How come lm9.1 in so slow compared to win98?

[GuoJing]

why do you guys keep comparing these new LInux distro's to Win98 ? 98 was designed for very old hardware, doesn't have a sexy interface and crashes a lot and doesn't have many programs + services. Compare the new Linux distro's to Win2K or WinXP. Mandrake 8.2 or 9.1 aren't designed (by default) for an AMD K6 system.

[static]

that's very true. 98 was out in 97, :lol: , and 9.1 was out months ago, post P4 / Athlon XP 3200+ and the announcement of the upcoming Cell processor...

[Gowator]

I don't want to disable anything right now, only one thing at a time, it took me some time to set up this machine to share internet connection, without having to configure it every time I turned on the pc (d-link eth card -non plug & play).. so bare with me:)

 

 

Hey sparky. You don't need to actual unconfigure them just turn the off from starting.

 

The DHCP issue is slightly more involved but not much.

 

Anyway, one tip- when your configuring something keep a notepad open. A basic test editor (I use kword) and a screen capture prog are a great help ...

 

That way you can redo something but know how you did it the first time that worked.

 

Win98 vs Linux.

A few words. When you start win98 you are starting a graphical interface. thats about it. When you start Mandrake your starting lots of server applications like a web server, ftp server etc etc etc. So since were talking 97-98 vintage comapre to NT4 with IIS and all the server side stuff. My PC at work takes a good 15 minutes to boot in the morning and its a P500. So if you want Win98 performance, not NT4 performance you need to be realistic about which services are running. That said you can get away with quite a few if they are omptimally configured. The Mandrake configuration is often not optimised becuase they chose the safest options that would work most commonly. So one you tune em up its not really a big deal.

 

Take shorewall, I'd honestly reconfigure it with the shorewall configuration. You need to edit a few files by hand but it works much better.

 

Display in Windows.

For a moment we'll discuss Mac's. Take OS-X. Windowsd take longer to load becuase OS-X pre-renders them into postscript. When Windows opens a window it opens it first and then starts to try and fill it. Sometimes it doesn't becuase its busy. Result, those ghost windows that carry the graphics from behind or redrawing your desktop as you pull the window round.

 

In effect Microsoft has used a 'trick' to make windows appear to open faster. In effect you can't actually type until theyre refreshed but it feels quicker.

 

The same is true for booting, Microsoft went to great pains to being the user interface up quickly. But the system is still paralysed whilst it finishes loading everything else.

 

Linux does the opposite, the window system is the last thing to be started. Everything else is already started. When I start kde I can actually be doing things whilst the desktop is loading. In fact, you could switch to a text terminal in the startup sequence and do anything you don't need X for.

 

So, a lot of it is just perception. Microsoft figured that they would rely on things feeling fast instead of actually being fast. Unfortunately they failed. It was still pig slow so they compiled the Window system into the kernel. This does make things faster. It also means that a error in the Windowing system can crash the whole PC. Virtually impossible in Linux (unless your using xv video)

 

Also consider, Windows supports a single user at a time. Your linux system will support lots.

Its a full multiuser OS.

 

 

So that said,

I think if you wanna maximise the performance then your going to have to reduce the variables down so you can identify any mistuned apps or services. .

 

Ive been through and noted ones to turn off and add incrementally (*) and others you can start when needed (+)

 

So your services

devfsd

*dhcpd

dm

*fam

hardrake

*internet

i*ptables

keytable

kheader

+linuxconf

*lisa

*named

netfs

network

nfs

nfslock

partmon

portmap

postfix - I turned off

random

rawdevices - I turned off

*rwhod

saslauthd - maybe I don't need this

*shorewall

*smb

sound

*sshd

switchprofile

syslog

time

+webmin - maybe I don't need it on all the time?

''xfs (unless your using an xfs filesystem)

xinetd

 

So these fall into the following groups:

smb (samba) - shorewall ipchains etc. These are for the Windows clients to use. Samba allows windows PC's to use your filesystem. Shorewall controlls the routing and firewall through ipchains.

 

If these are misconfigured then they could cause speed problems. So I recommend turning them off until you get the system working the way it should and then add them one at a time and see if theres an impact, if there is its probably just the configuration, but at least you know which configuration your messing about with.

 

DHCP - its not really needed, it just gives out IP addresses to the clients. In factI had a well configured dhcp and It didn't effect anything but the MCC configured one did. I didn't stop to fiind out why cos I didn't need it, I just gave my other PC's static IP's

 

Webmin, netconf.... No real need top have these running all the time, they can be started from a command line anytime.

