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xubuntu - help? - 12/2/2010 2:36:09 PM

hertz

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Joined: 8/7/2010
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I have just installed xubuntu on an ancient laptop for a bit of low power use web browsing. But Firefox seems really slow on it. When I click a link, or try to navigate through a page, it just seems to stall for ages - sometimes I have to refresh in order to gee it up again and get it to move on. I don't get this with XP on the same machine.

Any ideas, anyone?

Post #: 1

RE: xubuntu - help? - 12/2/2010 9:29:24 PM

Outlier2

Posts: 258
Joined: 11/12/2007
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hertz,

Interesting anomaly, at least in my experience. I have had xubuntu on machines as old as PII processors
and it ran Firefox faster than the Windows side did. Are you dual booting it or using the option to run the
xubuntu under windows? You said you installed it, so just to check; you are not running it as a live disk, correct?

Which versions of everything are you running? You said Windows XP, so which xubuntu?, which Firefox? and
how do you have it installed? As I said, this is not the result I would expect either.

If you felt the need to do this to speed up the machine before you installed it perhaps there is another problem.
Most current install disks for Ubuntu and its variants have memtest, maybe you should start there?

Please keep us posted
Outlier

_____________________________

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"A happy sex life may take years to achieve, but it’s worth it in the long run.
Worth the time, the thought - or rather, the thoughtfulness -and, often, the waiting."
Pete Seeger

(in reply to hertz)

Post #: 2

RE: xubuntu - help? - 12/3/2010 2:22:33 AM

hertz

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Joined: 8/7/2010
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It's the latest version of xubuntu I could find - 10.10. As you will no doubt be aware, it comes with everything for basic web use pre-loaded. It's running one patch short on Firefox. And yes, it's a fully installed version, running from its own partitions, dual booting from a linux bootloader with XP as a boot option. The laptop is an AMD 2600+ 796 MHz 512Mb - old, but amazingly, never used before now.

I was really impressed that xubuntu found every device on the laptop and installed drivers straight off - it even found and installed drivers for my wireless card! And it looks lovely - very simple and clean. Everything seems to run just fine except for this browser problem.

Interestingly, it seems to be (at least in part) website specific. This site is problematic,and facebook is miserably slow. I need to install flash, and update firefox - I'll try to get to grips with that. And I'll try memtest - I saw that as a boot option at the loading screen. Last night it automatically downloaded over 100 updates ofsome sort or another - maybe things will have improved.

The problem seems specifically to be that when I request a new page from a website, I get a message at the bottom of the browser saying 'waiting for whatever' and it just waits and waits and waits. If I refresh the page, or hit back, it refreshes quite quickly and then, often, I can move forward from there with no major problems. It's like refreshing the page reminds it that it's supposed to be doing something...

(in reply to Outlier2)

Post #: 3

RE: xubuntu - help? - 12/3/2010 5:11:47 AM

hertz

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Joined: 8/7/2010
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Update: Memtest ran to completion with no errors. I eventually figured out how to install a different web browser from the software centre (truly excellent) and have 'Epithany' up and running. Exact same problem ,except I can see now that the pages are partially loading and then the download is stopping. This means I have to be looking at a network connection problem. Next step is to experiment with a wired connection to see if it is any better.

Epithany is great - it looks like it actually belongs in Xubuntu. Very nice.

(in reply to hertz)

Post #: 4

RE: xubuntu - help? - 12/3/2010 12:46:43 PM

Outlier2

Posts: 258
Joined: 11/12/2007
Status: offline

hertz,

A nice bit of diagnosis on your part. Thank you for reporting it. I
must confess that wireless network problems are beyond me. So
if I were you I would go straight to xubuntu for help. They have
a really strong community of knowledgeable enthusiasts.

http://www.xubuntu.org/help

Help is available in both chat and forums.

Thank you for your reports and I will be interested in learning
what the final solution is.

_____________________________

Posting for Outlier _ Avatar xkcd.com

"A happy sex life may take years to achieve, but it’s worth it in the long run.
Worth the time, the thought - or rather, the thoughtfulness -and, often, the waiting."
Pete Seeger

(in reply to hertz)

Post #: 5

RE: xubuntu - help? - 12/3/2010 1:00:02 PM

Icarys

Posts: 5757
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: hertz

It's the latest version of xubuntu I could find - 10.10. As you will no doubt be aware, it comes with everything for basic web use pre-loaded. It's running one patch short on Firefox. And yes, it's a fully installed version, running from its own partitions, dual booting from a linux bootloader with XP as a boot option. The laptop is an AMD 2600+ 796 MHz 512Mb - old, but amazingly, never used before now.

