Debian works kind of slow

Lord Northern · 03-05-2013, 04:06 AM

Hey.
So I have a very general question here.
I recently installed Debian on my computer and my problem is: it works pretty slow. Like, when I open a window, or a program, it kind of takes longer. For example, it takes much longer to open chrome than on the same computer in Windows.
Also, when I watch a video on youtube in full screen, it's not as smooth as you'd expect it to be. Certainly not as smooth as on Windows.
Now, I know that there could be 1007 reasons why it is the case but are there any typical beginner issues/mistakes, that I should probably look at?

Some info about my computer:
It's an AMD Athlon 64x processor with 2gb of RAM. I installed Debian squeeze 64bit and then upgraded to Debian Wheezy by running apt-get dist-upgrade.
During the initial installation, I allocated 30gb for / partition and 4gb for swap.
In terms of packages, I only selected the standard system, and deskltop environment.
After installation, I installed KDE, and ran system upgrade to upgrade to Wheezy.
I also tried turning off all of the desktop effects. Doesn't seem to change anything.

So, any general ideas or suggestions?
Thanks.

cynwulf · 03-05-2013, 04:17 AM

Need to know more about the hardware:

Code:

$ lspci -v

Lord Northern · 03-05-2013, 04:20 AM

That's what I got:

Quote:

00:00.0 RAM memory: NVIDIA Corporation MCP55 Memory Controller (rev a2)
Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology Device 5001
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0
Capabilities: [44] HyperTransport: Slave or Primary Interface
Capabilities: [dc] HyperTransport: MSI Mapping Enable+ Fixed-

00:01.0 ISA bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP55 LPC Bridge (rev a3)
Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology Device 0c11
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0

00:01.1 SMBus: NVIDIA Corporation MCP55 SMBus (rev a3)
Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology Device 0c11
Flags: 66MHz, fast devsel, IRQ 11
I/O ports at 1c00 [size=64]
I/O ports at 1c80 [size=64]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
Kernel driver in use: nForce2_smbus

00:01.2 RAM memory: NVIDIA Corporation MCP55 Memory Controller (rev a3)
Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology Device 0c11
Flags: 66MHz, fast devsel

00:02.0 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP55 USB Controller (rev a1) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology Device 5004
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 23
Memory at ec105000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd

00:02.1 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP55 USB Controller (rev a2) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology Device 5004
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 22
Memory at ec106000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: [44] Debug port: BAR=1 offset=0098
Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2
Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd

00:04.0 IDE interface: NVIDIA Corporation MCP55 IDE (rev a1) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology Device 5002
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0
[virtual] Memory at 000001f0 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8]
[virtual] Memory at 000003f0 (type 3, non-prefetchable) [size=1]
[virtual] Memory at 00000170 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8]
[virtual] Memory at 00000370 (type 3, non-prefetchable) [size=1]
I/O ports at f000 [size=16]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
Kernel driver in use: pata_amd

00:05.0 IDE interface: NVIDIA Corporation MCP55 SATA Controller (rev a3) (prog-if 85 [Master SecO PriO])
Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology Device b002
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 20
I/O ports at a400 [size=8]
I/O ports at a800 [size=4]
I/O ports at ac00 [size=8]
I/O ports at b000 [size=4]
I/O ports at b400 [size=16]
Memory at ec10a000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [b0] MSI: Enable- Count=1/4 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [cc] HyperTransport: MSI Mapping Enable- Fixed+
Kernel driver in use: sata_nv

00:05.1 IDE interface: NVIDIA Corporation MCP55 SATA Controller (rev a3) (prog-if 85 [Master SecO PriO])
Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology Device b002
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 23
I/O ports at b800 [size=8]
I/O ports at bc00 [size=4]
I/O ports at c000 [size=8]
I/O ports at c400 [size=4]
I/O ports at c800 [size=16]
Memory at ec10b000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [b0] MSI: Enable- Count=1/4 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [cc] HyperTransport: MSI Mapping Enable- Fixed+
Kernel driver in use: sata_nv

00:05.2 IDE interface: NVIDIA Corporation MCP55 SATA Controller (rev a3) (prog-if 85 [Master SecO PriO])
Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology Device b002
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 22
I/O ports at cc00 [size=8]
I/O ports at d000 [size=4]
I/O ports at d400 [size=8]
I/O ports at d800 [size=4]
I/O ports at dc00 [size=16]
Memory at ec104000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [b0] MSI: Enable- Count=1/4 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [cc] HyperTransport: MSI Mapping Enable- Fixed+
Kernel driver in use: sata_nv

