What gvfs* processes are actually needed in Elive?

Elive System Applications
1

I like minimizing the amount of memory being used unnecessarily. I see lots of "gvfs*" services running:

~ >>> sudo ps_mem | grep gvfs
2.9 MiB + 149.5 KiB = 3.0 MiB gvfs-mtp-volume-monitor
3.0 MiB + 126.5 KiB = 3.1 MiB gvfs-goa-volume-monitor
3.2 MiB + 198.5 KiB = 3.4 MiB gvfs-gphoto2-volume-monitor
3.1 MiB + 359.5 KiB = 3.5 MiB gvfsd-dnssd
3.3 MiB + 419.5 KiB = 3.7 MiB gvfsd-network
3.4 MiB + 362.5 KiB = 3.8 MiB gvfs-afc-volume-monitor
4.8 MiB + 162.5 KiB = 4.9 MiB gvfsd-metadata
5.1 MiB + 170.5 KiB = 5.3 MiB gvfsd-fuse
5.1 MiB + 311.5 KiB = 5.4 MiB gvfsd
4.9 MiB + 935.5 KiB = 5.9 MiB gvfs-udisks2-volume-monitor
5.5 MiB + 423.5 KiB = 5.9 MiB gvfsd-computer

I know that at a minimum, gvfsd and gvfsd-fuse are needed. What about all the others? For example, I'm never going to attach a camera to Elive. So which of these are totally unnecessary and how do I remove them? Thanks in advance!

2

Okay, learned a bit more about these, and sorta understand why nobody has responded. First, I R A idgit. Didn't know about the history of these gnome devils. Second, getting rid of them (at least in an OpenRC environment), ain't so easy.

When you boot up, if you use a tool like I do all time -- I'm speaking of "ps_mem" (or properly, "ps_mem.py") -- you'll see that you probably have only gvfsd and gvfsd-fuse running. Not a huge deal, as together they only seem to take up about 7 MB of RAM.

However, once you launch say, Thunar File Manager, you see all the others have been launched as well:

sudo ps_mem | grep gvfs
2.9 MiB + 139.5 KiB = 3.0 MiB gvfs-mtp-volume-monitor
3.0 MiB + 116.5 KiB = 3.1 MiB gvfs-goa-volume-monitor
3.1 MiB + 163.5 KiB = 3.3 MiB gvfsd-fuse
3.1 MiB + 286.5 KiB = 3.4 MiB gvfsd
3.2 MiB + 182.5 KiB = 3.4 MiB gvfs-gphoto2-volume-monitor
3.1 MiB + 341.5 KiB = 3.5 MiB gvfsd-dnssd
4.7 MiB + 155.5 KiB = 4.8 MiB gvfsd-metadata
4.6 MiB + 834.5 KiB = 5.4 MiB gvfs-udisks2-volume-monitor
5.3 MiB + 390.5 KiB = 5.6 MiB gvfsd-network
5.4 MiB + 306.5 KiB = 5.7 MiB gvfs-afc-volume-monitor
5.4 MiB + 524.5 KiB = 5.9 MiB gvfsd-http

You might not need them, but you probably can't reliably get rid of them. It's a total of something like 47 MB of RAM, much of which isn't going to be used. I make a case out of this because I really, really hate wasting RAM, and having it possibly just have to be swapped out all for nothing.

I don't have a gnome account, why do I need gvfs-goa? I don't have an Apple account, why do I need gvfs-afc? I'm virtually certain I'll never attach a digital camera to my laptop, why do I need gvfs-gphoto2 just because somebody at gnome headquarters decided I might?

Sorry for the rant, it's just that these are the kind of things that help explain why you can't have new PCs with a mere 8 GB memory, you have to have more and more. Peace out.

3

Some, not all, are brought into 'thunar' through 'edit'-> 'configure custom actions'. You might want to look there to weed out some stuff and have it to your liking.

Please keep in mind that Elive is primarily configured to cater for a lot of needs, probably more than any individual user wants.The same goes for all the available drivers and modules in the kernel, especially on a live system.
So feel free to remove/customize what you don't need or want but keep in mind that a lot of Gtk apps are built for Gnome in the first place (not Thunar though) and will sometimes automatically pull-in or require some specific gnome-daemons.

These Gnome/gtk apps (like Cairo-dock) are a part of the Elive E16 setup because using only available Enlightenment apps would make E16 quite sparse.
Once the future Elive Desktop (using E27+) is ready that will be a lot less but there will always be apps built on Gtk or Qt that bring along their own dependencies or actions.

