[Bug 567327] [NEW] Machine swaps too much, leaving too much buffers in RAM

[Vide]

Public bug reported:

$ uname -a
Linux pc-0707-007 2.6.32-21-generic #32-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 16 08:09:38 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness 
0

Ihave 4GB of RAM and with program using 1.5GB of RAM, the kernel decides that even with swappines set to 0 it should swap to disk and not free some MBs from the 2.5GB of RAM allocated to buffers.
This makes impossible to work with a desktop cause the disk is thrashing all the time, mouse and GUI is unresponsive and I have to hard-reset. There is NO program eating memory, the most RAM-hungry program in my installation is evolution wich is using, according to "ps", about 150MB of RSS.

Disabling/enabling swap as per

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwapFaq#head-
b179a5c0d7df0ab7d0ea1d58caaa47c7a5f8ab0e

is not a viable workaround

** Affects: linux (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New


** Tags: kernel ram swap

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Machine swaps too much, leaving too much buffers in RAM
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/567327
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