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  • Linux Gurus...speeding things up?

    Ok, Linux Gurus...this one's for you.

    I don't use Linux as often as I should. Primarily because my Linux machine is slow. I "grew up" on Windows, but I'm wanting to expand my technical knowledge into Linux.

    Anyway, I have an Ubuntu machine that I built several years ago. I'm running an AMD Processor with a FoxConn mother board and 2 GB or so of RAM. I forget the exact clock speed of my processor, though. I'll have to check.

    But I'm rambling.

    Is there anything I can do (aside from a hardware upgrade) to speed things up? I think there's a slight problem with the install, because at one point it was running faster. I'm running either 15.10 or 16.04. I'd have to check for sure (not in front of it right now).

    Also, I'm getting a repository error (which I'll post when I'm in front of the machine) that tells me to run a sudo command to fix it. I run the command, and it still isn't fixed.

    I don't want to "start over" and wipe the drive. That would take a LONG time, and I'd have to re-install a whole bunch of stuff.

    Also, I'm having a heck of a time setting up remote access to my Linux machine from my Windows 10 machine. I used to be able to do that, but I can't any more.

    Ideas?
    Last edited by EricKei; 06-13-2016, 03:35 PM. Reason: moved to tech help (more visible, and more appropriate ;) )
    Skilled programmers aren't cheap. Cheap programmers aren't skilled.

  • #2
    Linux is usually quite tolerant of old and low-end hardware. However, there are limits. What would help first is some specific and detailed information, such as the output of the following commands:

    Code:
    uname -a
    cat /etc/issue /proc/cpuinfo /proc/meminfo
    lsblk
    lspci
    glxinfo | head -n25
    Stick it all in a pastebin somewhere and link it.

    Also helpful would be a description of *what* goes slowly. Is it disk related? Boot times? Basic desktop sluggishness? Some specific applications?
    Last edited by Chromatix; 06-13-2016, 11:13 PM.

    Comment


    • #3
      Quoth Chromatix View Post
      Linux is usually quite tolerant of old and low-end hardware. However, there are limits. What would help first is some specific and detailed information, such as the output of the following commands:

      Code:
      uname -a
      cat /etc/issue /proc/cpuinfo /proc/meminfo
      lsblk
      lspci
      glxinfo | head -n25
      Stick it all in a pastebin somewhere and link it.

      Also helpful would be a description of *what* goes slowly. Is it disk related? Boot times? Basic desktop sluggishness? Some specific applications?
      Basic desktop sluggishness.

      Here's what I have according to my system details:

      Memory: 1.8GB (2GB RAM)
      Processor: AMD Sempron 140 Processor (2.7 GHz)
      Graphics: GeForce 6150SE nForce 430/integrated/SSE2/3DNOW!
      OS: 32 bit
      Disk: 489.0 GB

      And here's a pastebin link:

      http://pastebin.com/4vn15MyU
      Last edited by mjr; 06-14-2016, 12:18 AM.
      Skilled programmers aren't cheap. Cheap programmers aren't skilled.

      Comment


      • #4
        Running a single core CPU is going to be one of your biggest slowdowns.

        Some things that will help:
        Bump the memory up to 4GB. Go 8GB if you can
        Install the OS on an SSD. 32GB will be more than enough. Boot disk and swap (shouldn't need swap if you go to 8GB). Leave your data (/home) on the spinning disk. This is probably your best bet.
        Upgrade to 64 bit.

        I am not an Ubuntu expert, but you should be able to dump a list of the installed package and use that to rebuild In RHEL, I would do "yum list installed|awk '{print $1}'" to get the list of packages without the rev numbers, so that you will install the latest version. I just recent;y did that with a Fedora system.

        For the remote access, check to make sure you have sshd running and that you don't have a firewall/IPTables blocking it. When all else fails, disable SELinux.

        What king of stuff are you looking to do with the system?
        Life is too short to not eat popcorn.
        Save the Ales!
        Toys for Tots at Rooster's Cafe

        Comment


        • #5
          Quoth csquared View Post
          What king of stuff are you looking to do with the system?
          Right now, I'm just looking to make it faster. Right now I mostly use it for surfing, but I'd also like to use it for development and running some of the other apps I have on this machine.

          I'd also like to be able to have Chromium and FireFox open at the same time without one or the other hanging on me temporarily when I switch back and forth.
          Skilled programmers aren't cheap. Cheap programmers aren't skilled.

          Comment


          • #6
            Chrome and Firefox are memory hogs. Add Flash on top or that and... No. No. Not going there. Find my happy place.

            I have a laptop with an AMD Sempron(tm) SI-42. Slower that yours. Bumped the memory to 6GB. At 2GB, Firefox was constantly crashing. It is still slow, but it no longer bogs down to crawl as it thrashes swap.

            I would like to ad an SSD, but it only has room for one hard drive. The system is not worth the money for a large SSD.

            Current desktop has an 8 core, FM-8350, 8GB and an SSD for boot. I can reboot, login and launch most apps in under 30 seconds (provided that I don't fat finger the password). Most of that is the SSD.

            ETA:
            I had forgotten about this. I friend of mine, who recommended that I get an SSD, upgraded his system with one. The only change was to add the SSD. Cut his boot time by almost 50%. That is why I am pretty sure an SSD will help so much.
            Last edited by csquared; 06-14-2016, 01:19 AM.
            Life is too short to not eat popcorn.
            Save the Ales!
            Toys for Tots at Rooster's Cafe

            Comment


            • #7
              What I really should probably do is set up a backup system, too. That, and since I have the room, get another large drive and use it as a code repository. Though I suppose I could use GitHub for something like that.
              Skilled programmers aren't cheap. Cheap programmers aren't skilled.

