Is Linux really this bad? Or is it my laptop? HELP

[Katy8989]

I have an Asus W5000 Notebook, with an Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.73GHz and 492116 kB of RAM. I had to uninstall Windows XP, and since I can't afford a new Windows OS, I turned to Linux. I've tried Ubuntu 10.10, Linux Mint 9 and Linux Mint 10. Each has run RIDICULOUSLY slowly. I've nearly cried with frustration most days. I know it's an old laptop, but running speeds were at least twice as good with XP.

I'd really like to like Linux, but my experience of it has been awful. I've never used a computer as slow as this before. I'm not looking for a lot out of my laptop. All I really want to do on it is:

-Browse (has worked on all 3 systems, but slowly and crashing frequently
-Watch TV catch-up (not worked on any of them. Problems on BBC iPlayer and all other TV sites)
-Listen to radio (not worked on any of them)
-Watch films offline (not worked on any of them. I have the codecs but it crashes)
-Listen to music offline (same thing happens)

I usually have to wait for the cursor to move if I move the mouse! My laptop shouldn't be running this badly. Can anyone help me? Thanks

[sgosnell]

That machine should run fine under any Linux distro. The usual problem is incorrect video drivers. You may want to try finding the correct driver for your video card. There should be numerous threads here that discuss finding and installing the drivers.

[Rubberman]

What is the video hardware on this system? Not having the correct video driver installed is often the cause of bad user performance and instability of the GUI.

[Katy8989]

That machine should run fine under any Linux distro. The usual problem is incorrect video drivers. You may want to try finding the correct driver for your video card. There should be numerous threads here that discuss finding and installing the drivers.

#

What is the video hardware on this system? Not having the correct video driver installed is often the cause of bad user performance and instability of the GUI.

How do find out what my video card/hardware is? I'm using a library computer just now, couldn't face going back my awful laptop.

Thanks for your replies

[sgosnell]

The quick and easy way is to open a terminal and type

lspci

[Rubberman]

The quick and easy way is to open a terminal and type

lspci

Beat me to it sgosnell... By less than 60 seconds, no less!

[Katy8989]

Beat me to it sgosnell... By less than 60 seconds, no less!

I get

~ $ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/PM/GMS/910GML Express Processor to DRAM Controller (rev 04)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 04)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 04)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 04)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 04)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 04)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 04)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev d4)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FBM (ICH6M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 04)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) IDE Controller (rev 04)
01:03.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev b3)
01:03.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C552 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 08)
01:03.2 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 17)
01:03.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 08)
01:03.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 03)
01:04.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
01:05.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG [Calexico2] Network Connection (rev 05)

Can anyone tell me what drivers I need?

[MikeTbob]

Try this way with the same command.

lspci -knn

This will list all the above info but it will also show us which drivers are being used.
I see nothing that would cause a big problem so hopefully it will be easy to fix.
Which distro do you have installed right now?

[Nagarjuna]

If your still using one of those Debian based distributions (Ubuntu, Mint), try the following command to install the drivers for your Intel 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller.

sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-intel

I hope this helps.

[yancek]

It may well be the video driver but your first post indicates your machine doesn't meet the minimum for RAM with Ubuntu or Mint which is 512MB. Might try a lighter weight distribution.