[SOLVED]nm-applet taking too much memory (sometimes all the processes)

Question

Hello,
One of the reason i chose Archlinux (archbang) was to keep the system small to fit in my little 512MB of ram and i've been happy so far but for some reason i noticed that nm-applet is now taking a *lot* of memory, around 40mb while it didn't use that much.
Here is my ps_mem after a fresh boot:
Private + Shared = RAM used Program
108.0 KiB + 59.0 KiB = 167.0 KiB gnome-pty-helper
252.0 KiB + 112.0 KiB = 364.0 KiB dbus-launch
268.0 KiB + 109.5 KiB = 377.5 KiB rtkit-daemon
360.0 KiB + 57.0 KiB = 417.0 KiB dhcpcd
364.0 KiB + 146.5 KiB = 510.5 KiB lxdm-binary
644.0 KiB + 86.5 KiB = 730.5 KiB systemd-logind
412.0 KiB + 387.0 KiB = 799.0 KiB gconfd-2
740.0 KiB + 142.5 KiB = 882.5 KiB gnome-keyring-daemon
588.0 KiB + 456.0 KiB = 1.0 MiB (sd-pam)
516.0 KiB + 529.5 KiB = 1.0 MiB gconf-helper
588.0 KiB + 461.5 KiB = 1.0 MiB at-spi-bus-launcher
676.0 KiB + 505.5 KiB = 1.2 MiB at-spi2-registryd
848.0 KiB + 370.5 KiB = 1.2 MiB lxdm-session
1.1 MiB + 127.0 KiB = 1.3 MiB systemd-udevd
1.2 MiB + 88.5 KiB = 1.3 MiB systemd-journald
1.4 MiB + 174.0 KiB = 1.6 MiB bash
992.0 KiB + 711.0 KiB = 1.7 MiB dbus-daemon (3)
1.2 MiB + 538.0 KiB = 1.8 MiB sudo
840.0 KiB + 1.3 MiB = 2.1 MiB systemd (2)
1.7 MiB + 876.5 KiB = 2.5 MiB conky
2.0 MiB + 667.0 KiB = 2.6 MiB wpa_supplicant
3.8 MiB + 985.5 KiB = 4.8 MiB pulseaudio
3.6 MiB + 1.4 MiB = 5.0 MiB NetworkManager
6.1 MiB + 613.5 KiB = 6.7 MiB polkitd
22.2 MiB + 2.0 MiB = 24.2 MiB dunst
22.6 MiB + 2.0 MiB = 24.6 MiB tint2
23.7 MiB + 2.1 MiB = 25.8 MiB openbox
27.5 MiB + 2.7 MiB = 30.2 MiB lxterminal
26.4 MiB + 4.9 MiB = 31.2 MiB volumeicon
29.4 MiB + 5.7 MiB = 35.0 MiB nm-applet
42.7 MiB + 1.2 MiB = 43.9 MiB Xorg.bin
255.8 MiB
=================================
I used to have 75mb used in the same situation.
Here is ps_mem after some use, things looks like something normal except for nm-applet.
Private + Shared = RAM used Program
4.0 KiB + 31.0 KiB = 35.0 KiB gnome-pty-helper
4.0 KiB + 48.0 KiB = 52.0 KiB dbus-launch
4.0 KiB + 57.5 KiB = 61.5 KiB lxdm-binary
4.0 KiB + 71.0 KiB = 75.0 KiB (sd-pam)
24.0 KiB + 59.5 KiB = 83.5 KiB rtkit-daemon
8.0 KiB + 87.0 KiB = 95.0 KiB cat (2)
4.0 KiB + 95.5 KiB = 99.5 KiB lxdm-session
4.0 KiB + 99.0 KiB = 103.0 KiB at-spi-bus-launcher
20.0 KiB + 87.0 KiB = 107.0 KiB chrome-sandbox (2)
4.0 KiB + 130.0 KiB = 134.0 KiB gconf-helper
160.0 KiB + 51.0 KiB = 211.0 KiB dhcpcd
140.0 KiB + 103.5 KiB = 243.5 KiB gconfd-2
260.0 KiB + 131.5 KiB = 391.5 KiB at-spi2-registryd
452.0 KiB + 51.0 KiB = 503.0 KiB systemd-udevd
492.0 KiB + 40.5 KiB = 532.5 KiB systemd-logind
444.0 KiB + 170.5 KiB = 614.5 KiB pulseaudio
500.0 KiB + 196.5 KiB = 696.5 KiB conky
620.0 KiB + 115.0 KiB = 735.0 KiB wpa_supplicant
932.0 KiB + 48.5 KiB = 980.5 KiB systemd-journald
628.0 KiB + 362.0 KiB = 990.0 KiB tint2
612.0 KiB + 534.5 KiB = 1.1 MiB dbus-daemon (3)
492.0 KiB + 659.0 KiB = 1.1 MiB bash (2)
1.0 MiB + 275.5 KiB = 1.2 MiB systemd (2)
1.3 MiB + 330.0 KiB = 1.6 MiB openbox
1.5 MiB + 370.0 KiB = 1.9 MiB sudo
1.2 MiB + 737.5 KiB = 1.9 MiB dunst
816.0 KiB + 1.4 MiB = 2.2 MiB volumeicon
1.8 MiB + 766.5 KiB = 2.5 MiB NetworkManager
2.2 MiB + 866.0 KiB = 3.1 MiB lxterminal
2.7 MiB + 447.0 KiB = 3.1 MiB polkitd
13.8 MiB + 267.5 KiB = 14.1 MiB Xorg.bin
20.4 MiB + 357.0 KiB = 20.7 MiB nacl_helper
38.2 MiB + 3.1 MiB = 41.3 MiB nm-applet
171.4 MiB + 77.6 MiB = 249.1 MiB chrome (10)
351.5 MiB
=================================
I could live with an applet taking 40mb on a more beefy machine but being just behind chrome looks wrong. So i'm not sure what has changed, at the moment i just kill the process but i considered switching to wicd if it's ever better but it appears that it's not well maintained.
Any hint?
Last edited by Bombombom (2014-09-05 10:47:42)

Answer 1

Thanks for your answers.
I needed to use my computer and it wasn't usable so i just reinstalled my distro and went back to normal, while tweaking the OS i made various reboots to check if it happened again and how...
And the problem of my system taking 240ish MB at boot vs 75MB is actually the nvidia drivers, after installing nvidia-304xx the memory went up a lot, but removing the driver and switching back to nouveau actually make the system way less greedy memory-wise, there is still a bit of mystery in one of the case where everything was fine but nm-applet but i think it's half solved here.
PS : I gave shot at zswap but it made my computer unusable and freeze a lot