[Solved] Chromebook kernel update captures half of RAM on startup

[ozsouth]

Today I had an update to my Chromebooks. Crostini kernel went from 5.15.89 to 5.15.95. Via the free command, I discovered crostini now captures half your ram upon startup, with no culprit showing via the top command. I have reported this as a bug. To be sure, I opened my other chromebook, took a screeny of 'free', then did the update & took another screeny. My 8Gb ram chromebook still has 3Gb free (was 6Gb prior), so minimal effect. My 4Gb ram one has just 980k free (was 2.6GB prior) - big problem.

[ozsouth]

So today's special was that my crostini partition would not start at all. I had to delete it & reinstall. Grrrr. Fotunately I had most stuff backed up. I reinstalled with the Buster image (instead of Bullseye), hoping it would be better. Not much. At least it runs. Just have to wait for the next update.

[Jasper]

@ozsouth

I am curious, was the update carried out by the ChromeOS or are you referring to a manual update within Crostini?

Also, how did you change your build of Debian?

I just stick to the default settings for the updates.

[ozsouth]

@Jasper - The crostini update was pushed out last week. Before reinstall,
I input chrome://flags into google chrome, searched for crostini & set both
disable multiple container & Debian version for new containers as Buster.
Then went to Settings -> Developers & turned on Linux, which installed Buster.
As there is no response to my issue raised with ChromeOS, I'll wait a while
before trying to update again.

[Jasper]

@ozsouth
Thanks for explaining, I did an update a little while ago and the notebook has not been updated since.
I did attempt to install a XFCE desktop and missed a step ......... I think from memory I was meant to use Google Remote Desktop to login as I could not start it from the CLI. So, had to delete the partition and restart again.
I have to admit most of the time I use it primarily to sideload Android APK's and just run applications that I am familiar with using the command-line.

[ozsouth]

Well, there have now been 2 updates since I lodged my complaint to google via the chromebook feedback. First update was 2 weeks after my complaint, which had pictures of before & after. The latest update has Crostini seizing 80% of ram on startup (making a 4Gb machine useless for linux stuff), & then eating (without releasing) more ram as software loaded. I have also contacted the manufacturers. No amount of tweaking or powerwashing helps & rollback not available.
It really was the best of both worlds when it worked, but I cannot recommend anyone buy a chromebook at present.

[Clarity]

As a long time Chromebook owner and user, along with my Grandkids, I am not seeing the same.

Is there ANY possibility that you are storing something on your system drive locally, that is being picked up when booting your Chromebook. Or maybe a configuration-settings change made inadvertently might impact behavior.

I have 2 touchscreen 4GB Chromebooks (1 Acer and 1 Lenovo) that I run Linux and Android apps. My recent update occurred yesterday on my Lenovo (its the same one my grands have).

The other idea is maybe there is some background task that is started by something you might have toggled on, perhaps.

Lastly, as this is a last resort, you can do a factory reset which will not just reset your Chromebook, but also bring it up to date to determine if its the system that is at fault or something else local...assuming your RAM findings remain the same. In my case, I have little to nothing stored locally, so a reset would just reload putting me back with all my settings and data intact.

OH, there has been a lot of redeisign of Chrome browser that has impacted how it uses RAM. This increase in RAM use does NOT diminish service. I am not seeing ANY performance changes in my system behaviors. Still speedy, still have 20-30 webpages open, apps are still performing when clicked, all is well, here.

This is curious.

[ozsouth]

@Clarity - This is happening in the Crostini container, with default setup, on 2 2022 Lenovo Chromebooks.
(Celeron N4020 & Pentium Silver N6000, with 4Gb & 8Gb ram respectively).
The chromebook chromeos side is working fine, so I'd like to keep that.
I'm sure in time (months?), things will resolve, but this dents my trust in the update process.
Crouton (which allowed Full Linux installs) is not available on these. Nor is rollback. 'Optional Update' flag is non-operative.
What irks me is that Crostini worked well for a year, then was trashed by updates.
I could try a factory reset, but if powerwashes don't help, maybe that won't either.
Are you using Crostini, Crouton or a 3rd party Linux install?

[Clarity]

On the kids Lenovo Chromebook copy that I have to answer any questions they come up with, "no" I have not used those subsystems. Those units are ARM processor units. And the 2nd gen of these are not very powerful and lag the Intel based Chromebook I have. The kids use them in tablet mode versus desktopl/aptop by unsnapping the keyboards. They make video calls, take photos, play games, etc using the tablets more/less like a cell phone over WiFi. They, also, have a separate Chromebook issued by the school systems.

On the Acer, I haven't used those subsystem in months as I have been using PCs for my Linux work, of late. Will have to revisit those subsystems.

I did use the 'public' ChromeOS distros on a couple test machines several months ago for mere discovery.

I know that ChromeOS is going to undergo a 'massive" change during Google's "Summer of Code" soon as it starts to prepare for the upcoming school years. And I am expecting that will impact my units as a result.

I stay up to date on these units to mimic what my grandkids see, so as to support them with questions. They, like other seniors I have guided to Chromebooks since 2015, have never come back with complaints or questions ever. Its a pattern that suggest a behavior never seen in the DOS/Windows/OS2 eras of the past with these non-technical users. So, it appears, for this group, if its intuitive, stable, and easy to navigate I wont get follow-up questions. (YES, I know this paragraph is off-track)

I just took a quick look thru the developers forum and am not seeing bug reports or questions on the RAM impacts you are seeing. Even though I think you are correct, I wonder the culprit that is causing the significant change you have uncovered.

[ozsouth]

Have played with various zram settings in crosh (Ctrl-Alt-T). Near as I can figure, zram now speeds up the chromeos functioning, but detracts from crostini. Turning it off just slows down chromeos & decreases crostini's ram, so I set it to same as ram size (in crosh, swap enable 4000 for 4Gb chromebook). Using Crostini Buster option, I now have 50% ram available again, so chromebooks with 8Gb ram should be fine & I could recommend them.

LATER: My lack of understanding of zram contributed to this 'issue'. Making use of that as swap is what has changed, apparently for the overall better.

[ozsouth]

Latest ChromeOS update (Crostini kernel 5.15.117) has fixed this issue. Whatever was mysteriously using a huge block of ram is no more. Hopefully doesn't recur. Best setting now, in Crosh (ctrl-alt-t) terminal is: swap enable (no size). This is the default & all ram is then used as zram, after a restart.
Solved!