I don’t know exactly when this happened, but my startup RAM usage has spiked from 1.6GB to 2.4GB. I have no idea what changed, but I noticed it after I installed AppArmor to see if it was worth pursuing and uninstalling did not return it back to normal.
I’m going to go install the LTS kernel and see if it changes.
EDIT: The RAM usage did not change with the LTS kernel.
Of note, RAM being used (if you have it) is not a true concern. Linux automatically builds caches to optimize performance. Over time, it should use all your RAM.
No the used memory was higher after I installed AppArmor.
However, after rebooting with only a charger and a USB DAC plugged in, the memory usage dropped back to 1.7GB, which is close to normal. I’m going to plug in the things I had plugged in one at a time to figure out what was causing the memory usage to spike.
It was because my external monitor was plugged in while logging in with SDDM. Plugging in the monitor after I log in decreases memory usage by 300MB!