Problem with all linux including Feodra

[Neven83]

Originally Posted by marko

What does this say run from a terminal:

It say p4-clockmod passive cooling is enabled

---------- Post added at 07:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:04 PM ----------

I ****ed up something during the update and i have closed terminal. Now PC is slow becuse it probably still working in the background. What i need to do?

[rowanp28]

try su -c "hdparm -Tt /dev/sda" from a terminal that will give an indication of your hard disk performance

[johnlvs2run]

Originally Posted by stevea

this says I have 8205MB of swap and none is used. If you have too little swap or if it is heavily used ,thn you system gets slow and crashes.

Stevea, that 8205mg swap is awesome.

I'm only using firefox right now and get this:

# free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          1756       1701         55          0        155       1067
-/+ buffers/cache:        479       1277
Swap:          991         70        921
#

Does this indicate that I need more memory and more swap?
P.S. I'm only using 2 of the slots. There are 4 slots with 16mg capacity.

[Kameraad Pjotr]

@johnlvs2run: that is strange: 1701 MB of RAM used with only firefox... Are you sure there are no other processes running that require a lot of RAM (flash comes to mind), because that's a lot, even for Firefox.

@Neven: I have absolutely no idea what the problem is. Your drivers are installed, there seems to be no runaway process...
If you want to know whether the terminal application still runs, open a new one and enter "top". If it still runs, it will be listed in top.
Could you run top (and post the results) when you system is slowest?

[rowanp28]

have you tired disabling swap?

su -c "/sbin/swapoff -a"

that will only disable it for the current session but will let you see if its the problem

[Neven83]

Here me again on 4th Fedora install. After i cleaned a cooler now everything seems to be faster. Maybe that was problem. Last night I run update process and I get info that I need to install about 290MB. The update process was working whole night and a couple hours in the morning. IS that normal? Its too long. But after update I 1th time restarted my PC and for now everything is OK

[DBelton]

the length of time for the update process will vary depending upon the speed of your internet connection.

If it took that long after it downloaded the packages, then that is not normal. An update of that size should install in less than an hour at the most. Probably less than 15 minutes, depending upon the packages updated.

If cleaning a heatsink seemed to help your problem, I would look again at all of the heatsinks and fans in your system to be sure they are clear. And if you remove any of them, make certain you put thermal paste back on them before replacing them. Then make certain that all of your fans are actually working.

Also, make sure that all cables are plugged in good. I have had some to work loose on me before, and cause all kinds of hard to trace errors.

once you have done that, boot from a livecd image and run a memtest. It is possible that you are getting some memory errors and it's having to go back and redo things over and over. If errors show up on memtest, pull your memory out and put it back in, making sure to get it seated properly, then run the memtest again. (on the memtest, one cycle through your memory should be sufficient to see if there are errors. no need to let it run all day)

It's also possible that you are getting errors on a hard drive as well. (heat problems and memory problems could show up as errors read/writing your hard drive, so check those first)

[Neven83]

Well, I did cleaned all fans in my PC. I used a very strong vacuum cleaner and removed dirt with the sticks. I have 1mbs internet connection and for the 200mb i need like half our. I dont know what cause that problem.
Delta rebuild took the most of time and also instaling a packages from 1 to 850 i dont know what that install are.

---------- Post added at 02:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:21 PM ----------

Well, I did cleaned all fans in my PC. I used a very strong vacuum cleaner and removed dirt with the sticks. I have 1mbs internet connection and for the 200mb i need like half our. I dont know what cause that problem.
Delta rebuild took the most of time and also instaling a packages from 1 to 850 i dont know what that install are.

[DBelton]

the delta rebuilds can take some time, but still should be faster than what it would take to download the full package. (you didn't mention what the size was after the rebuild. yum tells you how much using the delta rpm's reduced the size of the download.)

It also tells you what the speed is on the rebuild, too. On one of my machines here that is pretty much identical to what you mentioned you had, I get about 700KB/sec on delta rebuilds. (I remember that because I thought it strange the delta rebuild was nearly the same speed as my download speed, so using the delta's takes about the same length of time as downloading the full packages on that machine)

But you said you vacuumed out your heatsinks. That may not be sufficient to get the dust-bunnnies that love to get caked up down in them. If you are able to get some compressed air, and shoot through the fins on the heatsinks, that would work a lot better. Sometimes a vacuum just won't pull the crap out.

