Re: fedora-list Digest, Vol 10, Issue 167

From: Kshitij Velhal (kvelhal_at_gmail.com)
Date: 12/09/04

  • Next message: Bruce: "FC3 DVD iso won't boot" 
    Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2004 14:56:40 -0800
To: fedora-list@redhat.com

    Thanks Ed for the prompt reply. Please check the additional comments.

    > On Thu, Dec 09, 2004 at 12:32:36PM -0800, Kshitij Velhal wrote:
    > > I have a m/c with following config
    > > Intel Celeron 500MHz
    > > 450 MB RAM
    > > ATI 3D Rage Pro 1x/2x AGP
    > > Microtek 17" Monitor
    > >
    > > I am running FC2 as downloaded from Fedora site. No kernel updates done yet.
    >
    > Step 1 - upgrade everything. There have been many performance
    > improvements made in the last year.
    >
    I would rather like to pin-point the exact problem and if necessary
    upgrade/patch only the concerned programs. Reason being I am short on
    disk space and don't want to install stuff (that might have to be
    installed to satisfy dependencies) which I may not use.

    > > The system runs fine except the performance in GUI mode is very very poor.
    > > In command line mode and through remote SSH logins performance is
    > > relatively much better.
    > >
    > > I have installed both GNOME and KDE. KDE is the defualt environment
    > > and I generaly login as root.
    >
    > Step 2 - don't log in as root. This is not Windows and you will
    > eventually shoot yourself in the foot.
    >
    I think I am fine with root login as I am not messing around the
    system configs. I may change to normal user. But I don't think that
    will make any difference with my problem. Anyways I know its good idea
    to use system as normal user.

    > Step 3 - performance is "very very poor" is not a descriptive problem.
    > What *exactly* is slow? Is the disk thrashing trying to launch
    > applications? Wich applications? Is the cpu going to 100% for an
    > extended period of time? Do applications launch slowly but then run
    > normally?
    >

    By term very very poor I mean:
    1. Can't switch between applications using Alt+Tab instantly (min 1 sec)
    2. Minimize/Maximize of window takes time > 3 sec
    3. If more than 3-4 applications are running it takes >5 sec to show K
    Menu after clicking panel button
    4. GNumeric Save takes 2-3 sec and more as you use it for sometime
    5. In Openoffice apps opening Presentations, Docs, Spreadsheets takes
    time 2-3 sec
    6. If system is running for long time, VLC, Mplayer fail to show video
    only audio is available. Need to restart XServer or sometimes reboot
    to resolve this issue.
    . . .

     I do see a large Hard disk activity (HDD LED) while doing any of
    these tasks. But CPU usage never goes to 100% and I don't think
    anything hangs... Just the response is very slow.

    > > The memory usage is always around 400MB. And I don't think there are
    > > may services running in background.
    >
    > Most people unfortunately read this wrong and telling us you're at 400MB
    > unfortunately doesn't mean much since we don't know if you're reading it
    > right. Buffers and cached memory should be treated as "free" memory.
    >

    Memory usage I mentioned was from output of top command
    ---Sample output---
    Tasks: 76 total, 2 running, 74 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
    Cpu(s): 5.2% us, 4.9% sy, 1.0% ni, 88.9% id, 0.0% wa, 0.0% hi, 0.0% si
    Mem: 452204k total, 441960k used, 10244k free, 31304k buffers
    Swap: 473876k total, 912k used, 472964k free, 238196k cached

    I am worried about physical memory usage.
    I know that SWAP should be double the Physical RAM but I don't have
    space on my HDD. 448MB is I think decent amount of RAM for my work
    habits.

    > > ON same machine I have Windows 2000 (dual boot) and it works pretty
    > > well. For normal operations memory usage is around just 100-150MB.
    >
    > That could simply be because Windows reports it differently.
    >
    > --
    > Ed Wilts, RHCE
    > Mounds View, MN, USA
    > mailto:ewilts@ewilts.org
    > Member #1, Red Hat Community Ambassador Program
    > 

    -- 
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  • Next message: Bruce: "FC3 DVD iso won't boot"