Still no luck with some things....

[SkittleLinux18]

There are some issues I have had with Linux since the beginning of my usage with it. I have mentioned most of them before and have gone to considerable lengths to resolve them, but all to no avail.

I don't know if it's memory leaks, faulty distro coding, or just plain bad luck; but my taskbar/kicker still reloads itself every morning at 4 am. All of my running apps in the system tray fail to redock and it's a real pain trying to redock them. I went through the PCLOS forums, Ubuntu forums, and Google trying to hunt down a solution. The only thing I came close to figuring out is that it may have to do with memory leaks. But that's not even for certain.

Memory leaks. ahhh... I need someone to clarify something to me. Is it true that all Linux Distros interpret RAM and Virtual Memory differently than MAC and Windows do?? Because I read here and here that Linux purposefully uses 90% of the system RAM because it does read it differently. I also learned that this is the reason why programs like Firefox and Opera and OpenOffice will slow down and temporarily lock up, causing the window to grey out. So why is Linux considered such a lighter weight OS compared to say Vista when it can't even read the RAM correctly??

Speaking of Firefox. 3.0 is sluggish on Linux. But the package managers don't have the lastest version available. So I manually updated to 3.0.3 on my computer. Well..... now Flash Player isn't installed on 3.0.3. I tried reinstalling it in synaptic, but 3.0.3 doesn't have flash player on it yet. So either I use the broken 3.0 to have flash, or I use the better 3.0.3 without flash because I can't get Flash to install to the updated version of Firefox. I know flash isn't good, and I do have the blocker plugin enabled. But I need it for sites like NHL.com - The National Hockey League, www.homestarrunner.com, www.mlb.com, ect, ect, ect.

*takes deep breathe*

Ok, iRiver. This is really annoying. BigTomRodney, heads up here because you where the one helping me with this before. I installed the libIFP packages to use iRiver manager with my iRiver mp3 player. Well, it didn't work. So I did some research. Turns out that my specific model: IFP-890 is incompatible with not only Linux, but the Linux packages used for iRiver. I ran a USB ls in a terminal and sure enough, Linux is reading my mp3 player when it is plugged in. Talk about some real sh***y luck for me.

Overall, it is amazing how much Linux users are at the mercy of programmers to keep up with the latest stuff. Especially when the entire OS slows down and is forced to close just because Amarok, Firefox, and Pidgin are open simultaneously. Opera is probably the worse. I can't go three pages of browsing without that browser freezing, greying out, and locking up my OS. I have tried and tried and do not understand why Linux is so difficult to understand and work with.

Wine.... I'm not even going to go there. I will not be able to control my language.

To end off, I remember a conversation I was having back in June. Me and some of my friends were discussing viruses. I said, "Convert to Linux and you'll never get another virus ever again."

My friend said, "Convert to Linux and you'll never do anything ever again."

.... sad day.

[smolloy]

Sorry you're having such a tough time.

Forgive me for saying this, but you appear to be having a lot of problems with RAM, etc., that *could* be related to hardware. For example, I'm able to keep my desktop on with Firefox, Amarok, and OpenOffice all running for weeks (months?), with no lock-ups or slow-downs at all (which also suggest that my system has *no* memory leaks, since I can run it for months at a time without the RAM filling up). Perhaps you have some fault with your RAM that's causing this.

Your comment on Linux handling RAM differently is true, but I'm not sure why it's a draw back. To illustrate, execute the following in a terminal,

free -m

Here's the output from my machine,

             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          2011       1965         46          0         53        827
-/+ buffers/cache:       1084        927
Swap:          509          0        509

What that all means is that 1965 MB of my 2 GB of RAM is being used!! But, that's not the whole story. Most of that is cached -- memory that Linux knows isn't being used now, but it keeping around just in case. The output above shows that I'm only using 1084 MB when buffers/cache is subtracted. Thus, Linux is trying to make as much use of the available RAM as it can.

But this should speed up your system. Keeping stuff in RAM "just in case" means your system will be more responsive if you need that memory again. And if you need it for something else, it will simply overwrite it.

Your statement that it's not reading the RAM correctly is simply untrue, and I have no idea why you think this would cause Firefox, etc. to freeze-up.

As I said at the start, I'm really sorry you're having such a ****** time with Linux, but, in my experience, your friend's comment about never doing anything ever again is simply not true.

I'm 100% Windows free at home and at work, and I'm perfectly happy (and even more productive!)!!

[SkittleLinux18]

Sorry you're having such a tough time....