              Comment


              • #8
                Actually I think your biggest problem is the chipset-integrated graphics. Linux support for Nvidia graphics chipsets is generally very basic and slow (and sometimes unstable, though that isn't your problem). Recent Linux desktop environments are heavy on the graphics compositing and rely on a well-supported (if not very powerful) GPU.

                The Sempron 140 fits the AM2+ and AM3 sockets, while the chipset is apparently intended for Socket 754/939/AM2. I therefore infer that you have an AM2+ m/board and DDR2 RAM.

                I would recommend one of three courses of action:

                1) Get more DDR2 RAM and a cheap low-end dedicated graphics card - preferably an ATI/AMD one, as those are better supported in Linux.

                2) Replace the m/board, CPU and RAM wholesale with something newer. AMD's current range of APUs include some very inexpensive options that would be an across-the-board upgrade for you. This would mean you don't need a dedicated graphics card.

                3) Keep your current hardware (with perhaps a RAM upgrade) and switch to a non-composited desktop such as LXDE. If you need help installing LXDE, just ask.

                Comment


                • #9
                  A few suggestions, depending on how daring you are:

                  1. Change window managers. I know the default ones in Ubuntu are pretty heavy on your resources. Xfce would be worth a change as it uses less resources. If you really know what you're doing and just want something to manage xterms and firefox window, there's much lighter ones out there. IceWM is what I use for that.

                  2. If you're really daring, recompile the kernel. I remember the default 32 bit kernels are pretty bad in being designed for everything down to 486 processors. My suggestion if you do this is use the current kernel options in /boot, but with a few changes:
                  1. Under "Processor Type and Features" Turn off generic x86 support
                  2. Same area, selection the best processor type you have, K6 probably, if you're not sure, Pentium 2 works well as a baseline.
                  3. Same area, turn on Symentric multiprocessing, or if you wish to keep it enabled, turn down the number of processors to 2. This saves a little memory
                  4. High memory support, select 4gb. This saves about 100M of ram compared to being at 64gb.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Quoth Chromatix View Post
                    The Sempron 140 fits the AM2+ and AM3 sockets, while the chipset is apparently intended for Socket 754/939/AM2. I therefore infer that you have an AM2+ m/board and DDR2 RAM.

                    I would recommend one of three courses of action:

                    1) Get more DDR2 RAM and a cheap low-end dedicated graphics card - preferably an ATI/AMD one, as those are better supported in Linux.

                    2) Replace the m/board, CPU and RAM wholesale with something newer. AMD's current range of APUs include some very inexpensive options that would be an across-the-board upgrade for you. This would mean you don't need a dedicated graphics card.

                    3) Keep your current hardware (with perhaps a RAM upgrade) and switch to a non-composited desktop such as LXDE. If you need help installing LXDE, just ask.
                    I'll have to check into those options. Thanks! Right now I'm leaning toward 1 and 2, to see what that does, first. I figured I had enough processing power and RAM to do the job. I guess that's not the case.

                    I mean, I tried to open FireFox the other day, and it took something like 15 seconds or so to open. No kidding.
                    Skilled programmers aren't cheap. Cheap programmers aren't skilled.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      If you're keeping your current CPU, there is a possibility which doesn't cost anything: unlocking the second CPU core which is present on-die but disabled. I once did that with a Phenom II X2 and effectively got a Phenom II X4. Look in the BIOS for an "Advanced Clock Calibration" setting.

                      There is a possibility it won't work, though, since CPU cores are often locked due to faults rather than purely for market segmentation. The possibility exists because there was sufficient demand for cheaper CPUs that more dies were allocated for locking than necessary due to faults.

                      Also, this really won't help with "basic desktop sluggishness", which tends to be due to graphics. But it will double the speed of compilation if you run a parallel make job.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        By the way, I'm also not against switching my GUI, either. My question, though, is will my Ubuntu system ask me which one I want to use when I start my machine?
                        Skilled programmers aren't cheap. Cheap programmers aren't skilled.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          It can be set up that way, for experimentation. Look for a control panel related to the login screen, and turn off auto-login. The login screen that then appears upon booting (or logging out) will have some way to choose the desktop environment. This is independent of whether you actually have an additional desktop environment installed or not.

                          To install LXDE on Ubuntu, and get the Ubuntu-specific customisations as well, open a terminal:
                          Code:
                          sudo apt-get install lxde lubuntu-core lubuntu-icon-theme lubuntu-restricted-extras

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Quoth Chromatix View Post

                            To install LXDE on Ubuntu, and get the Ubuntu-specific customisations as well, open a terminal:
                            Code:
                            sudo apt-get install lxde lubuntu-core lubuntu-icon-theme lubuntu-restricted-extras
                            So I installed lxde. I do notice a performance increase. I'll run it for a bit and see if what happens.

                            It seems to have an "old school" Windows feel to it. Not bad or good, just an observation. Though the "start menu" on the bottom left to me is more convenient than everything being down the left side.

                            Thanks! I'll monitor this and see how things go...
                            Skilled programmers aren't cheap. Cheap programmers aren't skilled.

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