X windows very slow

[leinad]

Hello,
I just installed Redhat 6.2 on hdb1 on a 6GB partition and set up a 2GB swap.

Boot is fast, trouble-free, but if I start x, it gets very slow and produces all kinds of warning messages.

I don't have them word-for-word, but they say something about the <b>SaveYourself</b> command not loading and giving options to Remove or Cancel. Cancel just gives it more time, and eventually everything loads properly, but in the 5 or 6 intervening minutes there are three or four processes that give the same warning.

I don't have the correct monitor specified, but I found a setting that will allow 1024x768 at 16-bit depth.

I have found the correct specs, so I will set up a custom display when I get back to it.

Do you think that this alone could cause it to run so slowly and haltingly?

Daniel

 

[leinad]

Just a thought,

I am starting up at run level 3, but the gui needs level 5, right? So, does the Xserver automatically invoke level 5? Or should I be at level 5 when I startx?

Daniel

 

[franklin97355]

startx starts the xserver for you. It seems to me that your swap partition is way large. I think 32 to 64 meg is enough. The more memory the less swap you need and it's not used as it is in windows. I may be wrong.

 

[leinad]

Actually,

I set the swap partition to 1 MB and allowed it to grow to fill the disk. It jumped up to 2047 during setup, but it has probably shrunk again. I misspoke earlier.

Any clues about my question?

 

[segmentationfault]

I've always read that you should have as much swap space as you have memory, but anything over 256MB is unnecessary.

With more information about those error messages, I might could offer some help.

 

[leinad]

I will post again tonight with the exact text and the processes involved in those 'warning' messages.

Thanks

 

[fluid11]

Normally, swap is twice your RAM, but never more than 1GB in my opinion. You want your computer to use your RAM as much as possible, but if your swap is too large, it will page to the disk more often then it uses RAM. If you have 256MB of RAM, I would use 512MB of swap.


ChrisP ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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[leinad]

Here is the exact text of the 'warning' message:


Title bar: Warning

Text: panel
No response to the SaveYourself command.
The program may be slow, stopped, or broken.
You may wait for it to respond or remove it.

Buttons: Remove Program Cancel

That's the first one. The second and third are identical, except for the program in question. In place of 'panel', the second warning says 'gnome-help-browser' and then the third is 'gmc'.

It occurs to me that all of these are components of the Gnome file manager. My experience with Windows tells me to reinstall the Gnome package (don't yell!)

How do I un/reinstall or overlay the installation to fix it?

I'll wait for some answers before investigating it much, because I want to hear your ideas about the cause/fix.

Chris: What do I use to reconfigure the swap partition to set it to a constant 512(I do have 256 of memory)?

Thanks
Daniel
But is is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.
- Oscar Wilde

 

[fluid11]

Run 'fdisk /dev/hd?' and then press 'p' to print the partition table. Look for the swap partition and record the partition number. The partition number is whatever number is after /dev/hd?#. Press 'd' and then the partition number of the swap partition. This will delete the partition number. Press 'w' to write the partition table and quit fdisk. Restart the server.

Type 'free -m'. Your swap space should be 0.

Now you need to create a new partition. Run 'fdisk /dev/hd?' and press 'n' and then 'l' to create a new logical partition. Press enter when it asks about the cylinders and then type +512M to create the new 512MB partition. Press 't' and then the partition number, and then 82. Press 'p' to view the partition table to make sure everything is how you want it. If everything is okay, press 'w' to write the partition table and exit fdisk. Restart the server and run 'free -m' when it comes back up to make sure the swap partition is working.

You might need to edit the /etc/fstab file if your swap partiton number changed.

ChrisP ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If somebody helps you, please click the link in the botton left hand corner that says &quot;Mark this post as a helpful/expert post&quot;.

 

[leinad]

Okay,

So I got impatient and decided to do an 'upgrade' install from the RedHat CD. I picked the packages and went through the whole thing again with no apparent problems, but now at the boot prompt it hangs.

If I leave it alone or type in dos (which is the default) it boots fine into Windows (98).

But if I choose linux, it gives me:
loading linux.........................

and blinks on the next line forever.

It is a brand new install, and I have no files saved or any particular reason not to reformat the partition and try it again from scratch, but I would rather boot into rescue mode and tweak it, if there's not too much involved in that.

Any suggestions?

Daniel No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.
- Voltaire

 

[leinad]

New thought:

I have reinstalled (repartitioned, formatted the Linux partition) and I'm stuck at the 'LI'. I have an idea what is causing this, but my question is:

I've got a boot disk (when I find it) that I'm pretty sure is set up to boot to hda1. My installation is on hdb1. Is there a way to edit that lilo.conf while in rescue mode?

When I tried to use vi I found out it is not available in rescue mode.

Is there an editor? And am I looking for lilo.conf on the boot floppy, or is there a different method.

Thanks

Daniel No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.
- Voltaire