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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Auto kill memory leaking processes before swap death loop (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

14 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I'm using linux mint 21.3, and a process (brave aka chrome) sometimes memory leaking, so eats all the RAM, and then linux goes into swap death loop, when everything freezes (sometimes the mouse cursor is moving), and nothing can't be done, i can just see the HDD led blinking, and do a reset. Is there a way to make the system automatically detect swap death loop, and close the biggest ram user process, and so on?

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (6 children)

Just turn off swap? You don't really need it, and the kernel wiil just oom kill without it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that the leaking process will be the next process to try to allocate memory after you run out. It might actually be your window manager, for example.

The OOM killer is a last-ditch attempt by the OS to keep running, but it is very likely to leave your system in an unstable state.

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