HDD Install. Why does the OS run so slow??? + other stuff

**jbrush** · 12-14-2003, 11:42 PM

I did the Knoppix install to hard drive option. Boy was that easy! My system is IDE, with two quite new WD hardrives, Linux on the second one, the slave on the first channel.

550MHz AMD,K-2 384 Megs. Matrox Millenium video. I put it onto a 3 gig partition and made a 1G partition for the swap file.

Its so slow I get mad at it waiting for windows to open and applications to start running. With OS/2 and Win2K on the same computer, they run quickly, windows snap open, and screens redraw very fast so I am used to a responsive system.

Logged in as root.

I am using the KDE desktop that it defaults to and when I click on the phony start button, it takes a full second to start to open the menus, and then it slowly pops open the menu. Scrolling the mouse up that menu like I would in the windows system and the graphics do not "keep up" so I have to wait while some buttons redraw as I pass over them. It takes over two seconds for the Konsole window to open, and a bit more than that for the file browser to get ready.

The thing that is really killing me is the file search. I open the file browser and set up a search for a file that I name explictly, no wildcards, which I know is on the system drive, and the search takes over three minutes. Since the partition is only 3G total, this is intolerable.

I really like what I see, but its too slow to cope with and I suppose that if I was an expert Linux user, I would be better able to accept it, but in learning, I am making mistakes, I search for files, I open the wrong windows, and its just too much for me to deal with so I end up with a headache. In a week, I have locked the system up hard a dozen times and had to bail with the reset button :-)

I tried to do the eval program from codeweavers, curious to see if it could do what it says. Something went wrong with it, but the whole system is just too slow and unresponsive to support a serious debugging effort, so I have abandoned the Linux for now.

I know about hdparm utility, but I am not inclined to mess with something that potentially destructive.

Can I hear from others who have installed the Debian system from the CD onto the same computer they run windows or OS/2 on, with regards to performance? I always thought Linux, in general, was a quick, snappy system, but I am not seeing that. Instead, I am back to using a 486-33 CPU.

I tried other desktops that come in the package, but its about the same kind of problem.

Any words of wisdom? Suggestions. Disagreement? :)

If you read this far, I would also like to know how to get my CDs out of the drive when in Linux. They will not open via the button on the drive, Where is the eject command?

And, to overstay my welcome here, how do you "unmount" a drive? Unmount is not a command here..

Thanks a lot for any words of wisdom, or consolation, or encouragement :-)

John

**rickenbacherus** · 12-15-2003, 06:27 PM

Originally Posted by jbrush

I know about hdparm utility, but I am not inclined to mess with something that potentially destructive.

Look to see if you have DMA enabled like so:

sudo hdparm /dev/hda

Test your drives read times like so:

hdparm -tT /dev/hda

You can turn on DMA fairly easily like so:

sudo hdparm -d1 /dev/hda

Can I hear from others who have installed the Debian system from the CD onto the same computer they run windows or OS/2 on, with regards to performance? I always thought Linux, in general, was a quick, snappy system, but I am not seeing that. Instead, I am back to using a 486-33 CPU.

Windows was left in the dust on every system I've installed Linux to. Including the Knoppix cd install.

I tried other desktops that come in the package, but its about the same kind of problem.

Any words of wisdom? Suggestions. Disagreement?

Something is wrong although I'm not sure what. What was it like running from cd? Which Xserver are you using?

If you read this far, I would also like to know how to get my CDs out of the drive when in Linux. They will not open via the button on the drive, Where is the eject command?

You can't eject a cd that's mounted. The command isn't UNmount but rather umount. (no 'n'). Bear in mind that if you're booted to Knooppix cd you can't eject it unless you use the toram cheat code. You can simply use eject too like so:

eject /dev/scd0

**jbrush** · 12-16-2003, 10:05 PM

>Look to see if you have DMA enabled like so:
>
>Test your drives read times like so:

Thank you for the suggestions. It looks like DMA is on, but the throughput numbers don't mean much to me. Anything obvious there?

root@linux:~# sudo hdparm /dev/hdb5

/dev/hdb5:
multcount = 16 (on)
IO_support = 1 (32-bit)
unmaskirq = 1 (on)
using_dma = 1 (on)
keepsettings = 0 (off)
readonly = 0 (off)
readahead = 8 (on)
geometry = 2491/255/63, sectors = 6249159, start = 126
root@linux:~# hdparm -tT /dev/hdb5

/dev/hdb5:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 204 MB in 2.00 seconds = 102.00 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 52 MB in 3.06 seconds = 16.99 MB/sec

>Windows was left in the dust on every system I've installed Linux to. Including the Knoppix >cd install.