Aye, a sign of the times.
I remember my Palm Treo running an Os that used a fraction of the hardware all current smart phones need and practically had the same functionality.

OTOH:
RAM not used is wasted RAM, like never driving a Ferrari faster than 30Km/h. :rofl2:

Every which way, considering how heavy modern browsers are, it's a waste of time to try and use old computers as a general purpose machine.
Use good old Elive 3.0 (32 bit), weed out what you don't need and use the machine for very dedicated jobs (never the browser).

4

Okay, I think this is a decent way to go for me. I sorted out which of the gvfs-* services I didn't think I'd ever need and chmod'ed them so they wouldn't be loaded. I kept gvfs-udisks2-volume-monitor only. It seemed like it might have worth. Did it in two different places:

  1. /usr/lib/systemd/user/gvfs*
  2. /usr/libexec/gvfs*

So for example, for non-systemd usage, the commands were:

~ >>> sudo chmod 0000 /usr/libexec/gvfs-afc-volume-monitor
~ >>> sudo chmod 0000 /usr/libexec/gvfs-goa-volume-monitor
~ >>> sudo chmod 0000 /usr/libexec/gvfs-gphoto2-volume-monitor
~ >>> sudo chmod 0000 /usr/libexec/gvfs-mtp-volume-monitor
~ >>> sudo chmod 0000 /usr/libexec/gvfsd-metadata

I'm using nemo as my file manager (for lots of good reasons), and now it only causes the gvfs-usisks2-volume-monitor to load. Thankfully, that's only an additional 6 MB loaded out of the total of 47 MB mentioned above. Now, the total gvfs* modules loaded take up about 13 MB of RAM. Sadly, that's almost what my entire gvfs* stack is on my MX 25 Linux distro, where it clocks in at about 14 MB without any trimming (though I DO plan to go back there and do the same thing as done here!).

Gonna work with this for a while to see if there are any downsides. If not, this'll be the solution page.

5

Keep it clear what specific choices you make and why, is my only demand.

Lest we have someone appear on the forums with something like :"Hey, Elive doesn't auto-magically load my camera but Ubuntu does.". After which we find out that said person used your tricks to lessen RAM usage. :rofl:

Me, I don't really have any RAM issues (well sometimes, when editing large videos and not saving often enough) and appreciate that RAM is there to be used, it's a means to an end. Data throughput doesn't get any faster then through that....so might as well put it to good use. :innocent:

6

Good point, although I pretty much laid out the reasons on the first two pages of this post. :slight_smile:

But for the record, if and when the prior page becomes the "solution", I will definitely add that explany, 'cause sometimes folks don't go back to the beginny.

7

Maybe even a Howto on reducing RAM usage. :winking_face_with_tongue:

On a side-note,
How did you get ps_mem on Elive?
Using 'pip'?
It's not in the repos. :thinking:

Interestingly looking at 'MemAvailable' shows a only slight decrease of mem usage when opening 'thunar'
First time:

cat /proc/meminfo                                                                                                                                                                    1
MemTotal:       15993164 kB
MemFree:        10455692 kB
MemAvailable:   10120604 kB
Buffers:            3564 kB
Cached:          3348068 kB
SwapCached:            0 kB
Active:          2898524 kB
Inactive:         909664 kB

After starting thunar:

 cat /proc/meminfo
MemTotal:       15993164 kB
MemFree:        10282520 kB
MemAvailable:   10115388 kB
Buffers:            3564 kB
Cached:          3504060 kB
SwapCached:            0 kB
Active:          3005024 kB
Inactive:         939524 kB
Active(anon):    1568420 kB

You might want to create a totally fresh new user on your system and see if the same happens there as on your existing account. Just to check.

8

Yes, believe me, I've been thinking about doing just that (a how-to) whilst doing just that (trimming out stuff). For some reason (maybe the bot?), I was led to think that the how-to sub-forum/topic was restricted to "certain members". No? Cool if so!

I install ps_mem on every distro I install, and my go-to method is outlined in this document. Once you've used it, it's easy to do a web search for it based on the obvious keywords. :winking_face_with_tongue:

I then use ps_mem to discover things that maybe I don't need and either get rid of them or find alternatives. (Like using parcellite for a clipboard manager.) Been doing this for years. Got hooked on it whilst setting up an MX 23 Fluxbox (later Openbox) install on an HP Stream 13 notebook. The poor thing was dying with its ever-expanding Windows 8 updates, to the point where it couldn't be updated, nor could you really do anything on it. The notebook has 2 GB soldered-in RAM, a "30 GB" (yeah, right) soldered-in "SSD" (not really), but it does have a micor-SD card slot. I got rid of Windows, installed MX and made a $HOME directory/partition on a sizeable micro-SD card, and the system works quite well now. With only 2 GB RAM, you still can't keep a browser with tons of tabs going with other stuff, but you CAN run lots of things at the same time. I think that's partly to also using zswap (which I also enabled on Elive).

