Swap space activation [solved]

[edwardp]

In https://mandrivausers.org/index.php?showtopic=32906 (page 2), I outlined a test on the slower system that I tried, which resulted in the audio cutting out.

 

With the swapiness now set to 10 and the same test performed, the test page took 5 minutes to print, and apart from what sounded like a brief static blip in the audio during a pause in the song, the audio otherwise did not cut out during the printing of that one page.

Edited July 11, 2006 by edwardp

[ianw1974]

I'm assuming that's good then. Does printing always take 5 mins? Slow printer?

[edwardp]

It's actually a new printer, an HP DeskJet 3930 (using the HP 3940 PPD file).

 

This was the first time I had more than one major application running at the same time under Linux on that machine. Before removing kat and turning off lisa, a three-page print from the web browser (mostly text) would take 15 minutes. After removing kat, turning off lisa and swap, the same print took 7 minutes.

[ianw1974]

Hmm, seems strange. Not sure what to suggest as to why it's slow.

[edwardp]

CPU/memory?? It has a Pentium 166 MHz with 196 Mb of PC 100 DIMM memory.

 

Everything I've seen online pertaining to past releases of Mandriva, have indicated that it requires at least a Pentium-class processor with a minimum of 64 Mb of memory.

[edwardp]

With the Swapiness set to 10 all this time, the Pentium running Mandriva 2006 Free (Intel Pentium 166 MHz with MMX, 196 Mb PC100 memory) has been running somewhat better. Another thing that was removed was Flash. That was nothing but a complete drag on the system!

 

However as I mentioned in an earlier post, the audio continues to cut out when printing, but it is not as bad as before. With SeaMonkey (1.0.5) running, printing two pages and KSCD playing a music CD, the audio briefly broke up when the 3930 began to print the first page. When it began to print the second page, the audio did not break up.

 

If the web page being printed had any Flash applets in it, the audio would have continuously broken up, so removing Flash has definitely helped.

 

Would it improve things (or make things worse) if the Swapiness setting were reduced to 5 from 10?

Edited September 17, 2006 by edwardp

[edwardp]

While searching for swappiness, this thread was in the results.

 

The reason for the slow printing appeared to be the usb module. When I tried printing something with that printer, I opened a console window afterwards and ran top. This usb module was using up > 95% of the CPU resources, this is why it took that long to print something simple.

 

Desktop 1 now has an almost 11-year old Epson Stylus Color 400 connected via the parallel port and printing will start within a few seconds. But I have noticed that while it is printing, if I attempt to do something else (load in a new web page or launch a new application), the printing will stop until the web page finishes loading in or the app stops loading in, then it will resume. I'm afraid that once the Epson decides to quit, if I install a new USB printer, I will have the same USB printing issues all over again. I do not know if changing the swappiness setting will fix that.

 

However, on Desktop 2, when I printed something yesterday, I also opened up a console and ran top. While it was printing (HP DeskJet 1420D), the usb module was not even listed. Does Mandriva still use usb for printing??

Edited February 17, 2008 by edwardp