I was really impressed that xubuntu found every device on the laptop and installed drivers straight off - it even found and installed drivers for my wireless card! And it looks lovely - very simple and clean. Everything seems to run just fine except for this browser problem.

Interestingly, it seems to be (at least in part) website specific. This site is problematic,and facebook is miserably slow. I need to install flash, and update firefox - I'll try to get to grips with that. And I'll try memtest - I saw that as a boot option at the loading screen. Last night it automatically downloaded over 100 updates ofsome sort or another - maybe things will have improved.

The problem seems specifically to be that when I request a new page from a website, I get a message at the bottom of the browser saying 'waiting for whatever' and it just waits and waits and waits. If I refresh the page, or hit back, it refreshes quite quickly and then, often, I can move forward from there with no major problems. It's like refreshing the page reminds it that it's supposed to be doing something...

I was going to suggest that you do a MD5 Check on your original installer till I read that it's happening on certain sites...You may want to check xubuntu/java issues.

Someone said awhile back what backbone/language this site runs on but I can't remember what it was. I think it was java based. To be honest Linux isn't one of my strong points.

Worth a shot.

Just ran a short google search.

There's an issue with flash and java pages evidently. I'd check those first since it's site-specific. Oh and if it's loading up other sites with no problem..It surely isn't your connection.

There's a piece of software there that might help you with the flash.
http://guide.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1591279

I love linux but I won't use it anymore till it becomes more user-friendly..Puppy-linux is awesome though..I have it on a small usb dongle and can load it on just about any computer I happen to be working on without installing it..Runs totally in the memory if you want it too.

< Message edited by Icarys -- 12/3/2010 1:09:29 PM >

_____________________________

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Alaska Bound-The Official Countdown Has Started!
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http://alturl.com/mog7m

(in reply to hertz)

Post #: 6

RE: xubuntu - help? - 12/3/2010 1:40:36 PM

hertz

Posts: 1315
Joined: 8/7/2010
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I'm just following your suggestion up now. It seems the Java runtime is not installed as standard, so I'm downloading it now.

I have to admit, when I first got this up and going, I too thought it might be quite unfriendly. I was especially concerned about installing software - rpm and tar all seems a bit 'alien'. But, to my surprise, things are not that difficult. There's a software installer on xubuntu as standard - it has a long list of programs that can be added, and it's just a click and go process. It's as easy as using a windows installer. But I guess it becomes more problematic if a particular program is not on the list. But I'm only looking to browse the web and send emails, so hopefully, if I can get the connection problem fixed, it'll all be good...

(in reply to Icarys)

Post #: 7

RE: xubuntu - help? - 12/3/2010 2:44:34 PM

Icarys

Posts: 5757
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: hertz

I'm just following your suggestion up now. It seems the Java runtime is not installed as standard, so I'm downloading it now.

I have to admit, when I first got this up and going, I too thought it might be quite unfriendly. I was especially concerned about installing software - rpm and tar all seems a bit 'alien'. But, to my surprise, things are not that difficult. There's a software installer on xubuntu as standard - it has a long list of programs that can be added, and it's just a click and go process. It's as easy as using a windows installer. But I guess it becomes more problematic if a particular program is not on the list. But I'm only looking to browse the web and send emails, so hopefully, if I can get the connection problem fixed, it'll all be good...

Good luck with java from what I'm reading!

Might I suggest puppy-linux which is very easy to use as well. Not to mention it fits on a USB drive and is portable.(Woof Woof)

It's super fast as well..Smokes any operating system I've ever seen even when used on an old 386. Wifi is the only thing that's sketchy I've seen so far..The forum has a list of workable cards already driver installed.

If it wasn't for the incompatibility and availability of software that I use for my work along with teeth-pulling, pain-inducing fight you have sometimes with user friendly-ness...I'd be all over linux as my main squeeze.

I know all of that's getting better but , in the spirit of another thread, it's like snatching a bag of Oreo's from a fat bitch...you know those cookies taste good if you could only pry her grubby sweet needing hands from the goodies it would be heaven!

_____________________________

submission - the feeling of patient, submissive humbleness - the state of being submissive or compliant; meekness.

Alaska Bound-The Official Countdown Has Started!
http://tinyurl.com/872mcu3
http://alturl.com/mog7m

(in reply to hertz)

Post #: 8

RE: xubuntu - help? - 12/3/2010 7:00:44 PM

Outlier2

Posts: 258
Joined: 11/12/2007
Status: offline

Running linux from a usb drive is something that can be
done with many distributions of linux. As long as you are
using a computer that can be set to boot from the usb you
are in business.