My current laptop, an old (~2011?) Samsung RF711 (NICE 17" monitor) has thermal issues, and in my mind, anything I can do to reduce RAM and other services might help keep the temps down. (For some reason, I thought it might take a few CPU cycles to check on things in RAM, even if they're not being used, which could add a microscopic but non-zero amount of heat to do so, and now I don't even really care if that's not true! :grin: )

9

Yes, it is restricted (for good, historic reasons) to 'staff' members but an admin can bypass that if need be.

That's fairly old, so I expect the python3 to python soft-link won't be needed anymore.

Methinks that has quite a part.

I've never noticed any particular temp differences related to RAM usage but then .... anything might help on that poor mishandled machine. :rofl2:

10

Correct-o! But the doc does suggest doing a "naked" ps_mem --version command that will let you find out if you need to create the soft link or not. The ps_mem app is pure genius.

11

No argument there!

12

Once AI starts building it's own independent revenge kill-bots, you'll prolly top their list. :rofl:

13

Agreed,
On my machine with a running thunar on E27:

648.0 KiB + 146.5 KiB = 794.5 KiB	gvfsd-metadata
816.0 KiB + 131.5 KiB = 947.5 KiB	gvfs-mtp-volume-monitor
976.0 KiB + 109.5 KiB =   1.1 MiB	gvfs-goa-volume-monitor
844.0 KiB + 248.5 KiB =   1.1 MiB	gvfsd-fuse
  1.0 MiB + 190.5 KiB =   1.2 MiB	gvfs-gphoto2-volume-monitor
992.0 KiB + 446.5 KiB =   1.4 MiB	gvfsd
  1.4 MiB + 335.5 KiB =   1.7 MiB	gvfs-afc-volume-monitor
  1.2 MiB + 544.5 KiB =   1.7 MiB	gvfsd-trash
  1.8 MiB + 684.5 KiB =   2.4 MiB	gvfs-udisks2-volume-monitor

So there clearly is a difference. :thinking:

14

Most curious! SystemD or OpenRC? (Granted, MX is running SysVinit but with some official hacks to make a smooth switch-over to run it with SystemD.)

15

This machine uses 'systemd' and ... I'm on holiday so don't have all my bare-metal junk hands-on available. :face_with_open_eyes_and_hand_over_mouth:

16

I'm retired. What's "on holiday"? :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

17

So am I, officially but as an independent entrepreneur it's hard to stop....you can't just close the business and tell your long time customers to f**-off.
So taking more and more vacations until ...... :innocent:

BTW,
Just look at what 'python3' is using there, compared to enlightenment. Just to run 'ps_mem'. :laugh:

 76.1 MiB +  17.2 MiB =  93.3 MiB	enlightenment
128.8 MiB +  11.0 MiB = 139.8 MiB	python3.13

Full output for comparison:

