redhat 8.0 overload???

frik · 01-05-2004, 12:48 PM

I have installed RedHat 8.0 on my Celeron 600Mhz , 256 RAM , 8 Gig Fireball HDD,Intel Ham v.92(managed to work

,but i have some problems .
After working for some time the system goes hump.
Everything works but in intervals

2 secs goes,2 secs dead(even mouse freezes),2 secs goes...

Thnx for any suggestion...

P.S. Is it possible turn of font aliasing(whole aliasing)?
I had mandrake 8.1 before and there was some kind of desktop tuneup,but here only resolution and screen size....

jailbait · 01-05-2004, 05:05 PM

"2 secs goes,2 secs dead(even mouse freezes),2 secs goes..."

This may be a swap problem. Is swap set up properly?
Do you have a swap partition?
Is the swap partition formatted?
Is swap in /etc/fstab?
Do you get a swap started message during boot?
After your system has chugged along for a minute or two issue the free command and see what you get.

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Steve Stites

whansard · 01-05-2004, 05:12 PM

maybe your hard drive isn't in dma mode?
you can check with hdparm /dev/hda
you can set it with hdparm -d1 /dev/hda

frik · 01-05-2004, 05:57 PM

cat /etc/fstab
LABEL=/ / ext2 defaults 1 1
none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
/dev/hda6 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0
0
/dev/cdrom1 /mnt/cdrom1 iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0
0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0

it is formated (on install),but how do you format swap manually?

...and "hdparm:command not found"

...

and...thnx again!

whansard · 01-05-2004, 06:05 PM

i bet your swaps ok.
it will show up under top if it's mounted
mkswap format's swap
like mkswap /dev/hda6
don't do that with the swap mounted.

jailbait · 01-05-2004, 06:10 PM

"it is formated (on install),but how do you format swap manually?"

Read the three man pages before you use these commands.
You use these commands:
swapoff
mkswap
swapon

Also you can see what swap is doing with the free command:
free

___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html

Steve Stites

frik · 01-06-2004, 07:04 AM

Alright,this one is odd...
In GNOME or KDE it choked,i've just logout(not reboot),loged in WindowMaker
and everything is OK,
log out,log in GNOME -choke...
And now I'm posting this from WindowMaker where everything is OK

I love Linux,really i do,
but it pisses me off...

turls · 01-06-2004, 07:47 AM

Have you checked your /var/log/messages log file for errors. There is also a Xfree log that may provide clues.

A suggestion would be also to try RH9 or Fedora. Newer drivers etc that may help.

R Ian

frik · 01-06-2004, 08:39 AM

i found a lot of these in /var/log/messages:

Jan 6 13:54:12 localhost kernel: hdd: status error: status=0x00 { }
Jan 6 13:54:12 localhost kernel: ide-scsi: Strange, packet command initiated yet DRQ isn't asserted

Isn't RH9 to heavy for Celeron 600 ?

jailbait · 01-06-2004, 10:04 AM

"Jan 6 13:54:12 localhost kernel: hdd: status error: status=0x00 { }
Jan 6 13:54:12 localhost kernel: ide-scsi: Strange, packet command initiated yet DRQ isn't asserted"

Do you get these error messages when you use WindowMaker?

___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html

Steve Stites

frik · 01-06-2004, 10:20 AM

Not in WindowMaker

WindowMaker works perfect even on a heavier load ...

jailbait · 01-06-2004, 02:23 PM

I think that your problem is that you are filling up memory and going into swapping. You could issue the free command under different conditions to check your memory usage and swap usage under those conditions.

The cure for swapping is to either buy more memory or run smaller programs. Window Manager is smaller than Gnome. Gnome is smaller than KDE. Firebird is smaller than Mozilla. Abiword is smaller than OpenOffice. and so on.

You could also try fluxbox which is another small GUI.
--------------------
Steve Stites

turls · 01-06-2004, 02:30 PM

".......Isn't RH9 to heavy for Celeron 600...."

I have had rh 8, 9 and fedora running in full server mode on my laptop which is a PII, 128M, 5.5 Gig of hard drive 400 Khz all with no problem. (bit slow on occasions

How big is your swap space?

PS the 2.6.0 kernel is a lot faster and may help-though there are drivers that do not yet work on it.

Ian

frik · 01-06-2004, 03:32 PM

SWAP is 300 Megs,but when it stuck it uses only 8.5M not more...

New kernel?This has to wait...I don't know how

whansard · 01-06-2004, 04:54 PM

i think those error messages are the clue to your problem. Something
screwy is up. i think you're in for a lot of trial and error, and perhaps
misery, before it's working right.
your best best is to try a completely different version of linux, instead of
trying to figure out why this one doesn't work on your machine.