Well im still going at it...

[lazygamer]

Goddamn, this Linux sure is hard to get used to. It's such a shock, you keep thinking like wind0ze. IE:WTF?! C'mon wind0ze does this, why don't you? It's like learning how to walk again. Even if your new, lithe and agile self will be better then your current self, it's still hard re-learning.

I guess there is only one way to make it as easy as wind0ze, rtfm.  

Ok im experincing some boo-boos with Mandrake. Sure, it's 100% reliable. It has never crashed on me, even when it's resources are under heavy strain, it don't crash!

That is also the problem. Mandrake seems to THINK that im heavily taxing it(according to the various load meters). Thus when im doing something simple like opening a file and I have one or two other windows open then SHOOM! A huge spike in the cpu usage occurs, taking it close to the top. The ram is also indicating it's mostly used. Either the meters are in-accurate, or my Mandrake is not optimally configured.

I seriously feel Windows XP is, so far, outperforming Mandrake quite a bit, which is a shame. Surely you guys won't allow XP user to use this as ammunition?  

It might make a major difference in speed and load times if I disabled a shitload of services. Most of these services seem USELESS to me. Me, someone who barfed the moment he saw the Linux command line.  

Problem is, I disabled a whole bunch last time, then my system reboots, but the GUI don't load. It leaves me to log my name in, in the console. After that, it gives me plenty of access to my console, but not to Gnome.  

So I had to re-install Linux, and then it was all happy. I however, am not sure what services f0ck up my Linux. So I have prepared a list.

Fam
Alsa
Anacron
Apmd
Atd
Crond
devfsd
gpm
harddrake
internet
ipvsadm
keytable
kheader
kudzu
linuxconf
medusa
netfs
network
nfslock
numlock
partmon
portmap
rabdin
rawdevices
sound
syslog
usb
webmin
xfs
xinetd

Some just load during boot, and some are constantly running.

Any other tips to optimize Mandrake? Im so n00bish, and that manual is so long... and I haven't even attempted Wine yet!  

[cloudstrife]

yes, i have found that all the major linux distros, excluding slackware, are WAY TOO SLOW!!!  for one thing, KDE/GNOME are soooo fucking slow and sooooo fucking resource hoggin its not funny.  to show ya how slow mandrake/redhat really is in comparison to slack:

on my PII 333mhz:

boot time for redhat: 1:17
boot time for mandrake: 1:07
boot time for slackware: 0:18

ram used in redhat with kde running: 64 mb
ram used in mandrake with kde runnin: 62 mb
ram used in slackware with kde running: 25 mb

dont ask me why this is, i dunno, mandrake/redhat are too dumbed down for me.

[choasforages]

*/barfs at boot times*/

FreeBSD hits in at around 17 seconds
and ChoasNETOS is like 10 seconds.

ok enough braging on boot times,

serriuosly give all the main linux distros a twirl. i was never really too big of a fan of mandrake anyway. and yes, slackware is harder to use, but faster. just don't give up, thats all i have to say. now a way to make redhat waaaayyy faster is to goto the opensource.sgi.com site and find the xfs one, actally here is the link. ftp://oss.sgi.com/projects/xfs/download/Release-1.1/installer/installer/i386/
last time i used the xfs enhanced version of redhat, it was fast as hell. but i havn't given it a shot in  awhile. what the xfs does is increase through put, it is a file system that sgi devoleped for supercomputers. it is very very very fast. but you owuld need that and the 7.3 install set. so that might be out of the question. owell, atleast you tried, thats better then some


xfs and xfs are too different things, one is the X font server, and the other is a file system, go figure

[ August 12, 2002: Message edited by: choasforages ]

[choasforages]

and you reinstalled to get the gui back??, when i was a linux n00b i did that. go find a unix book, and read it. you will enlightend. besides have you tried quake3 yet. and for that fact, nautilus 1.4 is slow as shit anyway. gnome2 is way faster, but that would be a latter thing for you to do

[choasforages]

besides, windows is something youll never forget. ive been useing linux for a year now, and i still remember all my EvIL windows magic.


and i have learned to work linux and FreeBSD, and im currently playing with NetBSD. so it is worth learning.

