qemu/kvm memory question (programming.dev)

submitted 1 month 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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[-] DeltaWingDragon@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 weeks ago

It might actually be running out of memory. 16GB are used, and the other 16GB are unusable somehow. Could be a bad RAM stick or bad connection (as mentioned by others), or it could be a memory quota. Run ulimit -a to check the quota.

However, on my second read, the symptoms do not match up with running out of memory. (can drop to the console, can move the mouse) It could be a problem with the desktop environment. Which DE do you use?

[-] transporter_ii@programming.dev 1 points 3 weeks ago

It's pretty much a default install of Linux Mint, with Cinnamon. I haven't even installed that many programs, yet. Pretty much a vm, vscode, 4 browsers, gimp, and some small utilities.

[-] transporter_ii@programming.dev 1 points 3 weeks ago

OK, I just did some testing, and it was not exactly what I was expecting. For one, it's kind of hard to intentionally use a lot of memory. The best thing I found was opening a large amount of tabs in Firefox. I maybe could increase my swap space, but I never hung my system up. I shut down the vm and used about 18 gig of ram. I then started the vm.

The deal is, Stacer isn't exactly accurate when the VM starts. For some reason, memory usage (on Stacer) drops when the vm starts up. Checking the system resource monitor, memory usage briefly jumped to 28 gig in it. It never reflected this on Stacer. However, without the full 16 gig of ram allocated to the vm, Windows boots up, and then shuts back down after a brief period.

I stopped and started Windows numerous times. It would actually make Linux stutter as the memory maxed out, but it never froze up to the point I had to reboot to fix it.

The swap space did about max out during some of this. I do think I will increase the swap space a little.

this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2026

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