Linux Format forums

Re: Since upgrade to Ubuntu 11.10, PC runs slow

ollie — Tue Jan 24, 2012 2:57 am

Author: ollie

Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2012 2:57 am

How much space is available on your hard drive? Did you create a separate swap partition during installation and how big is it?

512MB RAM is only 33% over the absolute minimum requirements for Ubuntu 11.10, so as you load apps up you will quickly start to use swap space which is considerably slower than RAM. Turning off and on flushes the swap space, so the system seems to be running quicker because it isn't really doing anything.

Re: Since upgrade to Ubuntu 11.10, PC runs slow

Rhakios — Sun Jan 22, 2012 11:50 pm

Author: Rhakios

Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2012 11:50 pm

With top running, try pressing shift+> to sort applications by memory usage (press shift +< to switch back to sorting by cpu).
Obviously doing this after it has started to slow down is most likely to reveal the culprit.

Re: Since upgrade to Ubuntu 11.10, PC runs slow

jase — Sun Jan 22, 2012 5:54 pm

Author: jase

Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2012 5:54 pm

Thanks

Result:

Tasks: 122, 1 running, 121 sleeping
Mem: 499452k, 341480k used, 157972k free

Re: Since upgrade to Ubuntu 11.10, PC runs slow

Ram — Sun Jan 22, 2012 12:00 pm

Author: Ram

Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2012 12:00 pm

jase wrote:

Ram wrote:

Open a terminal and run top to see what consuming your memory.

sorry how do I run Top?

open a terminal
type top then press return.

Re: Since upgrade to Ubuntu 11.10, PC runs slow

jase — Sun Jan 22, 2012 9:57 am

Author: jase

Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2012 9:57 am

Ram wrote:

Open a terminal and run top to see what consuming your memory.

sorry how do I run Top?

Re: Since upgrade to Ubuntu 11.10, PC runs slow

Ram — Sat Jan 21, 2012 11:43 am

Author: Ram

Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2012 11:43 am

Open a terminal and run top to see what consuming your memory.

Re: Since upgrade to Ubuntu 11.10, PC runs slow

jase — Sat Jan 21, 2012 10:00 am

Author: jase

Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2012 10:00 am

Just checked, yes I have 512 ram.

When I turn off the PC and turn it back on, it's runs ok and not slow. So every time I turn it on, I have to turn it off and back on for it to run at a good speed?

The old turn it on and off trick

If it's a memory leak what shall I do please?

Re: Since upgrade to Ubuntu 11.10, PC runs slow

jase — Wed Jan 18, 2012 12:49 pm

Author: jase

Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2012 12:49 pm

wyliecoyoteuk wrote:

Sounds like a memory leak?

Ok, so what is the best thing to do next then please?

Re: Since upgrade to Ubuntu 11.10, PC runs slow

wyliecoyoteuk — Tue Jan 17, 2012 2:23 pm

Author: wyliecoyoteuk

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2012 2:23 pm

Sounds like a memory leak?

Re: Since upgrade to Ubuntu 11.10, PC runs slow

jase — Tue Jan 17, 2012 10:32 am

Author: jase

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2012 10:32 am

Not at home at the moment, but from memory (pardon the pun ), I think its 512

Re: Since upgrade to Ubuntu 11.10, PC runs slow

nordle — Tue Jan 17, 2012 12:59 am

Author: nordle

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2012 12:59 am

How much RAM do you have.

Re: Since upgrade to Ubuntu 11.10, PC runs slow

jase — Mon Jan 16, 2012 5:24 am

Author: jase

Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2012 5:24 am

No, I selected 2D from the login is screen.

My graphic card does not support 3D so thats why I presumed my system auto detected that when I installed Ubuntu.

This morning my PC is again running slow, however when I close down, log back in and runs fast again. But nothing was churning away at the CPU before I shut down.

Re: Since upgrade to Ubuntu 11.10, PC runs slow

nordle — Mon Jan 16, 2012 1:07 am

Author: nordle

Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2012 1:07 am

Hi there,

You could install smartmontools to make use of smartctl
sudo apt-get install smartmontools

But this business of the system slowing down when under 3d graphics is interesting.

What grahpics card does it have?
lspci | grep VGA

I assume when you say "chose 2d and restarted", this is under the Additional Drivers section of Ubuntu.

EDIT:
Should have said, looks like DMA is operating on the disk as per your output of hdparm. This is as it should be.

Re: Since upgrade to Ubuntu 11.10, PC runs slow

jase — Sun Jan 15, 2012 12:22 pm

Author: jase

Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2012 12:22 pm

It's still slow, so logged off, chose 2D and restarted. Now runs really fast as it did in previous 11.04. However I was already using 2D as my graphics card/system would have auto detected it can't run 3D?

Hmm...now I am confused even more

Re: Since upgrade to Ubuntu 11.10, PC runs slow

jase — Sat Jan 14, 2012 10:54 am

Author: jase

Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 10:54 am

I tried: sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda - but it said "command not found"

I tried: sudo hdparm -I /dev/sda
/dev/sda:

ATA device, with non-removable media
Model Number: ST380012A
Serial Number: 5JV3YPR3
Firmware Revision: 4.04
Standards:
Used: ATA/ATAPI-6 T13 1410D revision 2
Supported: 6 5 4
Configuration:
Logical max current
cylinders 16383 16383
heads 16 16
sectors/track 63 63
--
CHS current addressable sectors: 16514064
LBA user addressable sectors: 156301488
LBA48 user addressable sectors: 156301488
Logical/Physical Sector size: 512 bytes
device size with M = 1024*1024: 76319 MBytes
device size with M = 1000*1000: 80026 MBytes (80 GB)
cache/buffer size = 1024 KBytes
Capabilities:
LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)
Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard
R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 16 Current = 16
Recommended acoustic management value: 128, current value: 0
DMA: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5
Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns
PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
Cycle time: no flow control=240ns IORDY flow control=120ns
Commands/features:
Enabled Supported:
* SMART feature set
Security Mode feature set
* Power Management feature set
* Write cache
* Look-ahead
* Host Protected Area feature set
* WRITE_BUFFER command
* READ_BUFFER command
* DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
SET_MAX security extension
* 48-bit Address feature set
* Device Configuration Overlay feature set
* Mandatory FLUSH_CACHE
* FLUSH_CACHE_EXT
* SMART error logging
* SMART self-test
Security:
supported
not enabled
not locked
frozen
not expired: security count
not supported: enhanced erase
HW reset results:
CBLID- above Vih
Device num = 0 determined by CSEL
Checksum: correct