Hiya... I'm quite new at Linux but i've managed to get it working fine on my compaq laptop, i have sound, video and torrents under java working fine and i'm convinced that it's gonna be soooo much better than windows at this point. I can install programs via command line and am not daunted by this as i have a decent (ish) programming background and have been throught the uprmi (or whatever) and done updates etc with no problems.

I have a couple of little problems i'm not sure about, i hope someone can help i'm sure it's pretty simple.

Oky..
1)
Nearly every time i boot into Linux or change from say KDE to GNOME or iceWM, i gotta go back and reset my mouse as the wheel doesn't work, so it's ->configuration -> hardware ->mouse, select generic and then select universal wheel mouse for some reason it doens't let me select wheel straight off but i can live with that bug if i can just get the settings to stick in the first place.. perhaps it's something to do with the touch pad on the laptop itself but i can use both together fine which is what i want?

2)
I'm worried about the noise my comp is making and the excessive amount of RAM KDE seems to be using.. right now i have Azureus seeding 2 and downloading 2, amsn, openoffice and totem playing some music.. 562 out of 566mb of RAM being used and the fans on the thing never stop. Under windows however not so much RAM being used and at least the thing shuts up from time to time, linux however the fans don't ever shut up even when i'm not doing anything.

3)
I'm still dual booting with WinXP.. (albeit the devils work) because i like to play Unreal Tournament, Warcraft III, starcraft etc and so far getting games to run decently in Linux is proving difficult.. I think it needs something like DirectX or at least a lighter WM to get any speed.. i recently d/wled some tank game -... bztanks or something and the quality of graphics i'm allowed to have is appalling... all shadows textures etc off.. just basic blobs .. why is this when my machine is:

xp1500 athlon
630mb ram w/ 64mb shared for video (radeon thing)
at least it run Unreal Tournament without an issue under OpenGL.. come to think of it.. the openGL screensavers on KDE almost max out my processor and don't work at all well..

If you took to the time to read all this thank you in advance for any thoughts or pointers i don't mind having to poke around for a while to get things working.. in fact i really enjoy it.. id just like a general helping hand please !!

crazytigger linux and loving it..

Hi, and welcome to LQ!


Hard to give advice on that not knowing which
distro you're running...


The RAM is normal. Linux will "grab" all the RAM it can
lay its hand on, and "use it". If you have a look at the
output of free you'll notice that it's not all that bad, though.

As for the fans - ACPI may not be working to well with
your machine, or maybe you're even on APM. Have a
look at the output of "dmesg" to see what you're actually
using and whether there are any reported problems.

I recall massive troubles with fans and heat on a EVO
before applying a BIOS fix.

Have a look at
/var/log/XFree86.0.log (or /var/log/Xorg.0.log if your
distro uses that) and check which driver it's using.



Cheers,
Tink

2) Your machine is probably just using your RAM, rather than keeping it free for no reason. There's various apps which give varying results as to how much RAM you have, how much is used, and how much is free. The kernel knows best about actually clearing previously used RAM for a new app you wanna load
The fan thing is probably because linux isn't aware/enabled to deal with your fancy powersaving laptop by default. Hunt around online for other mentions of your model and if anyone's got support for the throttling to work.

3) Sounds like you are using software acceleration, try getting some drivers for your graphics card.

Edit: SNAP!

For your mouse problem try editing your XF86Config-4 file so that you have an option like this:
Add it as the last line under the section "input device" Identifier "mouse" in the file, that is if it isn't already there, obviously.

Also, what distro are you using? It helps to know this as some of your problems might need distro specific replies.

EDIT: fixed spelling

I can't answer your other questions with any authority, but I'll give point 2 a try!

Linux is different to Windows in one big respect, it doesn't idle. Its always working on something - it also uses all the memory it has available to it. This makes it faster but it will use ur batteries a bit quickly! I think there is a power saving setting available on KDE to let you do something about the speed the processor works at, which might help.

3/ Having read this point, I'll give it a go! Windows games don't work too well on Linux - it's just the way it is! You can set up the X Windows to your specific graphic card rather than use the standard settings. As far as Im aware, DirectX is a windows thing. The Linux equivilent is SDL. Its like an API that talk to your graphic directly, but I'm now getting out of my depth!

I'm sorry I've not been able to answer any of your questions totally, I just hope it gives you an idea why its not working the way you are expecting it to!

Yours

Oli

Whoa.. thanx for the quick replies ppl..

I'm gonna look into all that you've said... btw i'm using Mandrake 10.0 .. sorry i should've mentioned that heh.. RE the RAM.. yes i think ur right.. when i first start KDE its at about 200mb usage.. but this quickly goes up to nearly full but stays the same even when i open loads of things so im not so worried about that now. - the output of "free" says all is good like you said tink..

Thank You!! im gonna hide in my bedroom with my laptop for another month now

Edit: Thanx for the mouse point too... i've added the required line now.. i think it wasn't there because it default to the mouse pad.. which has no wheel heh.. nice one!

Athlons are great cpu's, but they do heat up and consume energy. I can't tell much about laptops, but in desktops you can tell linux to slow athlon down. There are a variety of ways to do this, but they are hardware dependent.
Google for "athlon powersaving cooling howto", and you will find lots of references.
Also, take a look at athcool, a software solution.