Why does frugal Slacko go so slow on my computer?

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pieman390
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Why does frugal Slacko go so slow on my computer?

#1 Post by pieman390 »

i have a sony vaio VGC-RB30

here is a link to the full specs
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6883102310

usually it goes slow when i use flash (more then one flash window open) and when I'm reading yahoo articles (more then one article open at the same time).. but also if i dont have flash installed and i am using html5 to view videos i still get the same slow results.. like the mouse wont even move

But i have Windows on the same computer and it doesn't have this problem.

Puppy Linux Slacko is frugally installed.. I've tried like 6 other Linux distros and its all the same with adobe flash and html5 video and flash block doesnt do anything.. same results...

How can i fix this? is it possible to fix this? does everyone have these problems? because I've tried it on two other computers all with around 500 mb and it freezes/lags badly on it too.. thanks

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Flash
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#2 Post by Flash »

Hmm. First of all, let's make sure that your computer actually has the 512 MB of RAM it was supposed to be built with. What does Menu -> System -> Hardinfo -> Summary say?

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OscarTalks
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#3 Post by OscarTalks »

I have got several computers here with similar specs to those and in my experience 512 MB of RAM is OK for lots of uses but if you start viewing pages with lots of Flash videos or other embedded content in them the RAM is just not enough and the thing freezes or crashes.

Creating a swap partition of a Gig or two with Gparted and switching it "swapon" resolves the problem completely for me.

The Windows XP is probably set up with a page file which is the same thing as swap (virtual memory which supports the RAM when it runs low) so that might be why it appears to run better.
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pieman390
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#4 Post by pieman390 »

@flash lol yea it does have around 500mb ram

@oscar how would i go about doing that?

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Flash
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#5 Post by Flash »

Menu -> System -> GParted partition manager

But you can't be running Puppy from a save file on the hard disk when you do it. Boot from the CD with the 'puppy pfix=ram' boot option, then use GParted.

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#6 Post by pieman390 »

Wow thanks flash! I will try that when i get home tonight :-)

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#7 Post by pieman390 »

hey guys.. i need more info.. i have no clue how to create a swap partition.. i tired but i didnt want to ruin my computer so i tried to look for some tutorials and i couldnt find any for my exact situation

i have windows xp and i installed puppy linux slacko through the universal installer.. its on there frugally on the same partition as windows xp.. i would really apperciate it if someone showed me how to create a swap partition on it.. thanks!

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#8 Post by Flash »

What have you tried so far? Did you poke around a bit in GParted?

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#9 Post by pieman390 »

yeah i used was looking around on it.. and i might be able to do it on my own but i read that you can mess up your computer if you are not careful.. i dont know how to do it though... i am a noob.. is there any tutorials you can recommend on this?

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#10 Post by Flash »

The first thing you should do before resizing or adding partitions is defragment the drive, using Windows' utility to do it. Run the defrag program several times. Defragmenting consolidates files and fragments of files that may be scattered around the hard disk, leaving the rest of the partition empty. This reduces the risk that moving partition boundaries might cause some data to be lost.

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OscarTalks
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#11 Post by OscarTalks »

I have done it several times and never had a problem, but anyone giving advice on this tends to feel that they need to be cautious because we don't want to get the blame if anything does go wrong so:-

Make sure you have backups of everything.
Don't do it if you are not prepared to re-install everything if necessary.
Don't do it if you don't feel confident enough etc etc

I would always defragment first as Flash says.

It would be heplful to know what partitions you have now, what the file systems are in each and what operating systems are installed in them.

In order to create a swap partition you will probably have to shrink an existing partition to create some unallocated space. I normally make it about one and a half gigs so it will only be a thin sliver on the graphical display of Gparted.

Probably best to shrink the partition from the right. You can do this by dragging the edge to the left a bit on the graphical representation or by scrolling the numbers which you will see when you bring up the GUI thing for altering a partition.

You should then be able to click the grey unallocated space and create your brown linux swap partition in that space. Once you have created it there is a right-click option for "swapon" which puts a little lock icon in the listing of the swap partition.

Take your time to study it all, changes are lined up in Gparted and only actually happen when you click "Apply".

Windows may go through some checks next time you boot it so be prepared to see that.

There are others who are much more experienced than me so maybe they will chip in with further advice.
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#12 Post by pieman390 »

thanks for those directions you guys! i know how to do it now.. but another problem has come up.. when i applied the directions to make the swap linux partition it was moving 468 gb (i have a 500 gb hard drive) to another area and an hour in to doing that it got an error and it stopped and i couldnt continue :(

could this be because puppy linux slacko is on the same partition it was moving (its frugally installed)?

btw i did defragment my hard drive before i tried

also i was in ram mode

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#13 Post by Flash »

I don't know the answer to your question, but I doubt there is any data lost yet. Exactly what error did you get? Was it from Gparted? Exactly how did you boot into RAM? (From CD or what? What boot option did you enter?)

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#14 Post by OscarTalks »

You need to make sure you are creating the space for the swap partition by shrinking the edge of the existing partition inwards from the right hand side.

Avoid doing it by displacing the partition sideways, ie make sure the changes do not move the left-hand edge of the partition.

Looks like you are attempting to shrink your main large ntfs partition with both Windows and Puppy on it. This should be OK. Windows will tolerate you chopping a bit off the far end but it doesn't like the whole partition to be shunted around on the disc.

Sometimes if for example you increase the size of an area to the right of a partition you will see that the numbers of the area to the left will reduce accordingly. The correct scenario is when the size of the partition decreases and the size of the unallocated space to the right of it (or below it if you look at the numbers) increases by the same amount.

Ah by the way, even though Gparted warns that changes may take a long time I have never found that they take more than a minute or so, often less than that.
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#15 Post by pieman390 »

@flash i booted into ram mode from the puppy boot menu when puppy starteds not from the cd.. I thought that would be okay.. I will try again and take a pic of the error this time (it was from gpart)

@oscar yeah i tried that.. I will try again when i have a chance

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#16 Post by Flash »

I believe a frugal install will boot into RAM by using the "puppy pfix=ram" boot option, but I've never tried it because I've never ran Puppy from anything but a DVD. :)

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#17 Post by pieman390 »

I did it :) thank you guys so much!

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#18 Post by Flash »

Come on, don't just say you did it. :? Tell us what the problem turned out to be and how you solved it. :)

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#19 Post by pieman390 »

oh lol alright.. what i think made me get the error the first time is i think i didnt partition it right.. oscar said that the splitting of the partitions was instant and i had no clue why he said that because when i tried it it was going to take 2 and a half hours total.. but i tried it again this time.. dont remember what i did different.. and it was instant this time!

oh one more thing.. how do i get puppy linux slacko to use the swap parition? does it do it automatically or do i have to do something for it to use it?

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#20 Post by Flash »

I think Puppy looks for a swap partition when it boots and uses it if it finds one. You should be able to tell by running the command free from the console. So, does Windows still boot OK? That's the real test of whether the partitioning went off without a hitch.

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