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submitted 14 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) by wolf@lemmy.zip to c/linux@lemmy.ml

MGLRU.

On my low RAM/CPU netbook it is a game changer; thanks to ZRAM the netbook is perfect for browsing the internet/light work. When running my backups (creates big tarballs) or Ansible though, my desktop/applications would freeze/stutter noticeably. Enabling MGLRU simply solved the problem of freezes/stuttering, it feels like magic and besides ZRAM, I don't know of any other lever with this massive impact on desktop performance.

Just wanted to share this, for other users with low RAM/CPU hardware. I would assume the observed difference is less dramatic, once 8GB of RAM are available, but I would love to hear about other experiences.

I would also love to hear/learn about other levers with high impact to tweak for low RAM/CPU desktop devices. Anything else to tweak under /sys /proc which has impact on performance?

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[-] geoff@lemm.ee 6 points 10 hours ago

Did you need to compile a kernel to enable it? I’ve just done the project of installing Debian on a 20 year old iMac with 2.5 GB of RAM, and while zram definitely seems to help, I’d love to try this as well.

[-] notanapple@lemm.ee 3 points 6 hours ago

Yes, but maybe debian enables it by default? You can check by running cat /sys/kernel/mm/lru_gen/enabled

If the result is 0x0007, it means MGLRU is fully enabled.

[-] wolf@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 hours ago

Debian does not enable it by default, cat /sys/kernel/mm/lru_gen/enabled will be a 0.

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this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2025
26 points (96.4% liked)

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