Why Is Ubuntu Slower Than XP?
 

Since installing ubuntu, I've long noticed that it runs slower than XP. I do, however, use it for it's functionality and customization. But, If ubuntu is purported to be this great, efficient o/s that is better than XP, why do people complain that it's slower than XP? Why do I notice the same thing?

For example, when I use 'Document Viewer' and 'OpenOffice Writer', scrolling through docs is much slower than PDF viewers on XP. Another example is when I install and load programs. It takes much longer to install and load a program under ubuntu than it does the same program under XP. Things are slower in loading up stuff.... why?

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There usually are many possible reasons. You mentioned "document viewer", it's probably evince, which I know is damn slow at loading anything. Openoffice can also be slow, but newer versions are much faster at loading. Try different pdf viewers if you think your current one is slow, try xpdf, kpdf, etc. Another reason may be if you run GNOME or KDE, depending on your system these may slow it down as they are considerably bloated. The number of apps you load at startup is important, try disabling the ones you don't need. When I was using Ubuntu I noticed greater overall speed when using filesystems other than ext3 (which was the slowest). With Ubuntu there's not much else you can tweak, because it won't let you easily tweak them. If you want it any faster than what you can do with these recommendations, then you may want to try lighter, faster distros: Gentoo, Slackware, Debian. Of course, you should realize that these will not hold your hand when you install them, so be prepared, read up before you try them. Note that the goal of Ubuntu is NOT speed, ok, that would be the goal of Gentoo.

in addition to H_TeXMeX_H's post which is ofcourse was helpful and comprhensive .
i think another reason to slow up your machine is the video card , make sure you are using the correct and updated video card driver cause i had that issuse ith ubuntu and i noticed that after installing and tweaking my video card , the box was 3x faster , another thing to note is your physical memory and swap space , those also increase and enhance performance.
and maybe u can stop unwanted services as well to free some extra memory.
and just like H_TeXMeX_H said , maybe u can pick another Wm , xubuntu is recommanded or maybe u can install another distro and use xfce or fluxbox or blackbox as WM these are a lightweight Wms and works like sharm :)
note what H_TeXMeX_H had told you about installing debian and specially slackware , slackware is not user friendly and you will need to do alot of things all by your self so i suggest if you are going to install it is to read installation tips and howtos and expect alot of tweakings BUT , when u r done , wow it is extremely fast and powerfull distro , u will enjoy it.
hope that was helpfull .

OK, it's got NOTHING to do with the video card since I run XP as guest on the same computer. As a result, the same computer specs affect both ubuntu and XP the same way. And I'll reiterate this again... ubuntu is meant and purported to be faster and therefore better than XP. That has been everyone's take on ubuntu which you can't deny.

And H_TeXMeX_H, you're right, it's evince. Also, I've tried all the PDF players available for ubuntu and they all suck. They all scroll S-L-O-W-L-Y and you can even see words trail as you scroll. This is not supposed to happen in ubuntu if it's such an efficient system.

You guys mentioned different o/s's. Ideally, I want what ubuntu offers, but lightweight and not bloated, fast and efficient with no problems. And I want to be able to use compiz-fusion on it just like on ubuntu. I hope these requirements can help you guys narrow down the best o/s you can recommend me, Thanks.

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ok my recommendation is to use xubuntu , uses xfce and it is lightweight and extr fast and still with user friendly interface.
or u can use slackware but expect some efforts to adjust it to fit your needs .
BTW iam using ubuntu and it is as fast as a rocket for me , so according to what u r saying about trails u see while scrolling pdfs , again i think there is something about your your video card .
ok let us try something instead of replacing the whole distro and installing another , what kind of video card do you have ??
i want you to issue this 2 commands and paste the results here please :

1. $ lspci | grep VGA , and paste the results .
2. $ glxinfo | grep vendeor , do the same and paste the result.

ok awaiting your reply maybe we can sort this out.

hardware issues
 

Well, not exactly. It's possible that the default drivers installed by Ubuntu aren't as good as the default Windows XP drivers, you might want to make sure you've got the accelerated drivers. It's also possible that the way your hard disk is recognized, especially if it's a SATA disk could have a huge impact on speed that would only impact the Ubuntu setup. I'd read some of the SATA threads on this board to check that out before you install another distro. I certainly agree with the other suggestions as well, but my experience has been that ubuntu is faster or similar in speed than xp on the same hardware. (Though I use slackware now, but that's another story...)

My experience as well, but lots of people are still denying it...

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...linux-654876/?

Memory is important, surely if you run a VM, make sure you have 1 GB, better still 1.5 GB. Monitor your memory and swap usage, if you are using swap, you are loosing clock cycles.

