lets me start of by saying i love linux. its freaking so much more stable than windows its almost unbelieveable. ive also stopped using windows xp 95% of the time.

however i have one small problem. multitasking.

windows seems to handle multitasking much better than linux...for eg.
1) more than 5 tabs in konqueror causes it to slow down..
2) burning a cd on k3b slows everything down
3) copying files from location to location(on the same partition) is not the same as the hdparm reported speed.
4)mozilla,opera,firefox are slow to open..and tab switching is sluggish(not really slow...more like 5-6 seconds.. ive loaded konqueror into memory thru kde so thats no longer a problem)


ive done all the hdparm stuff, recompiled the kernel, optimized whatever ive read about...but i still feel the system gets sluggish if i use too many progs at the same time

FYI:
athlon xp 2.0Ghz
1 GB DDR ram
7200 rpm seagate 80GB
geforce ti 4600 with the latest drivers.
slackware 10.0
kernel 2.6.8

all help is graciously apprecaited.

hi

i do not think u can commnet after using the application thta windows oea a better multi tasking
because on of the ptoblem here is
that we use linux which does not check for compatibilty of a software with others which we use

i,.e windows had IE designed accordind to its requirements and architcture
but here we have these browsers whcih work on all types of linux and windows too!!!

so u need to look ut what goes out best with ur distro

also as i told u look out for more options to optimize ur distro, or lok ut for a another distro itself!!!

regards

I think you need to check you're using a kernel version that's compiled for high mem, eg more than 512megs.

If you have customized KDE and used a lot of effects and stuff like that, then that can have an affect on speed. Also how much ram have you got? KDE is fairly ram intensive

Cheers

hi J.K

maybe u missed out the thread somewhat
it has been specified that there is 1 GB DDR ram on the system

that is more than enough for a good server!!!!

regards

Sorry, didn`t read that one, my apologies . Sounds like the system isn`t optimally configured.
With those specs. he shouldn`t really be having any speed issues.

give another kernel a try. I was experiencing the same problems when i tried 2.6.8 - k3b slowed stuff down and also multiple tabs on mozilla slowed stuff down.

Try compiling your own 2.6.7 kernel - and pay attention to what options you select (your specs weren't those of the average joe user, so a lot of the pre-selected options may be inadequate/irrelevant to your system) - and try not to select stuff which you know won't be necessary.

Also - since you're using an nvidia GPU - MAKE SURE YOU DONT COMPILE THE RIVA 128 MODULE, it gave me problems due to conflicts with my nvidia drivers so i had to recompile.

And yea as mentioned earlier, choose programs that'll take advantage of your system - e.g. choose i686 packages as often as possible (since ur on an Athlon XP, but i386 packages will also work but won't take advantage of the extended features given to you by your CPU), and always compile from source if there isn't a version of a prog available for your specific distro..

thanx for all the help...
proud, tried recompiling my kernel to support high mem(incidentally, its only for 1GB-4GB and not 512MB)...still dont notice too much of a speed increase...anyway running on the recompiled kernel now..

theMonkeY,yeah i always exclude unwanted stuff when i compile the kernel...for some reason i never got 2.6.7 working on my system...2.6.6 was ok though...but the speed issues were still there even in 2.6.6

should i upgrade to 2.6.8.1?

and i never compile the riva 128 module...i dont think teh nvidia drivers can be installed successfully with that module installed(not sure..)

as for compiling....i use this in my /etc/profile/

CFLAGS="-O2 -march=athlon-xp"
export CFLAGS
CXXFLAGS=$CFLAGS
export CXXFLAGS

which basically means ive optimized everything for an athlon xp...even more specific than i686 optimizations..

damn. just dont know what the problem is...

hi

have considered closing down some services???
NFS is one of the heaviest service...
also , how much memory usgae do u get ??? while doing normal work o ur machine...

regards

Yeah, close unnecessary services. This might not be very helpful but I'm running a 1ghz duron with 512 sdram and slackware is slow compared to gentoo. Did you compile mozilla from source or did you use the mozilla install or install it from CD. Because unless you compiled it from source you won't have a lot optimization. I would think even if you use slack 10 with those specs it shouldn't be that slow but you could always consider Gentoo if nothing else speeds up slackware. I compiled everything with from source and mozilla loads in 3 seconds and switches tabs really quickly.

CFLAGS="-O3 ...i ididnt know O3 existed... i thought O1was for size and O2 was for speed...sorry ..i dont know squat when it comes to C..
is it possible to download firefox source? or should i just get pre compiled builds from forums.mozillazine.org?

hi

i have got precompiled souce from mozilla .org and they seem to work perfectly..
are u facing any problems there????

regards

Must be something seriously wrong with your xp install
I find xp way more stable and reliable than any linux distro i've tried.

sorry there
my xperience has ben very bad with windows Xp

i only ise windows to play games if any , while i find linux with a custom compiled kernel
the best

have u tried compiling one???
if not ,do it soon, you will enjoy the power of linux

regards

need to sort my winmodem,etc before i get that serious