Memory problem

linx win · 11-07-2008, 08:01 AM

I am using Aspire One with debian unstable Gnome desktop and kernel 2.6.27. Everything works great except the mouse pad. However, the system is slow. I run top which showed that the system memory almost fully used as shown below:

Code:

Mem:    503640k total,   496400k used,     7240k free,    44620k buffers
Swap:   931728k total,        0k used,   931728k free,   221976k cached

Analyzing the active tasks, I did not see any high memory consuming program running:

Code:

 3542 root      20   0  331m  15m 8836 S    6  3.1   1:05.27 Xorg                          
 3920 acerone   20   0 92264  16m  10m S    3  3.3   0:06.47 gnome-terminal                
 3643 acerone   20   0 16076 2684 1800 S    1  0.5   0:04.59 gnome-screensav               
 3936 acerone   20   0  2264 1128  880 R    1  0.2   0:06.79 top                           
 4088 acerone   20   0  173m  56m  20m S    1 11.4   0:40.60 firefox-bin                   
    1 root      20   0  1984  732  632 S    0  0.1   0:01.23 init

Is there any way to know which task is causing the low memory situation?

farslayer · 11-07-2008, 10:05 AM

Not sure why you are having touchpad issues.. mine is working fine. I used the following Debian wiki when installing Debian on my AAO Netbook http://wiki.debian.org/DebianAcerOne

For your memory issues, did you consider running a desktop other than gnome ? You should try xfce and LXDE

GNOME

Code:

Mem:   1024224k total,   354912k used,   669312k free,    12856k buffers
Swap:  2634652k total,        0k used,  2634652k free,   133812k cached

LXDE

Code:

Mem:   1024224k total,   260816k used,   763408k free,    10612k buffers
Swap:  2634652k total,        0k used,  2634652k free,    97340k cached

Linux lennynetbookone 2.6.26-1-686 #1 SMP

You can also sort the output in top by hitting SHIFT+M. That will sort the running programs by memory usage top to bottom.

linx win · 11-08-2008, 03:33 PM

farslayer

Thanks for reply. The mouse pad is working fine now. I got it to work by pressing Fn + F7. However, I still don not know the reason for the slowness of the system. May be low ram? I got 512 only which is sufficient on any other laptop but not Aspire One!

I have the same system on Asus eeepc 701 and it is working fine except at boot it gives me:
undefined video mode number: 317
which is the case with Aspire One. I tried vga=785 and vga=8 in the menu.lst but same result.

AlucardZero · 11-08-2008, 10:32 PM

Code:

alucard@karrde:~$ free
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:        553164     527212      25952          0      22616     135100
-/+ buffers/cache:     369496     183668
Swap:       131064      23568     107496

369MB RAM used for applications, 183 for buffers and cache, 25 completely free.

Using all your RAM is normal. Active swapping is not.

linx win · 11-09-2008, 02:50 PM

Thanks.

Update:

I added noatime to the root partition in /etc/fstab and did apt-get upgrade. I noticed a little improvement in the speed.I wish to see some suggestions.

For the "undefined video mode number: 317" message, I was able to boot smoothly by pressing F4 at boot time and selecting screen 800x600.

pinniped · 11-09-2008, 03:11 PM

For the video mode we need to know the capability of your screen (and graphics chip). You can use 'lspci' and 'lspci -n' to help identify your graphics chip and the VendorID:ProductID code. For the screen specs you have to rely on the manual.

johnson_steve · 11-09-2008, 04:12 PM

I think I'll be getting 1 to 3 of these for my family. what realy pisses me off is that you can buy a linux version but for $20 more you get double the ram and a 120Gb drive. while I think it's great that they sell linux computers; I don't think it's great that they're only putting linux on the ones that couldn't run windows comfortably. this is going to give people the impression that linux isn't as good as windows by handicaping the linux netbooks with inferior hardware. I'll be getting the windows model with 1Gb ram and putting linux on it the extra hardware is worth the $20 and I take pleasure from wiping a perfectly good windows install. 512mb isn't a lot of memory these days my desktop has 4Gb even most 'cheap' laptops have atleast 1Gb except the ones that come with linux.

j.todd · 11-09-2008, 06:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnson_steve

I think I'll be getting 1 to 3 of these for my family. what realy pisses me off is that you can buy a linux version but for $20 more you get double the ram and a 120Gb drive. while I think it's great that they sell linux computers; I don't think it's great that they're only putting linux on the ones that couldn't run windows comfortably. this is going to give people the impression that linux isn't as good as windows by handicaping the linux netbooks with inferior hardware. I'll be getting the windows model with 1Gb ram and putting linux on it the extra hardware is worth the $20 and I take pleasure from wiping a perfectly good windows install. 512mb isn't a lot of memory these days my desktop has 4Gb even most 'cheap' laptops have atleast 1Gb except the ones that come with linux.

Don't forget to get your money back for all of those unused windows licenses.

johnson_steve · 11-09-2008, 06:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by j.todd

Don't forget to get your money back for all of those unused windows licenses.

Ha. like that'll ever happen.

j.todd · 11-09-2008, 07:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnson_steve

Ha. like that'll ever happen.

You can get the money back. Just record yourself denying the license and removing windows, then mail it to the OEM and tell them you want your money back.