edwardp Posted June 27, 2006 Report Share Posted June 27, 2006 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. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarecrow Posted June 27, 2006 Report Share Posted June 27, 2006 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... ). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edwardp Posted June 27, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 27, 2006 (edited) 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 June 27, 2006 by edwardp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 You can still search without kat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lexicon Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 (edited) Look! http://lexicon.fm.interia.pl http://lexicon.fm.interia.pl/mdk.html ....Lex Edited June 28, 2006 by Lexicon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edwardp Posted June 29, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aioshin Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 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:offnfslock 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edwardp Posted July 1, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 1, 2006 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted July 1, 2006 Report Share Posted July 1, 2006 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.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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