Double check the driver for your video card, it should have acceleration etc. enabled. If the xorg.conf shows VESA, it is slow.

On the bright side, the newest Ubuntu is still faster than the newest Windows :)

jlinkels

Hi, wfareed. Thanks for replying. Here's the info that you asked me to get:

x@xx:~$ lspci | grep VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)

x@xx:~$ glxinfo | grep vendor
server glx vendor string: SGI
client glx vendor string: SGI
OpenGL vendor string: Tungsten Graphics, Inc


Please, let me know what are the next steps. Thanks!!!

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So you're sure you tried xpdf and it's not faster ?

ok , youo have a intel display card installed , i need you to :

1. $ lsmod //and tell me what driver module is loaded for your intel card.
2. $ glxinfo | grep OpenGl // should give you 3 lines , please paste it here

waiting your reply .

Hi, wfarweed. Here's what you requested:

x@xx:~$ lsmod
Module Size Used by
isofs 36388 0
af_packet 23812 4
udf 88612 1
i915 32512 2
drm 82452 3 i915
vboxdrv 77504 0
ppdev 10372 0
cpufreq_stats 7104 0
cpufreq_conservative 8712 0
cpufreq_ondemand 9740 0
freq_table 5536 2 cpufreq_stats,cpufreq_ondemand
cpufreq_userspace 5284 0
cpufreq_powersave 2688 0
container 5632 0
dock 11280 0
sbs 15112 0
sbshc 7680 1 sbs
iptable_filter 3840 0
ip_tables 14820 1 iptable_filter
x_tables 16132 1 ip_tables
aes_i586 33536 0
dm_crypt 15364 0
dm_mod 62660 1 dm_crypt
sbp2 24072 0
parport_pc 36260 0
lp 12324 0
parport 37832 3 ppdev,parport_pc,lp
tifm_sd 12936 0
mmc_core 51460 1 tifm_sd
pcmcia 40876 0
joydev 13120 0
snd_intel8x0 35356 0
snd_ac97_codec 101028 1 snd_intel8x0
ac97_bus 3072 1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm_oss 42144 0
snd_pcm 78596 3 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_mixer_oss 17920 1 snd_pcm_oss
ipw2200 146120 0
tifm_7xx1 8576 0
ieee80211 35528 1 ipw2200
ieee80211_crypt 7040 1 ieee80211
tifm_core 11012 2 tifm_sd,tifm_7xx1
snd_seq_dummy 4868 0
yenta_socket 27276 1
rsrc_nonstatic 13696 1 yenta_socket
pcmcia_core 40596 3 pcmcia,yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic
snd_seq_oss 35584 0
video 19856 0
output 4736 1 video
snd_seq_midi 9376 0
snd_rawmidi 25760 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event 8320 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq 54224 6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer 24836 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
psmouse 40336 0
snd_seq_device 9612 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
iTCO_wdt 13092 0
iTCO_vendor_support 4868 1 iTCO_wdt
serio_raw 7940 0
battery 14212 0
ac 6916 0
button 9232 0
intel_agp 25492 1
snd 56996 11 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_pcm,snd_mixer_oss,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi, snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
hsfmc97ich 72252 0
hsfserial 24740 1 hsfmc97ich
pcspkr 4224 0
evdev 13056 7
agpgart 34760 3 drm,intel_agp
shpchp 34452 0
pci_hotplug 30880 1 shpchp
soundcore 8800 1 snd
hsfengine 1304384 2 hsfmc97ich,hsfserial
hsfosspec 105960 4 hsfmc97ich,hsfserial,hsfengine
hsfsoar 94680 1 hsfmc97ich
snd_page_alloc 11400 2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
ext3 136712 1
jbd 48404 1 ext3
mbcache 9600 1 ext3
sg 36880 0
sr_mod 17956 1
cdrom 37408 1 sr_mod
sd_mod 30720 3
ata_generic 8324 0
ata_piix 19588 3
b44 28432 0
pata_acpi 8320 0
ohci1394 33584 0
ssb 34308 1 b44
mii 6400 1 b44
ieee1394 93752 2 sbp2,ohci1394
libata 159344 3 ata_generic,ata_piix,pata_acpi
scsi_mod 151436 5 sbp2,sg,sr_mod,sd_mod,libata
ehci_hcd 37900 0
uhci_hcd 27024 0
usbcore 146028 4 hsfosspec,ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd
raid10 25728 0
raid456 129040 0
async_xor 4992 1 raid456
async_memcpy 3712 1 raid456
async_tx 9292 3 raid456,async_xor,async_memcpy
xor 16136 2 raid456,async_xor
raid1 25728 0
raid0 9344 0
multipath 9600 0
linear 7296 0
md_mod 82068 6 raid10,raid456,raid1,raid0,multipath,linear
thermal 16796 0
processor 36872 2 thermal
fan 5636 0
fbcon 42912 0
tileblit 3456 1 fbcon
font 9472 1 fbcon
bitblit 6784 1 fbcon
softcursor 3072 1 bitblit
fuse 50708 1


