My RH8 Box has developed strange slowness recently. The box started as RH7.2, upgraded to 7.3, finally upgraded to 8.0. It has been running great. But, recently after typing my password there is a long pause before the start-up splash screen comes up, then it take a long time for the icons to march across the splash. Some things like, Evolution and Mozilla seem to take forever to launch. But, others like Abiword is fine (OpenOffice.org takes forever - always has). Top and gkrellem show over 90% processor idle.

I am at a loss to why this is happening. I use rhn religiously to update my system. What other information would any one like?

Thanks,
James.

System Specs:
Kernel: 2.4.18-24.8.0
1.2 GHz Celeron
Gigabyte FA2CU (GA-6IWF Series Motherboard - i810e chipset)
256 MB PC133 RAM
Seagate Barracuda IV 80 GB HD
Lite-On CDRW

I have noticed an issue with RH 8, in Gnome at least, where if eth0 is up and not connected to a network then I get severe slowdowns. a simple ifconfig eth0 down would fix things.

even if you are connected it could be an issue along those lines. Just a guess though.

Eth0 is connected to network (NETGEAR FS608).

I have Samba working to service my Windows machines. And ATalk running to service my Mac's. I also run dhcpd and named (forwarding) for my LAN. I have been helping a client develop a new ecommerce site using oscommerce by hosting it on this box (Apache, MySQL, and PHP4) All of which is working fine.

James.

ah, didn't know you were using it as a server as well.

Mozilla and Evolution have always seemed a bit slow to start anyway, no matter what else is going on. What does your memory and swap usage look like? If you have a lot going on and you are doing a lot of paging to disk you will notice slowdowns.

If you are taking a lot of hits on the ecommerce site and such it will definitely hurt your X performance.

I hate when this happens.

Now, without doing anything, everything is running fine!!! I logged out and logged in splash came up and icons marched across the bottom. Evolution popped right up. Mozilla popped right up...

I always feel sorry for my clients when this happens. They call me in to fix a problem that has been popping up "all the time" or "everyday". When I get there - everything is fine. They are not able to reproduce the problem.

I guess this is in the same lines as when your car is making a funny noise - take it to the mechanic and it stops make the sound as you pull into a parking space.

James.

p.s. I only open access to the server from the firewall when the client and I are working on the site. (Comcast does not want me running a server - wink wink)

And when you get a block away from the mechanic the sound starts again...

The slowness is back...

I am going to pull my hair out... Or at least what is left...

James.

Oh my god this sucks lol. Good luck?