[HLUG] Clogged cache?

[grhmc at lavabit.com]

> On 22/04/2008, Graham Cole <GrhmC at lavabit.com> wrote:
>> Hi everyone
>>  I'm trying to understand my ailing desktop which can't cope with a
>>  normal workload these days. It slows down when the browser is used for
>> a
>>  while and eventually it gets so slow that I have to press the reset
>>  button and start again. Printing a photo also slows things to a stop.
>>  I suspect a fault with the RAM because once recently I got an error
>>  message: E:Cache open()failed, please report. I think it was cured with
>>  dpkg --configure -a
>>  Is this situation familiar to anyone?
>>  I'm using Ubuntu 7.10
>
> Hi Graham,
>
> I wouldn't think it is a RAM fault as that usually kills your computer
> pretty quickly.  To start simply, is your disk full?  I would find out
> by opening a terminal window and typing:
>
> $ df -h
>
> If any of the columns have a percentage greater than 95% then that's
> probably the issue.
>
> Thanks
> Mark
>>

I found no high percentage. I used the system monitor and saw there was no
activity in the swap file: always 0%. Recently I did have to remake the
swap file and that was satisfactory at the time. The system got
progressively worse in the last couple of days and is now practically
useless. I'm using a laptop now but I'd like to rescue the desktop!
The RAM use shown in the system monitor goes up fairly steadily to
something like 70% and then the system becomes slow and unusable. Should
the RAM use go up and down rather than go up steadily?

Graham