hey there...

this computer im talking about is a 1Ghz Athlon. It has a 19Gb Hardisk. I have been trying to use HDParm to get it running as it should, but i cant seem to get higher then 20Mb/sec. That really strange because it should be at least twice as high i guess... here is a dump from hdparm:

Model=Maxtor 32049H2, FwRev=YAC614Y0, SerialNo=L224P3ZC
Config={ Fixed }
RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=57
BuffType=DualPortCache, BuffSize=2048kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=16
CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=40021632
IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
PIO modes: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5
AdvancedPM=yes: disabled (255) WriteCache=enabled
Drive conforms to: ATA/ATAPI-6 T13 1410D revision 0: 1 2 3 4 5 6

hdparm -t /dev/hda
/dev/hda:
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 3.20 seconds = 20.00 MB/sec

/dev/hda:
multcount = 16 (on)
IO_support = 2 (16-bit)
unmaskirq = 1 (on)
using_dma = 1 (on)
keepsettings = 0 (off)
readonly = 0 (off)
readahead = 8 (on)
geometry = 2491/255/63, sectors = 40021632, start = 0

Its now exactly 20Mb, but is with different parameters is only going down...

The IDE controller is a "VIA Technologies|VT82C586/B/686A/B PIPC Bus Master IDE"

I guess that more memory should fix some of the problems, but the drive will still be performing low i guess... Im getting despirate ...

My own computer with redhat 9 runs like the devil!!! (and im trying to confince someone to start using linux... not such a great time for that i guess, hehehe)

ow, i saw that i forgot something

if i use hdparm with -c 1 or -c 3 i get a performance of 15Mb ???!!!


HEEEELLP MEEEEE..

How would I go about shutting down uneccesary programs running in the background before they startup? I just switched from mandrake to red hat yesterday so I'm not familiar with this new menu. Also I'm a linux noob to begin with so that doesn' help

If you want a gui you can use /usr/bin/redhat-config-services.

There's a nice command line tool called /sbin/chkconfig, see "man chkconfig" for details. For example, you can do "/sbin/chkconfig --list | grep on" to see all the services that are enabled. "/sbin/chkconfig --level 345 xinetd off" will stop xinetd from starting. If xinetd is currently running, you can stop it with "/etc/rc.d/init.d/xinetd stop" or "/sbin/service xinetd stop".

My system slows down when there is heavy disk io. I heard that the preemption is supposed to fix that kind of thing (prior to 2.6 you would have to patch your kernel). How much bandwidth are you talking about?

I'm talking 40/k outta my 83k max. Why would I want to stop xinetd though? Is this a useless daemon? From the man pages it seams like it would be critical to running anything having to do with internet process. Or am I mistaken?

hi there...

i have been messing around with that machine i mentioned. I still cant get higher speeds on the harddisk, but it seems to be a 5400 rpm disk. So maybe its the max. I installing the NVidia drivers from NVidia itself, and i disabled some things in XFconfig86... when i started X as root i noticed a lot more speed then before.. so i thought it might had to do with hosts & dns resolving.. i tested some things and messed around with the hostname. Then i deleted the original kde account and logged in again. It was allot faster after that. Still not what i should be.. he seems to have some memory problem and uses the disk way to much while swapping... first im gonna try to put some more memory in the machine and see what will happen..

p.

My cable provider lets me download at 384 kilbytes/second and my system doesn't even notice.

I was only using xinetd as an example service. Many network daemons use it (telnet, ftp, etc...).

Is it possible that a video card driver update (running a radeon 9100) as a possible solution?

My RH 9 is also slow. Slower than Windows XP Pro. A driver update for Windows XP Pro solved the problem. However, I'm still a super newbie when it comes to Linux.

Yup , me too Redhat 9 is slow,

I have 392 mb of ram and i got only 40 mb free , no window open no programs.

Redhat eats totaly my ram

If you're feeling brave, compile and install a stock kernel.org 2.4.20 kernel, I have found this *dramatically* improves performance. Others have found this too. It seems that Red Hat screwed up the kernel in this release big time.

That's crazy. I'm running KDE, mozilla, Konsole, and lots of services, and here's what I get from the "free" command:
that's 208280 kilobytes used.

BTW, I compiled my own stock 2.4.20 kernel (actually it's patched for udf write on cdrw) but I didn't notice performance problems before (or after) that.

Yes, Redhat9 might be slower on your machine, but could you imagine running WindowsXP on a 266Mhz, PII, with 192MB ram!! You can't! Eventually, you will need to upgrade your hardware. Redhat9 was released March, 2003. The PentiumII was released April, 1997. If your machine is running too slow, I would suggest not upgrading your OS to the latest and greatest. I am running Redhat7 on a PentiumIII, 400Mhz with no issues.

To run REdhat 9 correctly i recommend 1 gig of ram!!!

hmmm i was running red hat 8 b4 and only had 3 gigs, 300 mhz machine. After i bought a new 30 gig harddrive for my server, i installed red hat 9 (everything). Im running an apache webserver and ftp and i see no difference in running speed from 8 to 9.
Of course im buying a new mobo and athlon +2000 for it soon, so i should have no problems at all.

More is ram is always better, but many people can get away with much less. Earlier in this thread somebody said 192 mb was sufficient for them, and I have a notebook with 256 mb that is also sufficient.