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Operating Systems => Linux and UNIX => Topic started by: Agent007 on 11 July 2002, 15:21

Title: Sloooow Redhat 7.2?
Post by: Agent007 on 11 July 2002, 15:21
Am using RedHat Linux 7.2. I find that applications launch pretty slowly, ie that take some time to display fully. Is there a way to speed them up? and why are they slow? Is it because it's written in C? This happens in KDE2 and Gnome too. In contrast to WinXP wherein everything opens instantaneously at the click of a mouse I find it pretty slow. Have disabled all the unnecessary services, only the needed ones are running.

Could someone pls throw light into this issue.

thanks!

System Specs:-
AMD Athlon@600 MHZ
256MB SDRAM
7200rpm HDD with UltraDMA 66 enabled
Riva Tnt 16MB display AGP
128 Soudblaster Soundcard
Title: Sloooow Redhat 7.2?
Post by: Sleeping Dog on 11 July 2002, 19:24
I have had the same experience with Red Hat 7.2.

I just thought that it was because I had it loaded on an old P-133 w/ 64 MEG of RAM and the file structure divided between two old HD's.  I too had removed all unnecessary components, but it was still slower than Clinton leaving a brothel.  I tried any number of different configurations, but it invariably took about four times longer to load Red Hat 7.2 than the Wimpdows 95 that had been on it.  Apps here too are slow to open and the GUI's (Gnome and KDE) are sluggish.

I usually give these old boxes away to the digitally-needy once I have them Linux loaded, but this one is still embarassingly slow.  I second the cry for help in speeding up Red Hat.

Sleeping Dog
Title: Sloooow Redhat 7.2?
Post by: creedon on 11 July 2002, 21:08
Perhaps a quick tour of the BIOS settings might be in order; you may find that what was ppropriate for a Microsoft OS might slow down Linux.
Title: Sloooow Redhat 7.2?
Post by: Agent007 on 11 July 2002, 23:35
Bios?? Nothing much there.....Bios settings have nothing much that would increase performance.
Title: Sloooow Redhat 7.2?
Post by: voidmain on 12 July 2002, 01:16
Things that make Linux/Xwindows speedy:

1) lots of RAM
2) Good supported accelerated Video Card
3) Fast hard drive (see the "hdparm" command for possible optimizing of your IDE drives).
4) Fast processor
5) KDE 3.x (included with RedHat 7.3)
Title: Sloooow Redhat 7.2?
Post by: Master of Reality on 12 July 2002, 01:21
Blackbox is a very speedy GUI too.
Title: Sloooow Redhat 7.2?
Post by: Agent007 on 12 July 2002, 11:34
If u take a look at the system specs I posted, most of them will satisfy the needs, but Redhat *still* crawls and is NOT responsive...


 
quote:
Originally posted by VoidMain:
Things that make Linux/Xwindows speedy:

1) lots of RAM
2) Good supported accelerated Video Card
3) Fast hard drive (see the "hdparm" command for possible optimizing of your IDE drives).
4) Fast processor
5) KDE 3.x (included with RedHat 7.3)
Title: Sloooow Redhat 7.2?
Post by: voidmain on 12 July 2002, 18:37
On the "hdparm" test. How many MB/s is your IDE drive running? What window manager are you running?  I have an older very cheap AMD K6-2 450Mhz system and it is slow, but then I also have an AMD Athalon 1600 w/512MB and a Geforce2 w/32MB and it just plain screams.  

One thing that can make a HUGE difference is the IDE options. I have had drives that went from 4MB/s to 20MB/s by playing with "hdparm" settings.  Although on RedHat 7.2 and 7.3 I haven't had to optimize as it's optimized my drives correctly at install time. Something to think about and it definately makes your apps load *much* slower if not optimized properly. It can very possibly be the most dramatic performance improvement you can make.  

I also recompile my kernel and optimize it for whatever processor I am running on although it may not give you a "noticeable" increase in app load time it's something to try.
Title: Sloooow Redhat 7.2?
Post by: Sleeping Dog on 13 July 2002, 11:28
I hope that you understand my intent.  I get old computers that nobody wants anymore.  I load LINUX on them....then I give them away to people who cannot afford computers.

I do not spend money on these boxes.  I just recycle discarded hardware so that poor people can play too.

I like what Red Hat and KDE offer regarding usability for a poor novice getting a "freebie", but what can we do to make it run faster on limited resources so that we can embarass all of those people who just spent too much on a new MAC or PC?

Have Fun

Sleeping Dog
Title: Sloooow Redhat 7.2?
Post by: Calum on 14 July 2002, 03:39
kde has a lot of stuff in it, some other desktop environments are smaller and nippier. I think that educating the user to the fact that they can use xfce, or gnome or whatever else, and give them the choice, for whatever things they want to do might be better than just tweaking kde up and pretending it's windows, you know?

after all the numerous different choices of desktops are just one more of the things linux has that macos and windows lack (except i bet macos has something similar now i have said that...), and it should not be swept under the carpet.
Title: Sloooow Redhat 7.2?
Post by: Agent007 on 19 July 2002, 23:10
Where can I find more info on hdparm? What are the parameters that would boost performance? I tried out hdparm -I /dev/hdc1 and the transfer rates=20MB/s or something, not too happy... Also can someone suggest some good sites which deal with Linux tweaks?

thanks!


 
quote:
Originally posted by VoidMain:
On the "hdparm" test. How many MB/s is your IDE drive running? What window manager are you running?  I have an older very cheap AMD K6-2 450Mhz system and it is slow, but then I also have an AMD Athalon 1600 w/512MB and a Geforce2 w/32MB and it just plain screams.  

One thing that can make a HUGE difference is the IDE options. I have had drives that went from 4MB/s to 20MB/s by playing with "hdparm" settings.  Although on RedHat 7.2 and 7.3 I haven't had to optimize as it's optimized my drives correctly at install time. Something to think about and it definately makes your apps load *much* slower if not optimized properly. It can very possibly be the most dramatic performance improvement you can make.  

I also recompile my kernel and optimize it for whatever processor I am running on although it may not give you a "noticeable" increase in app load time it's something to try.
Title: Sloooow Redhat 7.2?
Post by: choasmaster on 20 July 2002, 02:46
i forget the commmand to benchmark the hd.
Title: Sloooow Redhat 7.2?
Post by: choasmaster on 20 July 2002, 02:48
never mind
Title: Sloooow Redhat 7.2?
Post by: voidmain on 20 July 2002, 02:51
Well, you can type "man hdparm" for the man page, or you can type "/sbin/hdparm" and get a list of options, or you can type in "hdparm" in http://www.google.com/ (http://www.google.com/) and the first link it comes up with has a nice article on it on O'Reilly even though it is a little outdated.

/sbin/hdparm /dev/hda

will show you what options are currently turned on for the drive. You can change those options and more (be careful though, read the docs). It also depends heavily on the drive that you are using as to what options you can set (Ultra DMA 66/100, etc).