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Running Mandriva on older hardware


edwardp
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I have Mandriva Linux Free 2006 installed on two systems. It runs great on the faster of the two systems.

 

The slower of the two contains an older Intel Pentium/MMX CPU at 166 MHz. Surprisingly, Mandriva only took 45 minutes to install on this, I actually expected it to take twice as long because of the CPU speed. :)

 

I would like to be able to get it to run faster on this particular system. Turning off the swap (it was only using 2 Mb of swap) has helped a little, some applications will run slow, but when using Mandriva Update, any updates install rather quickly.

 

Nothing pertaining to servers was installed, only a simple, basic system.

 

Is there anything at startup that can be turned off to free up some memory (192 Mb installed) so it will run faster? I've already turned off the mDNS daemon, as the stated type of client on the Info screen is not being used.

 

Thank you in advance for any suggestions. :)

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If you explicitly need Mandriva running on that system, than the only reasonable solution is building a custom kernel, as lightweight as possible. And you would rather avoid using KDE on it, as it does have demands that exheed your oomph.

Why not try a distro that is tailor made for old, anhaemic machines? ( Damn Small, Puppy, Vector... ).

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I located another thread "Tweaking Mandriva, speeding things up" and am going to try some of the suggestions in that. I already turned off "lisa" and that alone, freed up almost 25Mb of memory.

 

Removing "kat" was another suggestion, but I had a concern as to whether removing that also removes all file search functionality.

 

I've tried those other distros (and others) in the past, both installed and on live CD's, but was not comfortable with them.

 

Apparently, turning off "lisa" and simply exiting kat from the icon next to the clock, did the trick! It used to take at least one minute for a print job to be sent to the printer. Now it goes to the printer in a matter of seconds. :)

Edited by edwardp
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I located another thread "Tweaking Mandriva, speeding things up" and am going to try some of the suggestions in that. I already turned off "lisa" and that alone, freed up almost 25Mb of memory.

There are some other services that can be disabled. If you can do this and post the results:

 

chkconfig --list

 

I can help you with which ones to disable/remove.

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This is what chkconfig --list shows:

 

acpi			0:off   1:off   2:on	3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
acpid		   0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
alsa			0:off   1:off   2:on	3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
atd			 0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
crond		   0:off   1:off   2:on	3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
cups			0:off   1:off   2:on	3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
dm			  0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:on	6:off
freshclam	   0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
haldaemon	   0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
harddrake	   0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
hplip		   0:off   1:off   2:on	3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
iptables		0:off   1:off   2:on	3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
keytable		0:off   1:off   2:on	3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
kheader		 0:off   1:off   2:on	3:on	4:off   5:on	6:off
lisa			0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
mDNSResponder   0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
mandi		   0:off   1:off   2:on	3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
mdadm		   0:off   1:off   2:on	3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
messagebus	  0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
netfs		   0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
netplugd		0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
network		 0:off   1:off   2:on	3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
nfslock		 0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
nifd			0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
ntpd			0:off   1:off   2:on	3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
numlock		 0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
oki4daemon	  0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
partmon		 0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
portmap		 0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
rawdevices	  0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
shorewall	   0:off   1:off   2:on	3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
sound		   0:off   1:off   2:on	3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
syslog		  0:off   1:off   2:on	3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
xfs			 0:off   1:off   2:on	3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
xinetd		  0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off

xinetd based services:
	cups-lpd:	   off
	rsync:		  off

 

But as it stands now, with kat removed and lisa turned off at boot, no other changes, applications load and run faster than previous and printing has also noticably sped up.

 

I'm very pleased. I knew one could teach an old system new tricks. :D

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you can also disable the ff: if in particular you dont need them

atd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off

nfslock 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off

nifd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off

ntpd 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off

partmon 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off

portmap 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off

rawdevices 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off

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This is what I would disable:

 

This is what chkconfig --list shows:

 

atd			 0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
crond		   0:off   1:off   2:on	3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
mdadm		   0:off   1:off   2:on	3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
netfs		   0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
nfslock		 0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
nifd			0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
portmap		 0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
rawdevices	  0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
sound		   0:off   1:off   2:on	3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off
xinetd		  0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off

xinetd based services:
	cups-lpd:	   off
	rsync:		  off

 

atd and crond can be disabled if your not bothered about scheduled jobs, however, I tend to leave them running, so up to you here. mdadm can be disabled unless you are using software raid. You would know if you are or not. Easy way to tell is to just type the mount command and if you see anything showing /dev/mdx where x is partition number for the raid device, don't disable it. If it's /dev/hdax or /dev/sdax then you can safely disable it.

 

netfs, nfslock and portmap all relate to nfs file sharing, so these can be safely disabled too. sound can be disabled because you are using alsa, you don't need both from what i remember. Try it, and if sound stops working, then just re-enable it, but I doubt you'll have a problem unless alsa isn't configured for use on your system. xinetd is used for running other services, you aren't running any, so you can disable this too. You'll notice I didn't include ntpd in my list, since you might be using this for synchronising your clock. It's up to you if you want this running or not.

 

To disable just do:

 

chkconfig servicename off

 

where servicename is one of the service names listed, eg:

 

chkconfig portmap off

 

I have a tendency to actually remove the packages the service relates to completely, so the service isn't even on the list. However, it means you need to reinstall it should you want the service later. So maybe just turning off is best.

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Since turning off lisa, removing kat and turning off swap after logging in (if I remember to turn off swap!), the system has been running better. For example, a particular three-page printout I use to test the printing speed, previously took 15 minutes to print. It now takes 7 minutes to print the same, so there definitely has been an improvement.

 

Today, I manually installed a kernel (2.6.12.22 up to 1GB), edited lilo.conf and ran lilo -v afterwards, on two machines, then made sure they would boot into the new kernel before urpme'ing the old kernel. I was surprised to see that Mandriva does not automatically include kernel updates with other updates.

 

The reason why I want to run Linux on the older machine is because it is the only computer I have that is free of Microsoft influence (doesn't have Windows on it). I would like to be rid of Windows completely, however my ISP (the cable TV company) does not support Linux and it was suggested keeping Windows installed in the event of connection issues.

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then you can probably slim down further ...

 

For instance if you don't need 3D acceleration you can use the free nv diver instead of nvidia (which is huge)

Are you using power management acpi and acpid?

 

You are running a firewall or NAT, again no need unless you are connected directly to the internet

Same for the other stuff.... like nfslockd not needed unless your using NFS.

 

Its hard to say without being there but try man <name> of the services and see if you seem to need them...

switch em off and play about .. you soon find out of you need them then swtich back on....

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