ps_mem
 Private  +   Shared  =  RAM used	Program

156.0 KiB +  24.5 KiB = 180.5 KiB	fusermount3
228.0 KiB +  16.5 KiB = 244.5 KiB	xl2tpd
308.0 KiB +  45.5 KiB = 353.5 KiB	cron
372.0 KiB +  74.5 KiB = 446.5 KiB	syndaemon
280.0 KiB + 180.5 KiB = 460.5 KiB	enlightenment_start
464.0 KiB +  29.5 KiB = 493.5 KiB	agetty
436.0 KiB +  57.5 KiB = 493.5 KiB	mpris-proxy
468.0 KiB +  92.5 KiB = 560.5 KiB	irqbalance
380.0 KiB + 234.5 KiB = 614.5 KiB	starter
512.0 KiB + 170.5 KiB = 682.5 KiB	inetd
708.0 KiB +  19.5 KiB = 727.5 KiB	acpid
648.0 KiB + 147.5 KiB = 795.5 KiB	gvfsd-metadata
728.0 KiB + 142.5 KiB = 870.5 KiB	xdg-permission-store
424.0 KiB + 490.0 KiB = 914.0 KiB	avahi-daemon (2)
816.0 KiB + 130.5 KiB = 946.5 KiB	gvfs-mtp-volume-monitor
872.0 KiB + 104.5 KiB = 976.5 KiB	dconf-service
976.0 KiB + 109.5 KiB =   1.1 MiB	gvfs-goa-volume-monitor
844.0 KiB + 254.5 KiB =   1.1 MiB	gvfsd-fuse
  1.0 MiB + 149.5 KiB =   1.1 MiB	urfkilld
  1.0 MiB + 241.5 KiB =   1.2 MiB	xdg-document-portal
  1.0 MiB + 190.5 KiB =   1.2 MiB	gvfs-gphoto2-volume-monitor
  1.2 MiB +   7.5 KiB =   1.2 MiB	ssh-agent
  1.3 MiB +  40.5 KiB =   1.3 MiB	crashhelper
904.0 KiB + 510.5 KiB =   1.4 MiB	dbus
992.0 KiB + 448.5 KiB =   1.4 MiB	gvfsd
  1.4 MiB +  26.5 KiB =   1.4 MiB	dnsmasq
  1.4 MiB + 334.5 KiB =   1.7 MiB	gvfs-afc-volume-monitor
  1.2 MiB + 549.5 KiB =   1.7 MiB	gvfsd-trash
  1.6 MiB + 144.5 KiB =   1.7 MiB	accounts-daemon
  1.2 MiB + 552.5 KiB =   1.7 MiB	zeitgeist-daemon
  1.3 MiB + 667.0 KiB =   1.9 MiB	su (2)
  1.6 MiB + 541.5 KiB =   2.2 MiB	sshd
  2.0 MiB + 163.5 KiB =   2.2 MiB	(sd-pam)
  1.8 MiB + 691.5 KiB =   2.4 MiB	gvfs-udisks2-volume-monitor
  2.4 MiB + 146.5 KiB =   2.5 MiB	bluetoothd
  1.7 MiB + 928.5 KiB =   2.6 MiB	systemd-logind
876.0 KiB +   1.9 MiB =   2.8 MiB	sudo (2)
  2.9 MiB +  61.5 KiB =   3.0 MiB	rsyslogd
  2.3 MiB +   1.1 MiB =   3.4 MiB	enlightenment_system
  2.9 MiB + 610.5 KiB =   3.5 MiB	cupsd
  3.2 MiB + 324.5 KiB =   3.5 MiB	polkitd
  3.5 MiB +  45.5 KiB =   3.5 MiB	elive-news
  3.0 MiB + 643.5 KiB =   3.7 MiB	charon
  3.0 MiB + 816.0 KiB =   3.8 MiB	lightdm (2)
  3.7 MiB + 213.5 KiB =   3.9 MiB	gnome-keyring-daemon
  2.6 MiB +   1.3 MiB =   4.0 MiB	zeitgeist-fts
  3.8 MiB + 377.5 KiB =   4.2 MiB	upowerd
  3.4 MiB + 937.5 KiB =   4.3 MiB	cups-browsed
  3.6 MiB +   1.0 MiB =   4.6 MiB	xdg-desktop-portal-gtk
  4.6 MiB + 695.5 KiB =   5.3 MiB	systemd-udevd
  5.0 MiB + 496.0 KiB =   5.4 MiB	dbus-daemon (2)
  4.7 MiB + 828.5 KiB =   5.5 MiB	udisksd
  4.3 MiB +   1.6 MiB =   5.8 MiB	efreetd
  5.2 MiB + 722.5 KiB =   5.9 MiB	systemd-journald
  5.1 MiB +   1.0 MiB =   6.1 MiB	ModemManager
  5.8 MiB + 634.5 KiB =   6.5 MiB	wpa_supplicant
  5.4 MiB +   1.1 MiB =   6.5 MiB	xdg-desktop-portal
  5.8 MiB +   1.8 MiB =   7.6 MiB	diodon
  6.7 MiB +   1.5 MiB =   8.2 MiB	obexd
  7.5 MiB +   1.2 MiB =   8.7 MiB	NetworkManager
  8.4 MiB +   2.0 MiB =  10.4 MiB	yad
  8.7 MiB +   2.6 MiB =  11.3 MiB	zsh (3)
 12.7 MiB + 878.5 KiB =  13.6 MiB	pulseaudio
 10.8 MiB +   4.1 MiB =  14.9 MiB	systemd (2)
 17.5 MiB +   3.1 MiB =  20.7 MiB	blueman-tray
 25.7 MiB +   4.4 MiB =  30.0 MiB	blueman-applet
 31.0 MiB +   2.2 MiB =  33.1 MiB	fwupd
 25.2 MiB +   8.7 MiB =  33.9 MiB	thunar
 35.5 MiB +   7.9 MiB =  43.4 MiB	guake
 65.4 MiB +  18.9 MiB =  84.3 MiB	Xorg
 76.1 MiB +  17.2 MiB =  93.3 MiB	enlightenment
128.8 MiB +  11.0 MiB = 139.8 MiB	python3.13
  1.0 GiB + 137.5 MiB =   1.1 GiB	firefox-esr (13)
---------------------------------
                          1.8 GiB