x@xx:~$ glxinfo | grep vendor
server glx vendor string: SGI
client glx vendor string: SGI
OpenGL vendor string: Tungsten Graphics, Inc


Please let me know what to do next. Thanks a million.

ok you have intel_agp loaded , make sure it is the latest driver by downloading this :
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/conf...Name=&lang=eng

then unpack the new driver
$ tar -zxvf i915Graphics.tar.gz
$ cd i915Graphics
$ sudo ./install.sh
this will compile new kernel modules and compile agpgart, dri , opengl module as well

reboot

$lsmod and make sure you have agpgart , intel_agp , i915 , drm modules are loaded .

see if there is any differences with the new driver installed .
that is it , i hope that was helpful.
awaiting your reply.

wfareed, will installing this driver mess up my system just in case it's not compatible? Is it then possible to revert back to the previous driver? Also, how do I know that I don't have the latest driver?

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Ubuntu = Vista with a different theme

No it will not mess up youe system at all , it is the display driver provided by intel so dont worry , just follow the install instructions and you will be just fine dont worry ok.

wfarweed, thanks so much for your suggestion. I apologize for not responding sooner. I already installed the driver and I have noted some improvement. One question I have for you is, do you know how I can possibly speed up ubuntu when it boots up? As you know, I have ubuntu 8.04, and it takes a little less than 2 minutes to boot up my computer. This is inexcusable. Please let me know. I'd greatly appreciate it!!!!

well , 1st thing first , i hope the new display driver has enhanced and speed things up as expected.
well about makeing ubunttu starts faster , i guess nothing to be done but disabling the services you are not currenlty using like apache , ssh , mysql , etc . . .
check ur services and disable stuff u dont need .
look , my machine is 2GB HDD and intel core 2 duo 2.1 Ghz processor and i have a 256 display card and iam using a 2GB from my Hdd drive as a swap space and my system boots in aprox 2 minutes too , i guess this is normal and fast enough comparing with M$ windows vista and XP .
so well , just disable thoses services and check up , maybe things will go faster a bit .

i hope that was helpful , test and reply .

have a good day ....

Check this page: http://desktoplinux.com/ and look for the articles about lightweight Gnome and lightweight Ubuntu. Apparently you are not the first one complaining.

jlinkels

\..........

The only way of getting noticeably faster boot time is compiling your own kernel. After all, that is one reason that XP boots faster: the installer tunes it to the hardware to the point where it will often fail to boot if you install a different motherboard (the other being illusion: when XP has booted up, it has only booted up by half - many things are still loading in the background when you log in).

wfareed, First, I must apologize to you because I thought I had properly installed the driver, which I hadn't. I thought I had installed the driver. In the process of installing the driver, I got the following error:

Compiling new agpgart module...

ERROR: AGPGART module did not compile

Compiling DRM module...

ERROR: Kernel modules did not compile

The DRI drivers can not be installed without the latest kernel modules.
Installation will be aborted. See the dri.log file for information on
what went wrong.

What must I do now?

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well , check what kernel you have :

$ uname -r // u should see the kernel version
the latest stable kernel is 2.6.26.3 , so if you dont have this , download it from
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kern...h-2.6.26.3.bz2
read the readme files and installation files before you do anything , then compile your new kernel.
after compiling your new kernel , try compiling your new display driver again .

wfarweed, I got kernel 2.6.24-19-generic. Below is the output from terminal:

x@xx:~$ uname -r
2.6.24-19-generic

I have 2 questions for you before I download the new kernel:

1) How can I enable updates to kernels in my sources.list to allow me to automatically update my kernel without me having to so it manually?

2) Someone said that the intel driver you suggested is out of date from 2004. Can you explain?

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wfareed, how are you? I need to know whether or not the intel display driver you had suggested to me a while back is too old for my system. As a reminder, my ubuntu 8.04 is slow. For example, when I scroll through docs or pdfs in openoffice writer and pdf reader, the scrolling is VERY slow. It's annoying. Someone suggested that I reconfigure my xserver, but I'm not sure. Can you please help?

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