---
title: Linux Memory Management
date: 2009-02-11T13:59:29.000Z
---

I have 3gbs of memory in my system and a fast processor, yet my system would start choking when I used too much memory, so I sat out to fix it.

What I learned is that there's a setting in `/etc/sysctl.conf` called `vm.swappiness` that controls to what level the Linux kernel should use disk based virtual memory from 1-100.

In Ubuntu, this is set to 60 by default, which roughly translates to 60% of all virtual memory being disk based, and therefore, slow.

To change the value simply edit the file (e.g. `gksu gedit /etc/sysctl.conf`) and add the line `vm.swappiness = 1` (change `1` to what you think is appropriate) - the change will take effect on next reboot.

If you want the effect now, you can run `sudo sysctl vm.swappiness=1` in a terminal.

A very welcome effect of this change is that Nautilus is now many, many, many times faster!