48.212044+03:00 localhost systemd[2640]: my-firefox.scope: Unit entered failed state.
2021-02-18T15:51:48.218813+03:00 localhost polkitd[1040]: Unregistered Authentication Agent for unix-process:3742:17605 (system bus name :1.72, object path /org/freedesktop/PolicyKit1/AuthenticationAgent, locale en_US.utf8) (disconnected from bus)

I understand that the process launched from the current user does not have enough rights.
but what rights are missing - what to add … it is not clear :frowning:
any ideas ?

9

Found why !

(systemd --user doesn't have write access to the /sys/fs/cgroup/user.slice/user-M.slice/cgroup.procs)
10

IMHO not needed sophistications.

This is good:

Change “Content process limit” to 2

You may use OpenGL renderer instead of FF’s WebRender - good for weak machines.

If you’re using builtin graphics, then reduce video memory to 128-256 MiB.