00:06.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP55 PCI bridge (rev a2) (prog-if 01 [Subtractive decode])
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=32
Memory behind bridge: ec000000-ec0fffff
Capabilities: [b8] Subsystem: Device 0000:0000
Capabilities: [8c] HyperTransport: MSI Mapping Enable- Fixed-

00:06.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation MCP55 High Definition Audio (rev a2)
Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology Device a002
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 21
Memory at ec100000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable+ 64bit+
Capabilities: [6c] HyperTransport: MSI Mapping Enable- Fixed+
Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel

00:08.0 Bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP55 Ethernet (rev a3)
Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology Device e000
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 41
Memory at ec107000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
I/O ports at e000 [size=8]
Memory at ec108000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Memory at ec109000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [70] MSI-X: Enable- Count=8 Masked-
Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/8 Maskable+ 64bit+
Capabilities: [6c] HyperTransport: MSI Mapping Enable- Fixed+
Kernel driver in use: forcedeth

00:0f.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP55 PCI Express bridge (rev a3) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=02, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 00009000-00009fff
Memory behind bridge: e8000000-ebffffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000c0000000-00000000dfffffff
Capabilities: [40] Subsystem: NVIDIA Corporation Device 0000
Capabilities: [48] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/2 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [60] HyperTransport: MSI Mapping Enable- Fixed-
Capabilities: [80] Express Root Port (Slot+), MSI 00
Capabilities: [100] Virtual Channel
Kernel driver in use: pcieport

00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
Flags: fast devsel
Capabilities: [80] HyperTransport: Host or Secondary Interface

00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
Flags: fast devsel

00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
Flags: fast devsel

00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
Flags: fast devsel
Capabilities: [f0] Secure device <?>
Kernel driver in use: k8temp

01:0a.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB43AB23 IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology GA-EP45-DS5/GA-EG45M-DS2H Motherboard
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 18
Memory at ec004000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K]
Memory at ec000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
Kernel driver in use: firewire_ohci

02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation G96 [GeForce 9500 GT] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: ZOTAC International (MCO) Ltd. Device 7046
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
Memory at ea000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Memory at c0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=512M]
Memory at e8000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=32M]
I/O ports at 9000 [size=128]
[virtual] Expansion ROM at eb000000 [disabled] [size=512K]
Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [68] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [78] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
Capabilities: [b4] Vendor Specific Information: Len=14 <?>
Capabilities: [100] Virtual Channel
Capabilities: [128] Power Budgeting <?>
Capabilities: [600] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0001 Rev=1 Len=024 <?>
Kernel driver in use: nouveau

Ztcoracat · 03-05-2013, 09:33 PM

Caravel is best with this kind of output.

I am still learning about 2nd generation core and chipset stuff-

suicidaleggroll · 03-05-2013, 09:36 PM

Was it this slow before you upgraded to Wheezy?

Looks like you're using a GeForce 9500 GT. Have you tried installing the nvidia drivers for it?

Lord Northern · 03-06-2013, 04:32 AM

It was even slower before the upgrade.

I shall try the nvidia installation. Thanks.

cynwulf · 03-06-2013, 11:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ztcoracat

Caravel is best with this kind of output.

Thanks, but I'm no where near the best or an expert.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lord Northern

It was even slower before the upgrade.

I shall try the nvidia installation. Thanks.

I would guess that you have no hardware acceleration / direct rendering for whatever reason. You can check for direct rendering with:

Code:

$ glxinfo | grep render

Of course the nvidia driver may be the way to go, but I've found that 2D performance is not really that great. On my Slackware system I still have to use this trick in order to get decent performance with an old G7x series GPU: http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=115916

Ztcoracat · 03-06-2013, 02:01 PM

Quote:

Thanks, but I'm no where near the best or an expert.

Your Welcome

And you are best at some things.

You probably don't remember but; you bailed me out of a conflicting mess I had going on with my Debian system about 6 months ago-

I suspected that it could be a driver issue when I read through the output of lspci -v

Lord Northern:
Here's a few articles if interested-
Direct rendering infrastructure...looking it up
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/dri-howto.xml

The Myth Of 2D Hardware Acceleration
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...di,2539-4.html

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=305419