Here's my output:

[kevpclos@kevpclos ~]$ free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 1519 1375 143 0 124 839
-/+ buffers/cache: 411 1108
Swap: 3992 15 3977

I really like Linux, a lot. I hope it is obvious that I would not be persevering through all of this if I wasn't so passionate about the OS. Yes, hardware could be a problem. However, I doubt that it is. I don't want accept that as the problem until I rule out the possibility that PCLOS is really the problem. I have this thread posted on four other forums, including PCLOS, and am waiting to see what others say. I may have to switch to a different distro because I never had these problems with Mint (which is the distro I had on this computer way back when I had a completely different setup).

Thanks for the info. I forgot about the cache. I do remember reading that in those links I posted and it made sense. Here's my situation though. History has proven, and previous threads on these forums reveal it, that when hardware problems are suggested, SkittleLinux18 has a nasty habit of buying a whole new computer altogether and I simply don't want to do that until I know for sure that hardware is the problem. So now my question is:

What are some other possibilities for the heretofore mentioned problems?

Specs:
AMD 1700+
1.5 Gb RAM
GeForce 6600 video card

[smolloy]

History has proven, and previous threads on these forums reveal it, that when hardware problems are suggested, SkittleLinux18 has a nasty habit of buying a whole new computer altogether and I simply don't want to do that until I know for sure that hardware is the problem.

I know what you mean. The slightest hint of a hardware problem, and I'm off down to Fry's to buy a nice shiny new computer. Well, that's the plan -- the wife normally gets in the way of that

If it's easy enough to try a different distro, why not do that? If Mint worked well in the past, then that might be a good test to see if this is a hardware issue. Was there something that you didn't like about Mint?

[Dapper Dan]

Hi SkittleLinux18, remember me?

Sorry to hear you're having difficulties. I can honestly say in my six years of using Linux, I've never run into anything similar to what you've described, and I've run many distros on a lot of different machines. I've never used PCLOS but I think it's telling when you say you didn't experience these problems under Mint. If it were me, I'd try something else and see what results you get. I've pretty much always got solid results from Ubuntu, Slackware and SuSE. Maybe try one of those and compare.

About Wine... Honestly you just have to accept the fact that you're really lucky if you can run a Windows app under it without too much trouble. It is far from perfect and you're going to get a wide range of results depending on what you try to run. I have some difficulty with it when trying to run Steam and StarCraft, but I just accept that's the price I have to pay if I wanna frag.

I know how frustrating these types of problems can be, (I've put out a few rants here myself), but you're a smart guy and have lots of patience and perseverance. You'll find solutions to these issues probably sooner than you think.

Sorry I couldn't help with your specific problems. Hang in there, you'll figure it out.

[SkittleLinux18]

Was there something that you didn't like about Mint?

I absolutely loved Mint! But when I went to one Linux Computer, I went with PCLOS because that was the first distro I ever used. So I kind of have a "thing" for PCLOS. Sounds really emo, but it's true. But maybe I'll have to part with it. Others on other forums are suggesting Mint, too. Especially since I had good luck with it. Much of my hardware is old. there is probably a lot of wear and tear on it.

Another reason I am so hesitant to install a new distro is all the customizing i have done. vsftpd, webmin, icons, kbfx, ect, ect. plus a lot of other lib packages and things that i had to add in the package manager. i just don't want to go through 30 hours of reinstalling another distro, but it's looking like i might have to.

[SkittleLinux18]

Ok, I am thinking either Mint-5.0-KDE or Kubuntu 8.04 (KDE 3.x edition). Any suggestions/input/preferences/experiences anyone has to offer?? With everything I have to do once I reinstall Linux (probably 30+ hours), I only want to do this once! So please, anything will be much appreciated.

[Dapper Dan]

I'm running Kubuntu on two boxes and it's performed very well. I doubt you'll have to spend 30+ hours configuring it. As with Ubuntu and Mint, it's real good about recognising and configuring hardware and getting things up quickly.

[SkittleLinux18]

I'm running Kubuntu on two boxes and it's performed very well. I doubt you'll have to spend 30+ hours configuring it. As with Ubuntu and Mint, it's real good about recognising and configuring hardware and getting things up quickly.

Good to know. Thanks, Dan. Between vsftpd, webmin, utility packages, eye candy customizing, fstab configuration, slave drive stuff, ect, ect, ect... it'll be a lot of work. Especially because I am not as fast with Linux as some people are.

Anyway, DLing Kubuntu 8.04 now. Thanks everybody. I'll let you all know what I find out.

[Dapper Dan]

I'm also running it as a Lamp server with Apache2, Webmin, Webalizer, Phpbb and Wordpress. It was really easy to do with this instruction.