help! slow installation/run

ppong828 · 05-17-2005, 02:38 PM

hey everyone, i'm a novice linux user and recently installed FC3 64 on my new 64 machine. The installation time of the OS took a really long time, over 4 hrs, which I know is not normal. Once the OS was done installing, there was major lag when running, even the mouse couldn't be moved smoothly. anyways, does anyone have any suggestions as to what the problem is? many thanks.

Specs:
Asus Aria stock powersupply
MSI RS480M2-IL motherboard/Video/Sound
2x512 Kingston ram
120GB 7200rpm ATA Seagate drive

rjlee · 05-17-2005, 02:43 PM

Open a console and run

Code:

top

Watch it for a few seconds; this should indicate if there is anything eating up your memory or CPU time.

Also look at the /proc/swaps file, which will tell you how much swap space is being used. Do you hear hard-disk noises a lot (or does your HDD light constantly flash)?

ppong828 · 05-17-2005, 05:06 PM

thanks for the quick reply rjlee, the cpu and mem arn't being used very much and even when i open up programs like firefox or thunderbird, only about 10% of the cpu is being used. but the problem is that it takes mad long just to open up programs and even booting up fedora takes over 5 mins. I can't seem to figure out why it takes so long, I'm thinking it has something to do with the fact that it took over 4 hrs to install.

power_pole · 05-17-2005, 05:19 PM

Is DMA enabled for you hard disk??
Can't remember how to enable it..

ppong828 · 05-17-2005, 05:34 PM

yea, i tried doing the DNA enabling with

Code:

hdparm -d1 /dev/hdb2

but it gives me the error of

Code:

HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Invalid argument

Thanks for the help guys

windowsrefugeeX · 05-17-2005, 05:39 PM

that does soung kinda of funny but what did u install 2 begin w/ ? how about DMA for ur harddrive?

ppong828 · 05-17-2005, 05:54 PM

sorry, i didn't really understand your question on what i installed to begin with. in terms of the OS, i just installed the latest 64 core3 distro. for the hd, it wasn't dma enabled and i can't seem to get it to be enabled thru the hdparm cmd.