🧠 Step 1: Find Top Memory-Consuming Processes

Run this command to list top memory users and save to a file:

ps aux --sort=-%mem | head -n 20 | tee top_memory_processes.txt

Explanation:

• ps aux → shows all processes
• --sort=-%mem → sorts by memory usage (descending)
• head -n 20 → shows top 20
• tee → saves output to top_memory_processes.txt while showing on screen

You can view the saved file anytime:

cat top_memory_processes.txt

🧰 Step 2: Check Real-Time Usage (Optional)

Use top or htop (better UI):

sudo apt install htop -y
htop

Inside htop:

• Press F6 → sort by MEM%
• Press F9 → kill a process if needed

⚡ Step 3: Optimize / Free Memory

🧹 1. Clear cached memory safely

sudo sync; sudo sysctl -w vm.drop_caches=3

✅ This clears page cache, dentries, and inodes. (It doesn’t kill processes, just frees memory used for caching.)

🧠 Next Steps to Reduce GNOME Shell Memory on Wayland

Since you’re on Wayland, the Alt + F2 → r restart shortcut isn’t supported. Here’s what you can safely do instead:

🔄 1. Restart GNOME Shell (Wayland-safe)

gnome-session-quit --logout --no-prompt

→ Log back in — this restarts the entire GNOME session and flushes leaked memory.

If you don’t want to log out, you can restart just the shell process:

killall -3 gnome-shell

(This triggers a soft reload — may flicker your screen for a second.)

🧰 2. Monitor the improvement

After relogging, check memory again:

ps aux --sort=-%mem | head -n 10

You should see gnome-control-center and bluetoothd gone, and gnome-shell memory reduced by ~10–15%.

⚙️ Optional Tweaks

1. Disable automatic GNOME background services you don’t need:

   gnome-session-properties

   (Turn off things like “Media sharing”, “Evolution Alarm”, “Online Accounts”.)

2. Clear the GNOME shell cache:

   rm -rf ~/.cache/gnome-shell/*

3. Reboot occasionally — GNOME tends to leak memory over long uptime.

🧩 2. Disable Unused Services

Check what’s running at startup:

sudo systemctl list-unit-files --type=service --state=enabled

Then disable what’s unnecessary, e.g.:

sudo systemctl disable bluetooth.service
sudo systemctl disable cups.service

⚙️ 3. Manage Swap (if memory is low)

Check swap usage:

swapon --show

If swap is too small, increase it:

sudo fallocate -l 2G /swapfile
sudo chmod 600 /swapfile
sudo mkswap /swapfile
sudo swapon /swapfile

To make it permanent:

echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

🚀 4. Adjust “swappiness” (how often system swaps)

Default is 60; lower it to 10 (keeps things in RAM longer):

sudo sysctl vm.swappiness=10

To make permanent:

echo 'vm.swappiness=10' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf

🧠 5. Identify Memory Leaks or Heavy Apps

You can check detailed memory map for a process:

sudo pmap -x <PID> | less

(Replace <PID> with process ID from the earlier list.)

🧽 6. Remove Unused Packages

sudo apt autoremove --purge
sudo apt clean

🧾 Step 4: (Optional) Create a Cron Job to Log Memory Usage Daily

crontab -e

Add:

0 9 * * * ps aux --sort=-%mem | head -n 10 >> /var/log/top_memory_usage.log

→ Logs top 10 memory-consuming processes every morning at 9 AM.