hey everyone

im brand new to linux and i have (maybe) a strange question for everyone. for some reason my linux display seems very laggy when i move windows around or have a lot of windows up, the display is very laggy.

im running a 2ghz p4 with a geforce 4, my windows partition works smoothly, so what might be wrong with the mandrake display?

thanks for all your help!

You probably have tons of stuff running that you don't need. Check your services and turn off all the stuff you don't want/need. There is lots of eye candy turned on by default in KDE as well.

You might want to use just a window manager such as blackbox, fluxbox (not a Mandrake package unless in the PLF) or enlightenment.

# Mandrake links
Mandrake home page
Mandrake Users website
Easy urpmi config for Mandrake
urpmi mini-HOWTO
Easy software management: Red Carpet
Maximum RPM
rpmfind
You didn't install the developmental packages? As root, command:
urpmi gcc
An Introduction to the Midnight Commander. You can install it by commanding:
urpmi mc
Midnight Commander home page

do you think it might be that i run linux in 1600x1200 using 16 million colors? i doubt this is the problem because the same laggyness was evident in lower resolutions and colors. thanks!

also check your hard drive speed with hdparm command (# hdparm -Tt /dev/hdx). i don't know about mandrake, but some distros don't seem to default to having the good stuff turned on (DMA, etc.)

um im a little slow, can you elaborate a little bit more?

thanks!

That's a high resolution - on average you should be able to speed both up with 800*600 16bit.

Speeding up Linux Using hdparm
Not mentioned in the article but can possibly freeze your machine:
UDMA 33/66/100. Add the -X option, and then this number i.e. (-X 69)
-X 33 ====> Multiword DMA
-X 66 ====> ATA-33 (UDMA2)
-X 68 ====> ATA-66 (UDMA4)
-X 69 ====> ATA-100 (UDMA 5)
# My settings
hdparm -X69 -d1 -u1 -m16 -c3 /dev/hda

Before I built this system I had the same thing. There are a lot of services running in Mandrake 9.1. List the services you have running and someone with more knowledge can tell you which ones you can cut off. You can get this from the Mandrake Control Center under services and DrakeXservices. i wouldn't turn any off until you check with someone. Lack of some will keep you from coming up.

You may also want to tell more about what is connectted to your system, UPS, printer, etc. Some services are needed to print for example.

Also make sure you installed your video drivers correctly.

Later

Yeah, nVidia driver, you want the Linux IA32 driver.

# Configuring X
Linux Hardware Compatibility HOWTO - video cards
The Linux XFree86 HOWTO
Common X configuring tools:
Debian - dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86
Mandrake - XFdrake
Redhat 7.3 down - the setup utility leads to several config tools
Redhat 7.3 up - redhat-config-xfree86
You may have these tools:
XF86Setup
XFree86 -configure
Xconfigurator
xf86cfg
xf86config
xconf
If you need the nVidia driver, you want the Linux IA32 driver

well im finally successful installing the nvidia divers, but the same lagginess is still evident. any advice?