I recently switched to Linux Mint and overall it's been smooth sailing. However, I've noticed that sometimes my laptop runs really slowly or even freezes. I initially thought it was a memory issue, but I still have plenty of memory available. For context, my laptop has 50 GB of disk space and is powered by an i5-4310U processor. Any insights on what might be causing these slowdowns would be appreciated!
1 Answer
It sounds like you might be confusing disk space with RAM. When you're mentioning that you have 50 GB, I assume you're talking about hard drive space, right? If so, the slowdown is likely related to RAM usage. You can check the actual RAM usage by opening the system monitor app in Linux Mint. If you find that your RAM is getting full, I recommend enabling the "Magic SysRq Key". You can do this by creating or editing a file in /etc/sysctl.d and adding `kernel.sysrq = 1`. This way, you can press Alt-PrintScreen-F to trigger the 'Out of Memory' killer if your system gets slow. Just keep in mind that the OOM killer only activates at 100% RAM usage, which can make your system lag before it kicks in.
Thanks for the info! You're right, I meant disk space. Got it on checking the RAM usage. How can I add that command to sysctl.d?