One thing to look at.. Do you have in your BIOS, a screen that shows you the status of your system? A lot of them do now. It will show you things like cpu temperature, fan speeds, voltages, etc... If you have such a screen, bring it up and let it sit there for awhile and see what your temperatures look like.

[johnlvs2run]

Originally Posted by DBelton

If you are able to get some compressed air, and shoot through the fins on the heatsinks, that would work a lot better. Sometimes a vacuum just won't pull the crap out.

A $10 double shot air bed pump works great for this too, plus it's an awesome bellows for getting wood fires going in the winter.

[DCOH]

A small compress that's used for breathing treatments and a short piece of hose works great too.

[stevea]

Originally Posted by johnlvs2run

Stevea, that 8205mg swap is awesome.

I'm only using firefox right now and get this:

# free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          1756       1701         55          0        155       1067
-/+ buffers/cache:        479       1277
Swap:          991         70        921
#

Does this indicate that I need more memory and more swap?
P.S. I'm only using 2 of the slots. There are 4 slots with 16mg capacity.

It indicates that your system is currently using 70MB of swap (not large, but not good), the amount of buffers is low(155M) and the free memory pages are low (55MB).
This *may* be the problem.

Adding more swap won't help. The problem is that the set of libraries and application you use exceed the available DRAM and so they spill over into the disk - and disk is much much slower than DRAM.

Your solutions are:
1/ buy more DRAM
2/ Select processes that use less memory.

Some Linux users, especially with older and more limited hardware like yours, choose to use a lightweight desktop instead of gnome. Gnome and KDE are big and bulky while LXDE and XFCE and RatPoison and Enlightenment are lightweight. I happen to like LXDE desktop but it's a matter of taste.

You can install with
yum groupinstall LXDE
then go to the login screen, once you click on your name then at the bottom panel you will have a choice of gnome and LXDE.

The other thing - you should use the system-config-services command end stop all of the services you don't need or want. Somewhere on this forum is a note about which services can be removed.

Originally Posted by Kameraad Pjotr

@johnlvs2run: that is strange: 1701 MB of RAM used with only firefox... Are you sure there are no other processes running that require a lot of RAM (flash comes to mind), because that's a lot, even for Firefox.

NO - this is completely normal. Linux uses some memory for program code and data and then it uses almost all of the remainder for disk buffer caches. So it's completely normal for 'free' to show almost all memory used.

Originally Posted by rowanp28

have you tired disabling swap?

su -c "/sbin/swapoff -a"

that will only disable it for the current session but will let you see if its the problem

That is insane ! What would that do except make processes crash randomly ? If he didn't have a problem before that could certainly cause a major one.

[Kameraad Pjotr]

I think something is wrong with his system (runaway processes?), because I have 2 GB of RAM and I'm running F14 with Firefox, Chrome, Flash, Pidgin and KDE and I have used 1905 out of 2008 MB of RAM. 1701 MB of RAM used with only Firefox running sounds way too much.

[DBelton]

no, it doesn't.

As stevea explained above, linux will use just about all of your free memory for cache and buffers. So, no matter what is (or isn't) running, you will show just about all of your free memory in use.

he is showing 1067mb as cache and 155mb as buffers out of that 1701 used. which leaves 479mb for firefox and any other services/processes that happen to be running.

If he were to start up a few more applications, the amount of his buffers and cache would drop and the amount used by the programs would increase according to what they needed.

[johnlvs2run]

Originally Posted by stevea

Your solutions are:
1/ buy more DRAM
2/ Select processes that use less memory.

SteveA, thank you for your detailed reply.
Does the g.skill sniper 8gb look like a good set of memory cards?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231417

As soon as I figure out how, I'm planning to install a dual boot with sabayon and fedora, each with LXDE.
Suggestions on how to do this are much appreciated.

The other thing - you should use the system-config-services command end stop all of the services you don't need or want. Somewhere on this forum is a note about which services can be removed.

I will definitely look into doing this. Thank you!