Red Hat 9.0....extreamly slow

[edwardsen35]

I've been using Linux for about a year now and I really like it.  However, something that I find that is really annoying is how slow it is.  I have a Pentium 4 1.8 ghz with 256 of ram.  I didn't think the computer would have any trouble handling X.  Before I start X my computer is using about 45 megs of ram.  After I start X it is using about 145 megs of ram.  When I open Mozilla it takes 8 seconds.  When I open OpenOffice Write it takes 24 seconds.  Does anybody else have this problem?  

Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do?   If you need more information then let me know.

Thank you,
-edwardsen35

Here is the output from ps -A when X is running:
 PID TTY          TIME CMD
    1 ?        00:00:04 init
    2 ?        00:00:00 keventd
    3 ?        00:00:00 kapmd
    4 ?        00:00:00 ksoftirqd_CPU0
    9 ?        00:00:00 bdflush
    5 ?        00:00:00 kswapd
    6 ?        00:00:00 kscand/DMA
    7 ?        00:00:00 kscand/Normal
    8 ?        00:00:00 kscand/HighMem
   10 ?        00:00:00 kupdated
   11 ?        00:00:00 mdrecoveryd
   15 ?        00:00:00 kjournald
   73 ?        00:00:00 khubd
 2255 ?        00:00:00 kjournald
 2531 ?        00:00:00 eth0
 2580 ?        00:00:00 dhclient
 2634 ?        00:00:00 syslogd
 2638 ?        00:00:00 klogd
 2656 ?        00:00:00 portmap
 2675 ?        00:00:00 rpc.statd
 2742 ?        00:00:00 apmd
 2779 ?        00:00:00 sshd
 2793 ?        00:00:00 xinetd
 2813 ?        00:00:00 sendmail
 2822 ?        00:00:00 sendmail
 2832 ?        00:00:00 gpm
 2841 ?        00:00:00 crond
 2852 ?        00:00:00 cupsd
 2912 ?        00:00:00 xfs
 2921 ?        00:00:00 smbd
 2925 ?        00:00:00 nmbd
 2943 ?        00:00:00 atd
 2951 ?        00:00:00 login
 2953 tty3     00:00:00 mingetty
 2954 tty4     00:00:00 mingetty
 2955 tty5     00:00:00 mingetty
 2956 tty6     00:00:00 mingetty
 2957 tty1     00:00:00 bash
 3138 ?        00:00:00 login
 3139 tty2     00:00:00 bash
 3185 tty1     00:00:00 startx
 3196 tty1     00:00:00 xinit
 3197 ?        00:00:03 X
 3202 tty1     00:00:00 gnome-session
 3214 ?        00:00:00 ssh-agent
3219 tty1     00:00:00 gconfd-2
 3221 ?        00:00:00 bonobo-activati
 3223 ?        00:00:00 gnome-settings-
 3228 ?        00:00:00 fam
 3233 ?        00:00:00 xscreensaver
 3236 ?        00:00:00 metacity
 3240 ?        00:00:00 gnome-panel
 3242 ?        00:00:00 nautilus
 3244 ?        00:00:00 magicdev
 3246 ?        00:00:00 eggcups
 3248 ?        00:00:00 pam-panel-icon
 3250 ?        00:00:00 rhn-applet-gui
 3251 ?        00:00:00 pam_timestamp_c
 3258 ?        00:00:00 notification-ar
 3260 ?        00:00:00 gnome-terminal
 3261 ?        00:00:00 gnome-pty-helpe
 3262 pts/0    00:00:00 bash
 3288 pts/0    00:00:00 ps

[Great_Satan]

What kind of video card do you have?  I recently installed Mandrake Linux 9.1 on a Dell Inspiron 2650 laptop (mobile Pentium 4) and it runs about as fast as Windows 98 or 2000 does on a new  Pentium 4 desktop.  Most applications open in about 2-5 seconds.  On page 101 of the June 2003 issue of Linux Format magazine
http://www.linuxformat.co.uk
it lists:
nVidiaXDrivers The nVidia XFree86 4.x Drivers
under 'System' in 'CD Contents At a Glance' and doesn't seem to list any other video drivers (other companies).  I saw a post here which was something about nVidia's support for Linux.  If you don't have an nVidia card already maybe you could try one out in your computer and make sure you get or have the right Linux drivers for the card.  Also, you might want to try out Mandrake Linux 9.1.  Video drivers have been a problem with Microsoft Windows and can cause instability/crashes.  It might be the same way for Linux.

[ August 09, 2003: Message edited by: Great_Satan ]

[edwardsen35]

I have a Nvida GeForce2 with 64 mb of ram.  After I installed Red Hat 9.0 I went to Nvidia's website and downloaded a driver(they listed a couple of drivers for Linux: Linux IA32, Linux IA64, and Linux AMD64).  I installed the Linux IA32 driver and the video card seems to be working fine.

Do you think more ram would help?

[Stryker]

It's not the video card, I have a good video card and applications are still slow to load, with an unusual ammount of disk access. Probably because of all the libraries and such it has to read. I'd probably run great on a computer with a SCSI hard drive. I'm not too worried though, it only take a while for graphical applications to load. And the little extra wait is worth it. I'll see if I can play around and find a way to make them load faster.

[edwardsen35]

I hope this info is helpful

This is the output from fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 2433 19543041 c Win95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hda2 2434 2446 104422+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda3 2447 4800 18908505 83 Linux
/dev/hda4 4801 4865 522112+ f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 4801 4865 522081 82 Linux swap

This is the output from /sbin/hdparm -Tt /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 0.36 seconds =355.56 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 2.50 seconds = 25.60 MB/sec
/sbin/hdparm -Tt /dev/hda3

This is the output from /sbin/hdparm -Tt /dev/hda3

/dev/hda3:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 0.36 seconds =355.56 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 2.57 seconds = 24.90 MB/sec

[mobrien_12]

Your disk transfer rates are much higher than mine.

/dev/hda:
 Timing buffer-cache reads:   128 MB in  1.19 seconds =107.56 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  3.15 seconds = 20.32 MB/sec
 
/dev/hdc:
 Timing buffer-cache reads:   128 MB in  1.11 seconds =115.32 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  6.68 seconds =  9.58 MB/sec

[ August 12, 2003: Message edited by: M. O'Brien ]

[solo]

mine too are about equal to m. obrien and i believe i have a 7200 rpm (cant remember)