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xtoolwait usage


chris z
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here's a link to the website for this tool http://www.hacom.nl/~richard/software/xtoolwait.html . i came across this package while i was fiddling around in MCC add packages (it's on disc 2 of the Mandrake distro). it's supposed to decrease the loading time of Linux by managing various "X" processes, from what i understand. (rememeber.....NOObie here) it's only a 9K file, so i installed it, but now i'm stumped. i read the instructions at the above website & in the help file on how to use it, but i still can't seem to get it to work. has anybody used this program? is it even worthwhile to try? my startup time takes dreadfully long (i haven't timed it, but i'd bet it's close to 3 minutes from when i start booting Mandrake until KDE is up & loaded) i've done the usual things to speed it up, like disabling uneeded processes at startup, but if i could get it to load faster, i'm all for it. again, TIA.........

Chris

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How fast is that K6 of yours? Mine takes almost a full minute to go from off to KDE up and running and I'm on an AthlonXp 1200.

I don't find it to long but then again win98 only takes half as long.

Win98 is also a 7 year old OS and mandrake 9.1 is only months old and closer to XP than win98 is size and ability.(I think Mandrake is bigger better and badder than anything else really)

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i have a 333mhz K6. i know, i know..........i probably should be more up to date, but as always, $$$$ is an issue. my machine, though 4 years old, is in tip top shape. many upgrades (RAM...hardrive....burner added....etho card....all by me) since it was bought. i keep it well maintained & everything backed up, so as long as it's running as good as it is, i'm in no need of a new 'puter at the moment. i'm still new to Linux (a bit over a month now) & i guess i'm just used to how a lot of things are faster under Window$. if my speed problem is a processor issue, i'll have to live with it for now. just trying anything i can to make it a bit more responsive under MDK. so..........any ideas on the XTOOLWAIT?

Chris

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After looking at the Readme for xtoolwait, it's apparrent that you'll have to do some editing of your X startup files to get any benefit. Also, the window managers listed are pretty old ones. Getting this to work with kde or gnome would be a real project IMHO, and may not be possible. That's my quick read of it.

One thing you can do to speed up boot times is not use the graphical login. To see if it's any faster for you, hit the Esc button as soon as the lilo boot screen comes up. At the boot prompt type "linux 3" w/o quotes and hit Enter. You'll boot to a command line login. Enter your username and password and then run:

 

$ startx

 

This will start your gui. Time it from the time you hit the Enter button after entering your boot parameters til you get to your gui.

This usually cuts down quite a bit off your boot time. To make it so you automaticaly boot to a command line login, you have to edit your /etc/inittab file. Look for the section that says Default run level and change

 

id:5:initdefault:

 

to

 

id:3:initdefault:

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thanks for the tip! i'll have to wait 'til tomorrow night to give that a try. i never thought about graphical login vs. non graphical. (remember, NOObie here) i'll post back with the time trial results tomorrow.

Chris

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tried the non graphical mode as suggested.........no difference. i timed the boot up. from the time my Lilo menu shows up & i choose Linux (in graphical mode) until my KDE is loaded it takes 3 minutes (+/- a few seconds). in non graphical mode, with text login, it takes the same amount of time, i just don't get to see the pretty colours. again, since i'm new to Linux, i still have a Window$ way of thinking. my Win98 partition goes from Lilo to a fully loaded desktop in a minute. maybe it's too much loading with the Kernel. i haven't tackled a Kernel compile yet. been reading about that & understand the theory of it, but it seems that every tutorial on Kernel compiling that i read has slightly different instructions & i'm not sure which ones to follow. also, even though the "can't learn if you don't break it first" motto seems to be quite prevalent in the Linux community, i really don't feel like going through a reinstall after i've come this far & got things running pretty smoothly. i'll play around with some stuff, but there's really not much more i can do (or disable). i have services down to a bare minimum. so, thanks for the advice, but for now i'll just make a Gin & Tonic, pour a shot, light a cigarette, & clean the cat litter while i'm waiting for it to boot up.

Chris

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I just timed mine from lilo to kde finishing loading and I get 1 min. 21 sec. I have a P4 2.53GHz with 768 MB of ram and hard drives at 7200 rpm, 8 MB of cache.. Maybe your times aren't that out of whack given your hardware. The only other thing I can suggest is to carefully observe the boot process and see if the system seems to hang up at any point. One thing that can give problems is bringing up the network(eth0). Linux will attempt to bring up the network during boot and will wait to time out if your not connected.

Win 98 seems to boot up in half that time but I think that's a little deceptive. In win 98, you get to a gui with icons very rapidly but the OS is still loading as judged by the hour glass-like mouse pointer which remains for some time before you get to a regular pointer and the system is fully usable. If I time win98 to when the hour glass goes away, I get 54 seconds.

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the only 2 spots that it seems to hang at boot are "loading/checking modules" (i forget the exact wording......i'm at work now with no Linux in front of me) & "checking for new hardware". it stops for a good 10-20 seconds at each of those. i have no hangs at network, internet, or eth0. excuse my ignorance, but does checking for new hardware need to be running, & if not, where do you turn it off? also, what's the "....modules" thingy all about? the "new hardware" is self explanatory & i was wondering if it's needed, unless (of course) you know that you added some new hardware. gotta get back to work. i'll check back here later if i have time. thanks for all of your help!

Chris

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I think the "checking for new hardware" part of the boot-up is done by a service called kudzu, which can be disabled in drakconf. Since I used to run a K6-500 processor, I have some idea of what you are talking about in starting times. I ended up switching window environments, from kde to xfce. It takes a while to set up xfce, but it is faster. To try it, install the latest v. 3 rpm, 3.8.18, from www.xfce.org, rmpfind.net, or possibly a contrib source. It uses gtk so it has a different look that qt. Once you get the rpm, try "rpm -Uvh --test xfce.*.rpm" as root to see whether it thinks it will load. From the boot-up command line, you will need to enter "startxfce" to start it.

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just to update & end this thread, i think i'm just gonna live with the slow boot up until i get the courage to tackle a kernel recompile or get the $$$ to buy a newer (faster processor) computer. thanks for all the advice, though.........

Chris

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