VERY S L O W - Help

**gselliott** · 08-15-2003

I'm very new to Linux so hopefully someone can help me and get me moving so i can get rid of Windows!! As i said i am very new to Linux so i appologise if some of the terms are not right!

I have just installed Red Hat 9 (Personal Desktop) on my computer, was installed on a seperate partition with about 30gb of space free (i have left Windows 2k on for now while i test). The installation seemed to go fine with no errors and all my hardware seemed to be detected and installed without a hitch.

The problem i have found is that when i login to the Gnome Personal Desktop it is very very slow at responding to anything i do be it with the mouse or keyboard. When i try to open a menu or folder it seems to take for ever and when i move the mouse around the screen the cursor will move a little then stop. I am assuming that this is not normal practice as before i actually login the mouse seems to move smoothly.

I am hoping this can be solved easily and is not a hardware compatibility problem this is the main Computer Spec:

P4 2.4ghz
80GB HDD
512mb
Intel 82845G Onboard Graphics

I hope somone can help as i would really like to start using Linux but as it stands at the moment its unusable!

Thanks in advance!

**Dolda2000** · 08-16-2003

Well, we all know that GNOME is really slow when it comes to starting new programs. Dunno why, but with a warm cache it can take up to half a second to launch a program, and more than a second with cold cache. That doesn't seem to be your problem, though. The fact that the mouse pointer lags indicates to me that you're using a bad driver for the X server, or possibly that your IDE chipset is set on PIO operation (some chipsets are only tested for Winbloze and inherently refuse to be set to DMA operation automatically by Linux; despair not, though, that's almost always manually fixable).
To check for the above conditions, please open a terminal emulator, run the following commands and post here what they return. Some of them have to be run as root, so if you aren't root already (Which you shouldn't be, mind you! If you're logging in as root, go create an ordinary user account for yourself this instant!), begin by running the command "su -", which will log you in as root temporarily.

Code:

grep -i driver /etc/X11/XF86Config
lspci
hdparm -d /dev/hda
dmesg | tail

Btw., I haven't heard of the Intel 82845G. Is it something in the line of i810?

**gselliott** · 08-16-2003

Thanks for the reply i will give that try and let you know what the out come is, is there an alternative i can use rather than GNOME? or am i stuck with this as i have bought Red Hat?

With regards to the Graphics Card it is along the lines of the i810 i think its just a standard on board card, i dont play many games so it does the trick for what i need to do!

Thanks again!

**Dolda2000** · 08-16-2003

You can always use KDE, provided that you installed it, but in this case, I don't think that GNOME is at fault, so wait and see what happens before you do anything rash.

**gselliott** · 08-16-2003

I have ran those commands you asked me to here are the results:

grep -i driver /etc/X11/XF86Config :

Driver "keyboard"
Driver "mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Driver "i810"

lspci :

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82845G/GL [Brookdale-G] Chipset Host Bridge (rev 01)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corp. 82845G/GL [Brookdale-G] Chipset Integrated Graphics Device (rev 01)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB USB (Hub #1) (rev 01)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB USB (Hub #2) (rev 01)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB USB (Hub #3) (rev 01)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB USB EHCI Controller (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801BA/CA/DB PCI Bridge (rev 81)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801DB ISA Bridge (LPC) (rev 01)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801DB ICH4 IDE (rev 01)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB AC'97 Audio (rev 01)
03:0a.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)

hdparm -d /dev/hda :

/dev/hda:
using_dma = 1 (on)

dmesg | tail :

memory : dc603200
mtrr: base(0xd0020000) is not aligned on a size(0x300000) boundary
memory : dc603400
memory : dc603480
memory : dc603500
memory : dc603580
memory : dc603280
PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:02.0
PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 00:1d.0
cdrom: This disc doesn't have any tracks I recognize!

Hope that is what you were wanting to know?
Anway a bit of progress, after i had ran these commands then logged off and back on again everything seems to be running fairly smoothly! Although the next time i rebot i am back to square one!

Hopefully you can tell me what the trouble is and i can get moving along, i really appreciate your help!!

**Dolda2000** · 08-16-2003

Probably, that card isn't completely compatible with the i810, and that is why it is getting creepy on you. To try to fix it, you can make X use the generic VESA driver instead. That probably won't get you optimal performance for your card, but it's probably a lot better than what you have now.
The problem in that case is editing the XF86Config. Why that is a problem? Well, different distros come with different text editors, so I have no idea which ones you have installed. vi is the only editor that comes by default with virtually all distros, but it is most probably the hardest editor ever to learn (you can see this page for more info...).
I'll simply guide you through the procedure. First, go to a text mode terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1. Then log in as root, and run "telinit 3" to bring the system to runlevel 3, in which X isn't running. After that, run "vi /etc/X11/XF86Config", to start vi on the file. Next, type this:

Code:

/Driver.*i810

And press enter. That will bring you to the relevant line. Type l (lowercase L) until you get the cursor on the "i" in i810. If you get too far, press h to go backwards. Then type x until the line just reads Driver "". Press i, and type vesa, then press ESC to leave insert mode. Then type this:

Code:

&#58;wq

And press enter. That will save the file and exit. After that, just run "telinit 5" to bring the system back into runlevel 5 which will restart your display manager. Then see if it's any faster.
If you encounter any error anywhere, do not proceed. Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to chicken out and report back here instead.

**gselliott** · 08-16-2003

Ok i will give that a go and let you know how i get on!

**gselliott** · 08-16-2003

Yep Dolda2000 that worked a treat, logs in without any problems and mouse seems to be scrolling fine. Thanks very much for your help much appreciated, i think this forum is going to help me out a lot over the next few months as i get to grips with Linux!!

As you said though i dont think i will get the best performance out of the card now so i think i might have a look for a replacement, any suggestioins as to what i could go for??

I know this is a bit late to ask now as i have got a copy of Red Hat 9 but what would be the best version of Linux to use?? You also mentioned using KDE how would i go about using that any would i benifit from using it instead of GNOME?

I know im pushing my luck now and probably taken up too much of your time, but if you could point me in the right direction i would be very greatful as i am really keen to use Linux and learn something different to Windows.

Anway thanks again!

**Dolda2000** · 08-16-2003

I just looked around a bit, and it seems that Intel themselves recommend that you use the vesa driver until a driver is developed specifically for that chipset (which they refer to as being of the i845 family).

**Dolda2000** · 08-16-2003

I don't think that you actually benefit from using KDE instead of GNOME. It's really more a matter of taste. Most people seem to prefer KDE, but I don't.

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