Is there any way to increase the stability of Debian (Lenny)

[nbob]

Hello. I am a newbie just installed Debian Lenny. I am running a dual-boot with windows XP on a Gateway PC with a 2GHz processor and a 30GB hard drive. I have an integrated Intel video driver.

I must say I'm not impressed with the stability of Debian. Things were much more stable when I had Ubuntu Jaunty/ XP dual-boot. What I'm running is Pandora Radio (flash) and Pogo Games (java). This seems to put my computer on the edge stability-wise. If I try to do anything else, things freeze up and I have to kill 1 or more processes (usually iceweasel and sometimes java).

My question is this: Is there anything I can do to improve stability on this system? I have read where Linux is renowned for its stability. But I'm not seeing it.

Take care.

[GNU-Fan]

My question is this: Is there anything I can do to improve stability on this system? I have read where Linux is renowned for its stability.

And well-founded so. But one thing is the kernel...

But I'm not seeing it.

and another the applications you are running on it.
You mentioned Flash. Do you use the Adobe version or Gnash?
My system is used to full capacity if I run Flash on a display without DRI activated.
If DRI is enabled, it "only" consumes 20% or so.

But I read you had trouble with sound. My best guess is that there is something wrong with the sound driver. The applications tries to deliver the sound stream to the system, but it only accepts it with much delay. Therefore the whole system is slowed down and appears sluggish.

[nbob]

Hi and thanks for the help. I'm currently using the Adobe Flash version.

Being a newbie, I don't know what DRI is or how to enable it. Any help here would be appreciated. I think my sound problem have been solved.

take care.

[hazel]

Being a newbie, I don't know what DRI is or how to enable it. Any help here would be appreciated. I think my sound problem have been solved.

take care.

DRI stands for Direct Rendering Interface; it means that programs like flash can write directly onto the video card without having to go through the central processing unit.

Look in /etc/X11/xorg.conf. It should contain a section something like this:

Section "Module"
        Load "intel"
        Load  "dri"
        Load  "glx"

[loopback]

One thing your haven't mentioned. Have you installed the video drivers? Having those drivers will make a big difference.

Here's a link that might help.

debiantutorials.org - A Debian GNU/Linux Desktop Tutorial Site

I believe it has tips for drivers for your chip/card. Look around.

I have to make a comment on your "...increase the stability of Debian (Lenny) ..." title. Mister! you're talking about Debian! Now hush your mouth. Just pulling your leg. If any distro, and I mean ANY distro can be call stable, it's Debain Stable (Lenny). They just don't bandy that tern about lightly. Doesn't mean Debian doesn't need a little tweaking.

Check the drivers. I think that might help in solving your problem.

I just thought of something else. Did you install Flash from Adobe or from the Debian repos? Because you can apt-get Flash from the repos. Did you know that?

[nbob]

Hi and thanks for the help. I installed the official Adobe Flash.

I will check out your link for my video device and report back. Thanks.

[devils casper]

Best way is, post the contents of /etc/X11/xorg.conf file so that we can check X configuration.

[nbob]

Hi. Thanks for the help. Here is the xorg.conf file >>

------------------------------------------------

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

-----------------------------------------------------------------

[GNU-Fan]

We have to make sure the driver gets loaded correctly.

Type "glxinfo | head -n 5" and post the result please. Also run glxgears and tell how many FPS you get.

You may have to install the mesa-utils package for this.

[nbob]

Hi. Thanks for the help. Here are the results

nick@MSHOME:~$ glxinfo | head -n 5
name of display: :0.0
display: :0 screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.2


nick@MSHOME:~$ glxgears
1286 frames in 5.0 seconds = 257.174 FPS
1382 frames in 5.0 seconds = 276.250 FPS
1387 frames in 5.0 seconds = 277.262 FPS
3488 frames in 5.0 seconds = 697.496 FPS
5322 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1064.390 FPS
5218 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1043.450 FPS
5341 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1068.190 FPS
5344 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1068.701 FPS
...

most of the rest of them are 5000+frames in 5 seconds = 1000+ FPS