I'm relatively new to Linux and have recently switched to Arch Linux about six months ago. I've been having an issue where my system freezes during tasks that require a lot of RAM. This started happening when I tried modded Skyrim, which loads a lot of data and takes a while, causing a significant drain on memory. This never was a problem on Windows; it would just slow down the PC, but now my whole OS locks up until I restart it. I can replicate this problem easily, even by opening multiple browser tabs. I'm not sure if my system is broken or just misconfigured. How can I fix this?
6 Answers
Have you set up a swap space on your system? If not, that's definitely something to look into. Having swap can help manage memory usage better, and you might want to consider installing something like an OOM daemon to handle out-of-memory situations before the system completely freezes. It's strange that your OS isn't automatically killing off the excessive processes though. Have you gathered any data to confirm that memory is indeed the issue?
Creating a swap partition should be a priority; 32GB should be enough. If you have extra disk space, you can go larger. Remember, even though swap is slower, it gives you a warning that you are low on RAM before the system crashes.
It seems odd that your OS doesn't kill the heavy processes when they consume too much RAM. If you haven't configured a swap space yet, that could explain a lot of these problems. Aim for at least 32GB of swap if possible, preferably on a fast NVMe drive. HDDs can cause major slowdowns when swapping starts!
Yeah, without swap, running out of RAM just leads to a freeze. It's pretty much a recipe for trouble. Just set up a swap and you'll see a big difference.
Consider adding a bit of swap and possibly using a user-mode OOM killer like earlyoom. It works pretty well and can prevent hard freezes. The swap is essential as it helps the system recognize memory pressure.
Could you check your memory status using the command "free -h"? It sounds like you may not have a swap partition. Windows sets this up automatically, but with customizable distros like Arch, it's often missed.
Exactly! The OOM handler in Linux can sometimes be unpredictable about which processes it terminates. Just having swap set up can alleviate some issues. Don't skip that part!