my X-Windows hangs

[xylex_blaiste]

i've been fooling arround with Gimp for the past week. i'm making some images for my project. now, everytime i use this program for more than 3 hours, my X-windows creeps whenever i shift from one window/desktop to another. then i have to logout and restart X to correct this. and 2x l.inux just stopped dead. i mean, no mouse, no keyboard, i can't even kill X with the ctrl+alt+backspace key combo.

why is this happening?

i have this in my box:
750 mhz duron.
256mb DDR
333 FSB
64mb GeForce2

2 HDDs
132mb swap space
mounts aside from / are
2 Fat32 partitions

one more thing. i have a bash up since i'm compiling and run java classes ( my project ) at the same time. well, not really at the same time, but i use the images to make some sort of simple animation...

[variant]

not really sure tbh, you could try useing the "conservative" memory usage item in the preferences dialog in gimp. also try running "top" in a terminla to get some stats on your system. do CTRL + ALT + f1 (f2,f3,f4 etc) to get to a terminal when it begins to lock up

[xylex_blaiste]

ok, ii'll try that. thanks...

[drspin]

What distro are yo uusing???? this only occurs if you use GIMP right? what version of GIMP are you running? Try upgrading to the latest STABLE release...

[bpark]

Your swap space is far less than expected. I don't know if this is a priblem but it's something that I would check out.

[xylex_blaiste]

my swap space is less?

ain't 128 mb good enough? i made swap space to minimum coz i'm low on disk space. and i mean really low. i only got 10Gigs in 2 drives ( that's the total already ). less the install space for winbloze and RH9, not to mention how FAT32 allocates poorly, etc ... i get like 6++Gigs of usable space left.

the gimp i am using is the one that came with the Shrike release. i'm only using it to make basic transparent PNGs and some simple effects. nothing heavy. and the files are like 4kb in size each.

[xylex_blaiste]

this is embarassing! miine is perhaps the only linux that hangs, and it's not even under stress...

hehehehe....

[bpark]

Swap is usually double your physical memory. I would recommend that you check how much of your swap space is being used but it may or may not be the issue.

[bpark]

I forgot to ask, what distro are you using?

[xylex_blaiste]

it's Red Hat 9...

if i have a small swap space, would this be a factor too in my apps starting slowly? i mean, i use mozilla for internet and it comes up after say 3-5 seconds. and my openoffice maybe 4-7 seconds. but once one instance of the 2 apps has started, multiple instances of it come up like the blink of an eye... is this normal?

i don't have problems with a lot of apps crowding my desktop for hours ( but i downed it to 2 workspaces only. ) linux doesn't slow down, or run in "slow mo." it's just the gimp. i believe it really is the one causing my X-windows to lockup... or get sluggish...