 

httpd - Well, unless you have something iin your home intranet no need to run it by default.

 

 

Whilst your at it check your video support.

In /etc/X11 is a file called XF86Config-4 .

Find and post the section Device: Heres mine

 

Section "Device"

Identifier "MATROX CARD 1"

VendorName "Matrox"

BoardName "Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead"

Driver "mga"

VideoRam 32768

BusID "PCI:1:0:0"

Option "DPMS"

Option "AGPMode" "true"

EndSection

 

Well just check your using the accelerated video driver. Otherwise its the same as using the one Winblows uses in safe mode.

 

 

In order to reconfigure your dhcp (or get rid of it...)

First type

ifconfig

(note I presume you have a USB DSL modem, if not post back and Ill change this, i.e. you only have one network card)

Now write down, paste into a handy text editor the IP address for eth0

We'll use the one its got now cos its quicker.

 

Choose the Internet/network wizard.

When it opens click on Expert

 

type (or paste) the IP address you copied into IP address

Make sure the netmask is 255.255.255.0

Boot protcol is static

Start on bott 'Y'

 

Just OK at this point.

Go back and close the wizard.

as root type

/etc/init.d/network restart.

This should restart all your interfaces.

If it was set to DHCP it shouldn't have been cos it shouldn't allocate itself an IP....

This would cause delays.

Now you can turn off dhcp altogether in your MCC.

 

Later you will have to go to the windows PC's. Choose the same IP but with a different last number. For instance if you had 10.0.0.1 your other PC's will be 10.0.02 10.00.3 etc- the netmask should always be 255.255.255.0

 

 

That should be it, DHCP gone. Later if you feel like it you can set up a DHCP server yourself, it will probably be better but right now you don't need it.

 

Until shorewall works you won't have internet access from the PC's

Stop shorewall wth (as root)

shorewall clear

 

Try a few apps to check if theres any difference.

I'd really try and get rid of rlisa etc. and start off with a base. Do a bit off testing and adde one at a time.

[Guest electronic spark]

Ok this is what I got:

 

 

 

Section "Device"

Identifier "device1"

VendorName "ATI"

BoardName "ATI Rage 128"

Driver "r128"

Option "DPMS"

Option "UseCCEFor2D" "false"

EndSection

 

I don't see anything on AGP or such: :?

 

Ok I already turned off dhcp and use static addr's, The boot is allot quicker.

 

but I left

 

internet

smb

lisa

 

running, because I'm trying to get network access.

 

:)

[Gowator]

Yeah your using the accelerated driver for X.

 

Internet ... I think that is actually the httpd apache SERVER. I'm not 100% and im at work on my NT box.

 

I'm not suggesting you turn everything off forever ... just take away everything but the basics and then incrementally add them.

 

You'll probably find something that gives you a perfomance hit.

It could even be two conflicting services...

 

A big difference between Linux and Windows (other than one is GPL ..) is that Linux is intrinsically multiuser and network aware. Networking is built right to the core of Linux wheras in Windows its kinda tagded on the side.

 

It is therefore sensitive to network tuning such as multicasting becuase most services are TCP aware so they look to see if packets are for them.

This includes for instance the whole of X.

 

In windows most things aren't network aware so they aren't hit by bad network config so much. The advantage with Linux is you can if you wish just run an app on another machine, practically nothing to it. Windows tends to mutilcast by default, this means it basically sends out untargetted network packets. This is what DHCP does, it constantly says, hey I'm here, anyone lokking for an IP address.

 

This is why tuning your network can have such good effect in Linux...

Its a little bit difficult to get used to coming from a windows world but once you change the way you think it becomes obvious...

if difficult to explain (hope this makes sense) ...

 

You only need smb and lisa for Windows networking,

Try just backing off a bit on what you are trying to do and get it running nice how you like it before trying to do 'extras' .. I know the time thing is annoying but you could do it later!!

 

 

Another quick note (but for another time)

The kernel includes lots of stuff you don't need. Also you probably have a load of modules with dependencies you don't need.

Theyre included so that the kernel is flexible for different configs but in the future you could recomile the kernel, remove unneccassary parts and also modules you won't need AND optimise it for your processor.

 

 

Edit. Just seen your time thread. You don't need to rerun the drakgw if you used the same IP's. Just restart the firewall/router

 

shorewall clear

shorewall start