Why is my free RAM space so low?

[VinceIP]

I'm using Puppy off of a Live multisession DVD. When I first started using multisession, I was seeing 121 MB of free space in my RAM usage in the corner down there. I rebooted, and now it shrunk to 45. Shouldn't it be much higher, since I'm using a 4.7 GB DVD+R for storage and sessions?

When I try to download and extract some apps, like Wine and even small things like the xtris game, I get a "not enough space" error. This makes no sense, considering I've tried to download apps around 400k while I still have 45 MB free.

What's going on? How can I get more space?

[brad_chuck]

Hi VinceIP, Welcome

It sounds like you only have 256 MB or less RAM. The best way to gain more memory is to use a save file on your hard disk.

Or even better install to hard drive.

This can be done with the installer in Menu -> Setup -> Puppy installer

[Flash]

Are you using the Thunderbird email client? When I did that, it gradually filled up my RAM. Apparently, when something gets in your email you can't get rid of it, it just becomes hidden when you "delete" it, and the whole damn mess gets loaded into RAM when you boot the multisession DVD. I consider it a flaw in the design of Thunderbird, and maybe all email programs.

Now that I've switched entirely to Yahoo for my email, it's not a problem.

[mikeb]

Apparently, when something gets in your email you can't get rid of it, it just becomes hidden when you "delete" it, and the whole damn mess gets loaded into RAM when you boot the multisession DVD.

Reduction only happens when the folder(s) are compacted....email client on a multisession seem a bit pointless (zero cache for firefox/mozilla is a good idea too)

The memory figure in the taskbar can be misleading for multisession...open a console and type 'free'...this will give a better idea of space available in ram.

If you need to conserve space then remastering is the best way...any applications you add will be compressed in the pupxxx.sfs file so will take up less space than if added and saved as a session. Also you can remove applications that you do not require as well.The wizard is very good and designed to minimise the space needed for its operation.

Or perhaps start with a bare bones version and add just what you need...you will find puppy is the most versitile distro on the planet

regards

mike

[markos]

This is normal for linux, it uses what was unused ram for caching and
buffering. Unused RAM is wasted, why not use it for caching
and buffering i/o ? Later if a application is trying to load and there's not enough
space it immediately releases a chunk from what it was using for
buffers or cache and gives it to the application to overwrite.

Mark