Canonical developers have been working to improve Ubuntu Linux Desktop performance, specifically when under memory pressure making it a bit smarter. Hopefully in future if you run out of memory, it won't just kill off things you're actually using - like the entire desktop environment (woops).
Writing in a post on the Discourse Forum, Canonical developer Jean Baptiste Lallement announced some changes for the upcoming Ubuntu 26.10 release.
Some of the changes include:
- Critical desktop services now use a lower OOM score, making them less likely to be selected by the kernel OOM killer.
- Applications and background services keep a higher default score, so they remain more likely to be terminated first.
- The automatic systemd-oomd memory-pressure kill for the whole user session is disabled. systemd-oomd does not use the same OOM priority scores as the kernel. It could then terminate a critical desktop service based on memory pressure alone.
They're looking for testers and feedback to see how it goes, with more adjustments planned for future releases of Ubuntu.
It's not going to be perfected for this release - but it already sounds a lot smarter.
As for Ubuntu 26.10 it should release on October 15th going by the current release schedule.
See more from me
You can also find comments for this article on social media: 
Way to go, Ubuntu 😊
echo 1000 | sudo tee /sys/kernel/mm/lru_gen/min_ttl_msReference: (External Link: You need to be logged in to view this.)
Quoting: MayeulCThey could also turn this on, it makes a lot of difference under memory pressure (the default is better suited to servers):In that reference:
echo 1000 | sudo tee /sys/kernel/mm/lru_gen/min_ttl_ms
Reference: (External Link: You need to be logged in to view this.)
The multi-gen LRU offers thrashing prevention to the majority of laptop and desktop users who do not have oomd.Ubuntu has systemd-oomd installed and configured, so is it worth to change that setting.
Quoting: BestiaIn that reference:I am not sure. I guess it can't really hurt as it is really a last ditch measure, but oomd should kick in before.
The multi-gen LRU offers thrashing prevention to the majority of laptop and desktop users who do not have oomd.Ubuntu has systemd-oomd installed and configured, so is it worth to change that setting.
They do specifically call out that they are disabling oomd though, unless I misunderstood something?
Patreon
PayPal