Is there any way to quantify this for comparison? Are you saying that on the very same computer, Knoppix HD install runs faster than windows? Even on a 500MHz CPU, windows 2000 runs very fast. There is no way Knoppix from the CD runs that fast, and on my system, unfortunately, the Debian HD install is no better than running from the CD.

I am confused, so last night I went to the library and got RH 7.3 and Debian 2.1 I know they are older, but libraries don't have the latest :-)

Anyway, I figured to try and see how they did. Debian was a nightmare to install so I gave up on it <g> and RH went right on and ran just about the same as Knoppix HD install. Tried several different desktops, but they all run too slow to be productive or useful to me.

Click the start button, wait a full second. Open the file manager, wait at least 5 seconds. Do a file search, forget it, its gonna take all night. Yes, I am frustrated as I would like to switch over eventually to LInux, but not at such a cost in speed as its too much of a headache to sit and wait for stuff to happen. I am not quitting by any means, but I am at a lose to know where to turn. I tried Linux about a year ago and quit because it was too slow. I'm back, but its the same problem :-)

>Something is wrong although I'm not sure what. What was it like running from cd? Which >Xserver are you using?

I know it can be fixed because Linux would be dead in the water if everyone's system was this slow, but I don't know how I am going to solve it. UPgrading to a 2G CPU is not an option right now.

I started withKDE, then I tried ICEWM and several others with no real difference. As far as comparing to running from the CD, I would say it about the same. Certainly no improvement from what I can tell.

Got the mount/unmout CD stuff figured. Thanks for the input there.

Much of the problem is too many groups, too many people, and no way to know where to go to get the good answers. I guess too much information can be a bad thing <g>

Much obliged for the assist.

John

**turbine** · 12-21-2003, 03:24 PM

I don't know the answer to your questions about performance, but what you're describing sounds so severe. Why is nobody else reporting this as it seems to me to be a real stopper for using any of the linux distro's?

Not having done so myself, but if you go through the standard installation procedures and end up with a slow as molasses system that you describe what good would it be to anyone? I'll be installing the lates Debian Woody soon myself and I'll let you know, honestly, the kind of a performer that I end up with. The only other linux that I've used is Red Hat 6.2 and it has performed really well.

**A. Jorge Garcia** · 12-21-2003, 04:39 PM

How do I get DMA turned on during boot-up? During boot-up I get "warning, DMA turned off, may slow down fschk or fstab?" When I check the DMA after boot-up, its switched on and all runs fine (on this old PII Gateway hdinstall), but booting is SLOW!

TIA,

**Kethinov** · 12-21-2003, 10:27 PM

There is a severe performance issue with my HDD install of Knoppix too. I'm not quite sure what it is, but I'm pretty sure that the installer is using bad drivers for my graphics card and perhaps other hardware.

**A. Jorge Garcia** · 12-26-2003, 02:43 PM

Could it be that DMA is switched-off in the BIOS? I don't see a setting for this in the BIOS setup screen....

TIA,

**Flying Mouse** · 12-30-2003, 08:34 PM

Are you using the correct driver in your XF86Config? Make sure you are using the "mga" (thats a link) driver, because it sounds like you have the vesa driver in it.

**A. Jorge Garcia** · 01-06-2004, 01:30 AM

This machine has an ATI Mach64 3D Rage II AGP graphics card. The best I can do with it is 1024x768x24. This has nothing to do with my DMA problem, nor does it have to do with mga.

Regards,

**gowator** · 01-20-2004, 01:10 PM

Is this a FULL debian install?

It sounds like perhaps you are still using a compressed filesystem, aka the live install to hard disk. The 550K6 will be struggling to decompress fast enough .....

You shouldn't need 1GB swap if its a native install.

Before messing to much with the HDPARM perhaps just make sure it really is a full debian install (i.e. comes up with the deb splash screen for login)