[Wolves] Slow Linux on Laptop

[Adam Sweet]

 --- fred <trash@neurolawUk.com> wrote: > Never used
Linux before.  Thought I'd give it a go
> me laptop (an Nec).  Got new Red Hat 9 book with 2
> cds in back.  Loaded up a treat (actually took about
> an hour to load it) but is extraordinarily slow (20
> mins just to open openoffice writer).
> 
> I don't think it is the spec on the machine becuase
> with windows I could run quite quickly, even small
> access databases worked instantly
> 
> I did notice that when I am loading linux after a
> few minutes it issues a warning that there is a
> problem becuase the machine does not have much
> memory so it needs to start using swap space
> immediately.  A bit puzzled by that because the
> machine has Pentium III 650Mhz, Internal cache 256Ko
> CPU, base memory 64MB SDRAM, 20GB Hard Drive.  I
> altered swap space to 500MB but it made no
> difference.

I don't know how much you know about Linux and it's
structure, but as this is your first install I'll
assume not tooooo much if you'll forgive me.

To be blunt, I think the problem may be your amount of
RAM. 64MB is a bit slim for a full featured modern
distribution of Linux like Red Hat. Yes Linux is
famous for being less resource hungry and running well
on less powerful hardware, but this is not always the
case as I will explain.

If I recall correctly, a reasonable minimum amount of
RAM is about 96MB to do what you want (though people
here may disagree) for the following reasons.

Linux uses the following system structure. You have
the kernel which performs the low level basic stuff
like memory,process and file management, then on top
you have what is called the X Window system which
among many things allows applications to draw windows
on the screen. You then have a desktop environment
(Gnome and KDE for example) which provide graphical
file managers and all sorts of other stuff. Each has
it's own RAM requirements of between 32 and 64MB on
top of one another and Open Office recommend 64 as a
minimum themselves so it adds up.

The Red Hat site states that 128MB is a minimum for a
graphical environment but recommends 192MB. So if you
find your hard disk grinding away during this 20
minute period this may be your problem.

You may like to try a lighter desktop environment,
like... I dunno... Rox for example, there are a few
and someone else is better qualified to make
recommendations here. Look for it on the Red Hat site,
or Google is a good idea for finding software
homepages.

Also you should probably disable some of the services
that are running. On a laptop you probably don't need
to be running a webserver, a mail server, a DNS server
and an ftp server so if there is a graphical Service
manager turn them off and tell them not to run at
startup. Otherwise ksysv is a KDE program that allows
you to configure what runs at startup but requires
knowledge of the Linux boot up process and what
run-levels are.

Or just put some more RAM in which you can buy online
or from a computer fair. There is a Linux Laptop site
at http://www.linux-laptop.net with a section on NEC
laptops. So you can look for model specific help (or
if your laptop uses any vendor specific types of RAM,
though NEC themselves are ultimately the people to
answer this).

Linux's fame for being less resource hungry is based
on  it's killer apps like the Apache web server and
mail servers etc not needing a graphical environment
and hence lesser resources. Also there are versions of
Linux designed to run on minimal resources therefore
meaning you can make even the most ancient machines do
something useful, but these are specialised.

Red Hat is aimed at modern hardware but it certainly
surprised me to see that RAM requirements are this
high. It seems odd that what could be considered a
mid-range spec machine like yours should be below a
minimum spec for such a tolerant system as Linux.
Mandrake requres 64MB and recommends 128 and is a
similar distro in principle. Red Hat is certainly
hungry by comparison. No doubt Debian is less resource
hungry than most other fully fledged distros but will
baffle the hell out of you until you have a reasonable
amount of Linux knowledge.

Don't let this put you off Linux. My first
installation (about 2 1/2 years ago or so) ran like a
dog due to the machine I chose and the next ate my
hard disk. But things certainly get better the more
you persevere.

Try it on another machine with more ram, get more ram
for your laptop or try another distro after checking
their minimum spec is my basic advice.

Best regards,

Adam

=====
http://www.drinky.org.uk

======================================

Use Linux. Because it's better.

________________________________________________________________________
Want to chat instantly with your online friends?  Get the FREE Yahoo!
Messenger http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com/