[ August 12, 2002: Message edited by: choasforages ]

[choasforages]

try recompiling the kernel. it should be fairly obvius, just read the howto, and ask plenty o questions

[lazygamer]

Lol, well I should try KDE to. Is it generally faster? Although i'm certain that all these useless things I don't need are slowing it down. What's the magic thing I disabled to take away the GUI???      

/skips over to yahoo to look up optimizing mandrake

PS:I'll get a book ASAP! But I ain't paying $50(maybe not even $2)0, so it's either second-hand, or a trip to the library.

PPS:Is there a Linux for dummies?  

[ August 12, 2002: Message edited by: lazygamer ]

[Kat]

quote:Originally posted by lazygamer:

The ram is also indicating it's mostly used. Either the meters are in-accurate, or my Mandrake is not optimally configured.

It was explained to me that unlike Winblows, Linux actually uses your RAM. When you need the memory for a program, Linux will release it. Don't worry unless a huge amount of swap space is being used. A good rule of thumb is to take the number of megabytes of RAM you have, double it, and make that how big you make your swap partition.
BTW, a good book is Running Linux from O'Reilly. But, if you don't want to buy a book, you can always scour the vast resources online. Instead of Yahoo, try using:  www.google.com/linux

[lazygamer]

Well that's a relief, I hardly have any swap space in use!(even though I have 500mb available for Linux) But what, does Linux use the CPU too and free up what it needs at certain moments?  

Gotta... tweak... services..., curiosity outweighs risk...

[Sleeping Dog]

If you have limited RAM (or even if you don't), try to place your swap partition as close to the outer edge of your HD platters as possible. (Create it early in setting up your HD config. strategy.)

This will mean that the read/write heads will not have to move as far when accessing casched info from the HD and it can make a significant difference in how fast everything runs after booting.  Boot time could be slightly slower, but you probably would rather have the speed increase on your applications.  If you know that one or more of your applications in going to cashe to disk or need swap space, add that into your equation when determining the size of the partition.

Cheers and Beers

Sleeping Dog

[lazygamer]

Oh boy, more shocks to my system! /barfs in bucket

First off, I decided to not touch the friggin services. I do not want to have to re-install Linux again. I do not have the slightest clue how to make a backup that restores settings(Rather then saves a giant image of the disk).

Ok so anyways, I find out what the RPM filesystem is. So hard to get used to the concept, but perhaps it's better in the end?

So I try out Wine. No shortcuts, no program menu options, no "special directions on running this program to read before you close this RPM". It's crazy! To figure out where the heck the executables are I have to learn about the package manager(not too hard) and use the search option in it. The files are soooo spread out in illogical places(not one big happy directory) that it's tough to find them otherwise. I have also configured the setup program, ok sounds cool. Now the moment of truth... nothing happens(using wine.exe). The readme says that it is a commandline file. And I say, "how the f0ck can you easily configure emulate wind0ze with a commandline?". Is there a GUI hidden somewhere? Readme didn't say anything. I never did find a manual, but I never checked their site fully either. Why coulden't they of just offered the same user friendly shit you find in a windows install? Just because it's Linux, does that mean software makers can't learn some lessons on why wind0ze is so easy for idiots to use?  

[lazygamer]

Ok my fault... sorta. There is some seemingly good documentation on their site. I was in such a rush I missed it.

[slave]

lazygamer, just look at the advice they're giving you... "recompile the kernel"   "reinstall the GUI blah blah" Just to get a desktop that doesn't crawl.  
Well in XP, I don't have to do either of those things to get a fast system.  If linux can't cut it out of the box, then why are you wasting your time on it?  However, if you're using an older distribution with KDE 2.2.2 in it that could very well be part of the problems since KDE 2.2.2 ran horribly slow even on my 700 mhz Athlon.  GNOME is somewhat faster, but things like nautilus make it bloated.  If you want a "fast" distribution then get Debian or something and just run GNOME, or wait for RedHat 8.0 with GNOME 2 (fast but functionless GUI)

[choasforages]

ummm, gnome2 is very very very very very fast. im using it right now

[choasforages]

besides, recompiling things will give you a bit ov UNIX expereiance. would you trust winnt controlling a battleship??? nuff said