Yes, Linux Does Bad In Low RAM / Memory Pressure Situations On The Desktop

[uc_sam]

Not surprised. At my workplace (where we work with low cost embedded devices), we have to do some crazy tweaks to Linux to make it work nicely.

[SystemCrasher]

+As 'nivedita' (phoronix user) put it:
+"Executables and shared libraries are paged into memory, and can be paged out +even with no swap. [...] The kernel is dumping those pages and [...] immediately +reading them back in when execution continues." +^ and that's what's causing the disk thrashing during memory pressure.

I wonder, what it takes to totally disable this attitude? Would it have some side effects or something, beyond failing to save pennies such an awkward way?

[hakavlad]

How do you like it https://github.com/hakavlad/nohang, birdie ?

[hakavlad]

Executables and shared libraries are paged into memory, and can be paged out even with no swap.

I think that’s part of the reason this is being considered a bug. The kernel is dumping those pages and likely immediately reading them back in when execution continues.

The bug you described can be fixed in two ways:
- in userspace: https://github.com/hakavlad/prelockd
- in kernel-space: https://github.com/hakavlad/le9-patch