Redhat 7.2 Very slow and the hard drive is going all the time

Kdiver58 · 01-24-2003, 10:04 PM

I'm new at this so I'm sure there us something I've messed up , again, I have loaded a version of Redhat linux from the book
" Red hat Linux 7.2 weekend crash course " It runs SLOW and quirky . I don't have a flame thrower of a machine but Windows
95 , 98 and NT 4.0 all run much better .. what am I doing wrong ?
I let the program auto install from the CD and it found everything just fine .

Pentium Pro 200
64 megs ram
5 gig hard drive
188 meg swap file
Matrox millenium with 4 megs of video ram
50 x cd rom

Red Hat Linux 7.2

speck · 01-24-2003, 11:29 PM

You can figure out which programs are the problem by running a program called "top" (open a terminal like xterm, rxvt, etc and type "top".) After it starts, hit "<shift> P" to sort by CPU, "<shift> M" to sort by memory usage and "h" for help. Top will automatically update every few seconds.

Then list the names of the programs that are hogging the CPU and everyone will have a better idea how to help you.

Speck

rnturn · 01-25-2003, 12:35 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by speck
After it starts, hit "<shift> P" to sort by CPU, "<shift> M" to sort by memory usage and "h" for help. Top will automatically update every few seconds.

Then list the names of the programs that are hogging the CPU and everyone will have a better idea how to help you.

Speck

A PPro should have enough CPU to run RH7.2. But only having 64MB may be the problem; that isn't very much. If the drive light is always on, take a look at the `top' display sorted for memory usage. Also, take note of top's display of the memory and swap available and used. With all that drive activity, I'd bet there's a ton of swapping taking place.

Kdiver58 · 01-25-2003, 06:40 AM

Speck

The numbers are all very low . The highest for any of them is 10% and that changes . I'm going to try and reduce the video down from 1024 by 768 16 bit color . It looks like it's the slowest when I'm on the web. I don't know it that helps you at all. It runs much better if I am not on the web and just playing around finding out where stuff is .. Thanks again K

Kdiver58 · 01-25-2003, 09:53 PM

KDE works much better thab GNOME and it runs fine until I get on the web with Motzilla in GNOME . On the web KDE is much smoother .. still learning .. K

speck · 01-25-2003, 11:28 PM

Yeah, I bet Mozilla running with KDE/Gnome on a Pent Pro 200 is pretty slow. There are quite a few other window managers that would be better (for your setup) than KDE/Gnome. If you want a window manager that's similar to Win95, give IceWM a try. Personally, I run Blackbox, but that might be too foreign for someone just switching to Linux.

If you want to try a different window manager, you can get a description and screenshots of all the major ones at the xwinman site. Click "The Basics" link at the xwinman site to get the instructions on how to configure your system to run a different window manager.

Speck

Darin · 01-26-2003, 12:05 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by speck
Yeah, I bet Mozilla running with KDE/Gnome on a Pent Pro 200 is pretty slow.

My firewall runs dual PPro200s (196MB 50ns RAM, 9G SCSI HDD, PR440FX "Providence" and gimpy PCI 4M Riva128 vid) and yes it is a little beefier but I've been in X/KDE surfing with Mozilla and it's really not that bad. You should have seen NT 4 (try to) run Netscrape or Internet Exploder!

You can usually find the 50ns or 60ns RAM that most PPro boards run for really cheap on eBay, I think my 196 megs cost me $20 US with shipping.

It's also much beefier than 98 or NT ever were but I had to do some serious tweaking of XF86Config before it stabled out because when I first installed it would hard lock the system when I switched out of X or tried to change res (CTRL-ALT-F1 or CTRL-ALT-+) sometimes I could telnet in and init 1 or halt it but other times it just choked. I think I have X set at 1024x768 at 24 color, I could post or email you my XF86Config if you think it would help.

Darin · 01-26-2003, 12:32 AM

Heck here, you may have to change some sections but check the "Modules" section I think there are some things I took out that helped clean up stability. You can cut and paste sections of your XF86Config together with this, if that's too confusing it's probably OK to paste your whole /etc/X11/XF86Config here (leave out most of the lines that start with a #) and someone can show you what parts to change.

Code:

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier     "XFree86 Configured"
	Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
	InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
	InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
	RgbPath      "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
	ModulePath   "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules"
	FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
	FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/"
	FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/"
	FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID/"
	FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/"
	FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/"
	FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/local/"
	FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
	#FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
EndSection

Section "Module"
	Load  "dbe"
	Load  "dri"
	Load  "extmod"
	Load  "glx"
	Load  "record"
	Load  "xtrap"
	Load  "speedo"
	Load  "type1"
	Load  "freetype"
	SubSection  "extmod"
	 Option    "omit xfree86-dga"   # don't initialise the DGA extension
	EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Keyboard0"
	Driver      "keyboard"
	Option "XkbRules"	"xfree86"
# for my "windows key" keyboard
	Option "XkbModel"	"pc102"
	Option "XkbLayout"	"us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Mouse0"
	Driver      "mouse"
	Option	    "Device" "/dev/mouse"
	Option	    "Protocol" "PS/2"
	#Option	     "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
# for my mouse scroll wheel
	Option	    "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	#DisplaySize	  330   250	# mm
	Identifier   "Monitor0"
	VendorName   "MAG"
	ModelName    "DX15T"
	#Option	    "DPMS"
	HorizSync   31.5 - 82.0
	VertRefresh 50-90
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "Diamond Viper 330"
	Driver      "nv"
	VendorName  "NVidia/SGS-Thomson"
	BoardName   "Riva128"
	BusID       "PCI:0:19:0"
	#VideoRam    4096
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Screen0"
	Device      "Diamond Viper 330"
	Monitor    "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth 24
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth       8
        Modes       "1024x768" "800x600"  "640x480"
        ViewPort    0 0
    EndSubsection
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth       16
        Modes       "1024x768" "800x600"  "640x480"
        ViewPort    0 0
    EndSubsection
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth       24
        Modes       "1024x768" "800x600"  "640x480"
        ViewPort    0 0
    EndSubsection
EndSection

martik · 01-27-2003, 02:37 PM

64MB is not enough to run KDE and a web browser like mozilla. I have the same setup with 128mb and do not have a swap problem. I reduced the memory to 64mb and it swaps after the first instance of Konqueror. Under Slackware Konqueror takes 20 secs to startup with KDE or Icewm verses 5 secs under mandrake 7.2 If you are looking for comparable speed to Win98, I doubt you will find a solution - I have tried Mandrake, Redhat, Slack, Debian and none come close to the speed of Win98. Redhat 6.0 was the fastest but is outdated.

Kdiver58 · 01-27-2003, 05:09 PM

I check the memory usage and it was up to 95 % . I have another 198 megs of ram coming . It is teaching me more on how to dial Linux in . I figure once I get it running well the ram will come and I should running like a big dog ... Thanks