Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[n9viw]

I have Wary 5.2 loaded on an eMachine T5048 (http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/emachines-t5048/4507-3118_7-32081796.html) which is an admittedly poor machine. I got it for free, and all things considered, it's been okay.

I use it primarily for email and web browsing, but the performance is deeply irritating. I regularly have to 'kill' Firefox, or sometimes close X altogether, due to a condition I call the 'glut', wherein something sends an infinite number of process calls, which sends the process meter through the roof in almost no time. The HD runs constantly, the fans pick up speed, and I go from having no white indicator lines on the process meter to having a WHITE process meter- I am NOT kidding!

Sometimes, the browser will crash on its own, although that's sporadic, and the amount of time it will hang on, dragging all performance into the toilet, also varies. Sometimes it's instantaneous, with no change to the process meter until it suddenly (post-browser-crash) posts a huge spike in process calls. It has occasionally even crashed X!

The three unifying factors I have found are the following:
1) Firefox or its variants (currently using 'Tumucumaque', because FF13 upgrade crashed, and I can't seem to reload FF correctly)
2) Facebook
3) YouTube, or any site that loads streaming video

I have not had luck loading other browsers apart from Mozilla-based offerings. I don't know if it's a software thing (how Linux handles video processes, or if it's Moz/FF) or a hardware thing (currently only have 512MB RAM and integrated video with 128MB RAM, could be not clearing properly?).

The crashing or forced kills are so common, I generally cannot sit down to browse or surf- I get my mail and get out, or risk a system overrun. People laugh at Win crashing all the time, but they've never seen it like this! I must have something set wrong or built wrong, who knows. Who knows? Please tell me!

[Makoto]

What extensions and plugins are you using with Firefox?

Yes, Firefox does require a fair amount of resources. The newest versions are supposedly a little better about it, but you're still going to require a fair amount of processing power.
Extensions like Adblock Plus and NoScript might help, though the latter will take some getting used to. Also, there's extensions and userscripts (Greasemonkey/Scriptish) that will attempt to force Flash objects and videos into their lowest-quality forms, to hopefully relieve some stress on the system.

Adobe's Flash is definitely a bottleneck - it's only really optimized for any sort of performance under Windows, IMHO. I usually get mediocre to louse performance with it on my Linux and Mac systems. Worse, Adobe's no longer updating the Linux version of Flash, except for security updates.

Do the problems persist if you use Seamonkey, rather than Firefox? (Though, most Puppy versions seem to come with SM 1 preinstalled, rather than the more recent SM 2, likely because a number of things are still tied to the older SM components.)

[starhawk]

Wow, that's a new one. I'm tempted to say "bad RAM" but RAM doesn't fail like that. That's more a software/hardware incompatibility where the processor orders a snack's worth of data and winds up with a kingly feast.

It might be exactly that (slight hardware incompatibility) although Dells and HPs/Compaqs are far more strange with their hardware, usually, than eMachines -- by far. I've seen some very strange things in Dell boxes.

It could also be that your downloaded ISO was corrupt. You can test it by putting in the CD; there should be a Console command for verifying MD5sums (it'll spit out a big long mess that you have to compare to the one where you got your download) but I'm purely a recreational Puppian at the moment, so I don't remember what it is. If you've a Windows box, hashmyfiles is what I've got on mine (XP).

Third possibility: FF is very well known for its troubles with a phenomenon called a memory leak -- this is basically, the program rendering parts of memory unusable, because said program thinks it's released that RAM back to the system, and the system thinks the program still has it. Oops.

Could be that your system is having a VERY bad reaction to FF's memory leaks.

Have you tried Chromium?

[postfs1]

http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/5.0/releasenotes/
Information about the Internet page: Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License v3.0 or any later version.

http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/5.0/system-requirements/
Information about the Internet page: Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License v3.0 or any later version.

http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/8.0/system-requirements/
Information about the Internet page: Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License v3.0 or any later version.

http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/10.0.11/system-requirements/
Information about the Internet page: Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License v3.0 or any later version.


http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/pet_packages-wary5/firefox4-4.0.1-w5.pet
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/4.0.1/system-requirements/
Information about the Internet page: Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License v3.0 or any later version.

Also
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoronix_Test_Suite
Information about the Internet page: Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details.

[Tote]

n9viw I doubt if your PC is any worse than my old laptop. Sometimes processor busy light is so bright it hurts my eyes. Then everything grinds to a halt.

Firefox is the worst offender, I've found. The results tend to vary with the puppy version used. It happens more with newer kernels, on this machine, at least.

Lately I've been using the latest Opera browser, sfs version, not too hard to install. And I've been going into Preferences and disabling Javascript and Plug-Ins. It'll fly, but you use lose some functionality. I think there are ways to allow/prevent Javascript/Plugins for various sites but haven't looked into that yet.

Puppy 432v2 runs well with latest Seamonkey. 431JP, does the same. Sometimes it's just a case of trial and error, finding what pup version suits you and then what browser suits your puppy. Sounds worse than it is. I use Puppy all the time now. It's addictive.

Hope you have some luck with it.

[n9viw]

To answer some of your questions, I do experience the same problems in different Moz browsers, whether it's FF (most recent was v12, as the v13 update crashed), FF4.0, Tumucumaque Minefield 4.0.1, or SeaMonkey 2.3.2. I was unaware about the memory leak issue, any way of tightening that up from the user side?

I've not had luck installing other browsers, such as Chrome, Safari, Opera, Swiftweasel, and some others whose monikers I have forgotten. Typically, I will download the packet, unzip it into a likely folder, and not have the system recognize it as a valid program- I have no idea how to 'explain' to it how all these random unpacked programs relate to each other the way an install program might (and those are sorely lacking). I know there must be a way to say, "Computer, this is my new browser, and its various parts. Please load it like a normal program." Heck, I don't even know how to create a clickable icon on the desktop, I have to go into /usr/lib/Firefox4/ etc just to click on the .bin file (or whatever it is) to load it!

Add-ons are as follows:
Amazon Wish List v1.1 (used very rarely)
AddThis v3.5.9 (used very often)
DoNotTrackMe v2.2.5.1205 (not sure how often this runs, or even if it works)
Social Fixer v7.321 (used every time Facebook loads)
TrueBlock Plus v2.0.2 (in place of AdBlock Plus, gets EVERYTHING)
Flashblock v1.5.15.1 (*CURRENTLY DISABLED*) - I disabled this one because it seems that every site I visit has something Flash-related, and if it is blocked, the page either refuses to load completely, or there is some functionality of it I cannot reach. What's so bloody special about Flash that EVERYONE has to use it?!

Plugins are as follows:
DivX
QuickTime v7.4.5
RealPlayer 9
Shockwave Flash v11.1 r102
Windows Media Player
mplayer 2010/1/17

I don't know if or how well these work, or even which one (or ones) work when I load a video. I try not to load videos... as I noted before, the system most often hangs on videos, whether embedded or sought, just streaming video in general is a huge drag. High graphics are too, which is why a) Facebook does so poorly, and b) I presume it to be a video hardware or hardware-vs-software issue.

I've ordered 2GB of memory from Crucial, which is the max the MB can handle. I'm also considering getting a video card to take the strain off the integrated unit, in the hopes that it will allow the MB to take care of its own problems more efficiently.

[bark_bark_bark]

I've never had problems with Firefox. I think Firefox is the best.

[OscarTalks]

[starhawk]