gvfs is just a small fish, look at i.e 'blueman'
:shocked:

18

Yeah. I forgot to mention, Bluetooth is one of the first things I disable on any new system. I have a headphone jack and USB ports for my excellent Logitech wireless trackball.

Ditto for ModemManager. Who uses dialup anymore? (Yes, I'm aware it has other uses, just none that I have a need for.)

Pretty sure Parcellite is smaller than diodon and perhaps just as functional.

I've noticed that sometimes, the last item or two of the ps_mem output may be eggagerated. That being said, I think Python is also used to start lots of autostart desktop files. Is this e27?

I'll have to share a ps_mem output of my Salix distro at startup. Something like 180 MB total. Oh looky, I have it available. And less than the 180, so a bit older. Like I said, been whittling away at RAM hogs for years. :grin:

Private + Shared = RAM used Program

156.0 KiB + 33.5 KiB = 189.5 KiB init

168.0 KiB + 25.5 KiB = 193.5 KiB atd
168.0 KiB + 35.5 KiB = 203.5 KiB crond
192.0 KiB + 36.5 KiB = 228.5 KiB acpid
212.0 KiB + 51.5 KiB = 263.5 KiB syslogd
308.0 KiB + 49.5 KiB = 357.5 KiB sleep
396.0 KiB + 112.5 KiB = 508.5 KiB dbus-launch
484.0 KiB + 156.5 KiB = 640.5 KiB udevil
540.0 KiB + 356.5 KiB = 896.5 KiB salix-update-no
504.0 KiB + 725.5 KiB = 1.2 MiB dhcpcd (5)
1.1 MiB + 342.5 KiB = 1.4 MiB devmon
1.0 MiB + 565.5 KiB = 1.5 MiB at-spi2-registryd
1.4 MiB + 250.5 KiB = 1.7 MiB gnome-keyring-daemon
1.6 MiB + 128.5 KiB = 1.7 MiB ntpd
1.1 MiB + 738.5 KiB = 1.8 MiB at-spi-bus-launcher
1.7 MiB + 68.5 KiB = 1.8 MiB elogind-daemon
1.2 MiB + 645.5 KiB = 1.8 MiB dbus-daemon (3)
1.5 MiB + 522.5 KiB = 2.0 MiB thermald
1.6 MiB + 347.0 KiB = 2.0 MiB agetty (6)
1.4 MiB + 668.5 KiB = 2.0 MiB accounts-daemon
1.7 MiB + 376.5 KiB = 2.1 MiB cupsd
1.8 MiB + 717.0 KiB = 2.5 MiB bash (2)
2.7 MiB + 42.5 KiB = 2.7 MiB udevd
900.0 KiB + 1.8 MiB = 2.7 MiB sudo (2)
1.7 MiB + 1.1 MiB = 2.8 MiB gsettings-helper
1.8 MiB + 1.3 MiB = 3.0 MiB dunst
3.2 MiB + 36.5 KiB = 3.2 MiB haveged
3.5 MiB + 828.5 KiB = 4.3 MiB wpa_supplicant
3.0 MiB + 1.8 MiB = 4.8 MiB lightdm (2)
5.0 MiB + 894.5 KiB = 5.8 MiB conky
5.0 MiB + 2.8 MiB = 7.7 MiB openbox
6.3 MiB + 1.7 MiB = 8.0 MiB polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1
7.2 MiB + 962.5 KiB = 8.2 MiB xterm
5.3 MiB + 2.9 MiB = 8.2 MiB tint2
7.6 MiB + 1.4 MiB = 9.0 MiB NetworkManager
12.9 MiB + 747.5 KiB = 13.6 MiB polkitd
15.0 MiB + 3.1 MiB = 18.1 MiB pulseaudio
32.7 MiB + 1.1 MiB = 33.9 MiB Xorg

                    162.9 MiB

=================================