Here is the website devoted to it. http://www.pendrivelinux.com/

Note: There is a link to fresh post about xubuntu right on the front page.

_____________________________

Posting for Outlier _ Avatar xkcd.com

"A happy sex life may take years to achieve, but it’s worth it in the long run.
Worth the time, the thought - or rather, the thoughtfulness -and, often, the waiting."
Pete Seeger

(in reply to Icarys)

Post #: 9

RE: xubuntu - help? - 12/3/2010 8:48:47 PM

Icarys

Posts: 5757
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Outlier2

Running linux from a usb drive is something that can be
done with many distributions of linux. As long as you are
using a computer that can be set to boot from the usb you
are in business.

Here is the website devoted to it. http://www.pendrivelinux.com/

Note: There is a link to fresh post about xubuntu right on the front page.

You're not saying anything I don't already know. I did forget to mention it could be a 256mb usb...The older puppy-linux I had, started out at 40mb's I believe and it smoked any operating system in speed, ease of use and functionality at it's time. plus I just loved the 98 windoze retro theme.

Here's a list of "smaller than or similar to in size" puppy distros but you lose a little functionality and user-friendliness depending on which one you go for.

_____________________________

submission - the feeling of patient, submissive humbleness - the state of being submissive or compliant; meekness.

Alaska Bound-The Official Countdown Has Started!
http://tinyurl.com/872mcu3
http://alturl.com/mog7m

(in reply to Outlier2)

Post #: 10

RE: xubuntu - help? - 12/3/2010 10:44:41 PM

Icarys

Posts: 5757
Status: offline

Thought I had pasted the link before I took off upstairs..Here it is for anyone interested.
http://www.tuxmachines.org/node/467

_____________________________

submission - the feeling of patient, submissive humbleness - the state of being submissive or compliant; meekness.

Alaska Bound-The Official Countdown Has Started!
http://tinyurl.com/872mcu3
http://alturl.com/mog7m

(in reply to Icarys)

Post #: 11

RE: xubuntu - help? - 12/3/2010 11:38:50 PM

shallowdeep

Posts: 343
Joined: 9/1/2006
From: California
Status: offline

Sounds like it might be a DNS lookup issue. How long does it take to get an IP address when typing a command like "nslookup collarme.com" in Terminal?

If that is the issue, you can manually specify a DNS server of your choice, like Google Public DNS or OpenDNS that will probably speed things up. This page has instructions for configuring the appropriate network settings. Specifically, look at the "Example: Changing DNS server settings on Ubuntu" bit.

Trying Chromium as a browser might also help, I think it uses some DNS prefetching by default.

(in reply to hertz)

Post #: 12

RE: xubuntu - help? - 12/4/2010 1:58:45 AM

hertz

Posts: 1315
Joined: 8/7/2010
Status: offline

Ah - funny thing... I just came to the same conclusion when I realised that sometimes google is inaccessible. I use OpenDNS with my main windows box, and because I am on a dynamic IP address, I run their software widget to let them know where I am. Open DNS is set in the router as well. Anyway, log and short of it, I tried setting the servers in the wireless connection and nothing changed.

I read a bit more and decided to try a different driver than the one that automatically installs. I'm still struggling to make sense of it all (8 hours in, I'm not a genius) but, at the moment, with the windows driver being used via ndiswrapper, everything is looking good. Theillplenty of time for it to fail again, though...

(in reply to shallowdeep)

Post #: 13

RE: xubuntu - help? - 12/4/2010 11:32:02 AM

Outlier2

Posts: 258
Joined: 11/12/2007
Status: offline

hertz,

Thank you for sharing this with us.

You should go to the xubuntu boards and post this story there. Now
That you have the solution you should share it there.

http://www.xubuntu.org/help

_____________________________

Posting for Outlier _ Avatar xkcd.com

"A happy sex life may take years to achieve, but it’s worth it in the long run.
Worth the time, the thought - or rather, the thoughtfulness -and, often, the waiting."
Pete Seeger

(in reply to hertz)

Post #: 14

RE: xubuntu - help? - 12/4/2010 3:24:48 PM

hertz

Posts: 1315
Joined: 8/7/2010
Status: offline

Hey, Outlier - that's probably not a bad idea. Anything that helps to move the cause forward has to be worth doing.

It's been absolutely fine ever since the driver swap. It boots quickly, runs really nicely - very fast and responsive, and quick to shut down. The only fault I can find is that the scroll bar on the right hand side of any of the browsers is too narrow - but that can be fixed!

(in reply to Outlier2)

Post #: 15

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