This is still happening in Ubuntu 17.10. Last time I tried to use ubuntu it was with 16.04 and I had to stop using it because of this issue. This is a critical bug, and I cannot understand that it is marked as low priority and not assigned to anyone.
I cannot use Linux like this, I don't use the computer to browse web pages and write a couple of documents, for that I would buy a tablet, I use the computer to perform large computations, and they will overtake the existing RAM of the computer. I had a process that was generating a delanuay triangulation with a large set of nodes, and it was impossible to perform this calculation in Ubuntu, I switched to a MacBook pro with similar specs and the computation finished in 2 min. I have already tweaked the system using zram, zswap, changing the values of the vm., like swappinness, etc. to no avail. This is preventing me to change to Linux, and it should be fixed. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Kernel Packages, which is subscribed to linux in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/159356 Title: System freeze on high memory usage Status in linux package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Status in linux package in Arch Linux: New Bug description: I run a batch matlab job server here at my lab, running Dapper 6.06 (for the LTS). One of the users has submitted a very memory-consuming job, which successfully crashes the server. Upon closer inspection, the crash happens like this: 1. I run matlab with the given file (as an ordinary, unpriveleged user) 2. RAM usage quickly fills up 3. Once the RAM meter hits 100%, the system freezes: All SSH connections freeze up, and while switching VTs directly on the machine works, no new processes run - so one can't log in, or do anything if he is logged in. (Sometimes typing doesn't work at all) Note that the swap - while 7 gigs of it are available - is never used. (The machine has 7 gigs of RAM as well) I've tried the same on my Gutsy 32-bit box, and there was no system freezeup - matlab simply notified that the system was out of memory. However, it did this once memory was 100% in use - and still, swap didn't get used at all! (Though it is mounted correctly and shows up in "top" and "free"). So first thing's first - I'd like to eliminate the crash issue. I suppose I could switch the server to 32-bit, but I think that would be a performance loss, considering that it does a lot of heavy computation. There is no reason, however, that this should happen on a 64-bit machine anyway. Why does it? WORKAROUND: Enabling DMA in the BIOS To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/159356/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kernel-packages Post to : kernel-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kernel-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp