Ubuntu
virtualbox-ose package

recover ram in virtualbox

Asked by Waluyo Adi Siswanto

Previously I installed virtualbox to have windows in my ubuntu. Since I don't need this I did uninstall virtualbox and delete .virtualbox directory, so I can recover space used.
My question is what about the ram that previously allocated for windows. Has it been allocated back fully for ubuntu when I uninstalled or I have to do something else to recover back the ram. How can check the ram?
Thank you for any information.

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Waluyo Adi Siswanto
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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

The ram will be freed when the app closes. This is part of the periodic cleanup the kernel does. WIndows does not ave this and is VERY prone to memory eakage.

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Waluyo Adi Siswanto (was-wlk) said : 		#2

Thanks for the info.
According the spec the memory is 1GB, but I am just wondering why when I check using "cat /proc/meminfo" the MemTotal does not show very close 1GB. Is this normal?
This is what I get
MemTotal: 891480 kB
MemFree: 38724 kB
Buffers: 41500 kB

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#3

You can use:

echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches

But that will just run the cleanup sooner. In linux, ram is used as disk cache to speed up the system. Whats the point in having ram if its not going to all be used to benefit the system.

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Waluyo Adi Siswanto (was-wlk) said : 		#4

Thanks again, improve my knowledge in Linux.
However when I tried the command from terminal, it says
bash: /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches: Permission denied
I put sudo in front, still the same.

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Waluyo Adi Siswanto (was-wlk) said : 		#5

Ops sorry need root access, I got it, should have typed sudo -s then the command.
Thanks anyway