Xubuntu Programs Randomly Closing
Hi all,
I'm running Xubuntu 10.10 via USB on a Dell Latitude D505. Wireless card is a Netgear WPN111 and I'm using ndiswrapper to make it work. My problem is this: when I open any web browser and try to navigate to a page, the whole system freezes for a few min before crashing to desktop. Using Task Manager during this time reveals that processor usage jumps to 100% and stays there until the program closes. I've tried Xubuntu on another, faster machine and it was fine. From this I conclude that it's related to the hardware, and I think it may be some hardware protection feature operating. Is there anything I can do to sort it? Specs: Dell Latitude D505 256MB RAM Integrated Graphics Intel Celeron M 1.4GHz |
The Netgear WPN111 has an Atheros AR2414 chip set so you shouldn't need to use ndiswrapper to make it work.
http://www.wireless-driver.com/downl...nd-Chipset.htm http://sourceforge.net/projects/madwifi/ Nevertheless that may not be the cause of your problem. It probably wouldn't hurt to use the native Linux code. Your actual symptoms make me wonder if you are having a RAM swapping issue. How much RAM do you have and how big is your swap partition? Does the problem happen only on certain web sites? If yes do those web sites download large amounts of data such as video streaming? |
I'll give madwifi a go, hopefully it'll be slightly easier to setup than ndiswrapper etc
It's got 256MB RAM. As for the swap partition, I'm not sure? Thanks for the advice so far... EDIT: Just had a proper look on the madwifi website, it says it doesn't support USB wireless cards like the WPN111...thoughts? |
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Code:
cat /proc/swaps Code:
$ cat /proc/swaps Quote:
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It seems it doesn't have a swap file;
Code:
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ cat /proc/swaps |
The more I look for device support for your wireless NIC the more I find people using ndiswrapper. Here is the happiest post I've seen on the subject.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...4/#post2907116 Coincidentally happens to be located here on LQ. I looked on other web sites via Google. Most of the things that I read suggested that people were frustrated. Since you've already got it working then disregard all of the above. Quote:
We should see if you have any spare space on the disk that is not already allocated to a partition. I like to use cfdisk because it shows you everything in an easy to read format. Open a terminal window and enter the following command. Code:
sudo cfdisk /dev/sda The cfdisk display will show if you have any space that is not already allocated. Do that and report back please. :) |
Ran cfdisk, results below. sda is the main windows hard drive on this laptop, so I used sdb which is the flashdrive in question instead.
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cfdisk (util-linux-ng 2.17.2) |
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Give it another try showing /dev/sda. |
No, Xubuntu is installed on the flashdrive. Sorry, should have made that clear.
Don't think that affects creating a swap file/partition? |
That's okay. Since Xubuntu is installed on the flash drive then the flash drive is a good place to put the swap partition.
Now the question is how to do it. I don't know if Xubuntu has gparted installed and I don't know if gparted will resize a mounted partition. Ideally we want to boot a live Linux CD and shrink the existing partition on the flash drive, then create a new partition that will be used for swap space, then tell Xubuntu to use that swap space automatically when it starts. Did you install Xubuntu from a live CD? If you did then boot that, open a terminal window, and see if it has gparted by opening a terminal window and entering the following command. Code:
which gparted |
I created the Xubuntu flashdrive with the USB Installer from pendrivelinux.com
I think the best course of action is to format and repartition the flash drive; ie. start afresh. Am I right in thinking leaving 1GB of unallocated space (in windows), and then running gparted is the best course of action? |
Yes that is a good choice. I recommend leaving 2 GB for swap space.
:) |
Ah, slight problem;
It's not possible to put more than one partiton on a USB flash drive. I guess I'm going to have to go for a swap file rather than partition. Unless there's a way round this? |
We can make a swap file in the root directory of the Xubuntu file system. I've never made a swap file but I have manually configured a swap partition. It should be very similar.
Here are the steps: 1- create a 2 GB file in the root directory 2- mount that file as a loop device 3- format it 4- put a line in /etc/fstab to automatically mount the page file and activate swapping Here are the commands: 1- create the 2 GB file in the root directory Code:
sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=2048 count=1M conv=notrunc,noerror Code:
losetup /dev/loop0 /swapfile Code:
mkswap /dev/loop0 Okay. Let's make a backup of the /etc/fstab file before we do anything. Code:
sudo cp -v /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.original Code:
sudo echo "/swapfile none swap sw 0 0" >> /etc/fstab Restart Xubuntu, then cat /proc/swaps to see if the swap file is activated. |
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Code:
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo losetup /dev/loop0 /swapfile |
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It turns out that you can format the swapfile without using losetup. I just found this out. Code:
sudo mkswap /swapfile |
Followed all the other steps, rebooted and......nothing.
I also found the command to manually activate the swap file; Code:
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo swapon /swapfile Thanks for all the help so far... |
My swapfile can be manually activated using swapon.
Try doing the mkswap again. It should look something like this. Code:
$ sudo mkswap /swapfile |
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Whare did it say that? |
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I ran mkswap again: Code:
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo mkswap /swapfile |
I don't know either. The only difference is that my swapfile is on an internal disk. Maybe it has something to do with the USB but I don't know.
It makes me wonder if a swap partition on the flash drive would work. Well, you could try putting more RAM into the machine or just avoid web sites that cause the problem. Maybe someone else will have some ideas. |
yeah, I guess.
Thanks a million for the help. I'll keep trying and post back if I get it working. |
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