qemu/kvm memory question (programming.dev)

submitted 5 days ago by transporter_ii@programming.dev to c/linux4noobs@programming.dev

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Moved to Mint months back. I had to install Win10 in a kvm for a couple of things impossible on Linux. I allocated 16 gig of ram to the kvm. I can't really find anything on how that works, exactly. According to Stacer, I have a consistent 16 gig of ram being used, but that's between a running Win10 kvm and all of my other running Linux programs. I've never seen my system memory use move higher or lower than 16 gig of ram when the vm is running. Again, that's the kvm + normal Linux programs.

If I allocated 16 gig of ram to the kvm, shouldn't my memory usage be over 16 gig or ram with other Linux programs running?

About once a week, maybe two weeks, I open a new tab on a browser and it hangs my system. Nothing works but the mouse pointer.

I initially thought of a memory leak with Firefox, but it will also do it opening a new tab in Chrome.

The last time it hung up, I think I noticed the virtual machine manager icon was missing from the menu bar. I'm waiting for it to hang up again to verify this.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

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[-] transporter_ii@programming.dev 1 points 2 days ago

So, it just froze on me about 10 minutes ago. I can drop to the console. The vm manager icon did not disappear from the menu bar, so I was wrong about that. Everything freezes. I cannot interact with any browser or any app. The mouse pointer did change from a pointer to hand over a link or something at one point, but never changed back. After dropping to the console, I eventually just had to reboot and restart everything. The best way to describe it is, someone replaced my desktop with an image, and the only thing that still works is moving the mouse around.

I'm thinking it's been about a week or so since it did this last. Oh, and I was poking around on a web page when it did it. Web browsers are always involved, but not specifically any one browser.

[-] refalo@programming.dev 1 points 2 days ago

If you can still switch to the console, then check dmesg and/or journalctl -eb for any issues. But this at least tells you the system itself is not frozen. The kernel still works.

I would try to restart your login manager/desktop environment and see if that brings you back to a working desktop. If so then it sounds like a software bug in your DE. You could try switching to a different one and see if that helps anything. As a last resort you could also try a completely different Linux distro.

this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2026

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