Ubuntu: How to Release RAM When Video Is Frozen

RAM stores information about running processes.

Your computer's Random Access Memory (RAM) stores data about running applications and background processes. From time to time, the RAM can get overwhelmed by the amount of information it needs to process, especially during video playback. If your video is frozen in Ubuntu Linux, you can clear the RAM cache and help free up some needed memory.

Instructions

1. Open a Terminal ("Applications," "Accessories," "Terminal"). This is a command shell for communicating with the operating system using text-based commands.

2. Type "sudo su" into Terminal and press "Enter." Type your password and press "Enter" again to log in as "Root." This gives you permissions to configure system-wide processes that you would not have logged in as "Home" user.

3. Type "echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches" to free up "pagecache." Type "echo 2 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches" to free "dentries and inodes." Enter "echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches" to clear the entire RAM cache.

References

• Ubuntu Unleashed: Free Up Cache Memory in Linux

Resources

• Linux Journal