12.04 64 bit very slow

Asked by Anand Hebbal

I have installed it using Wubi from Ubuntu. RAM 1GB. Processor AMD Turion 64bit dual core. Basically it is a HP laptop model NX6325. When compared to my previous 10.04 64 bit install, this is really really slow. To the point of un usability. For eg if I open the software centre it takes around 35-40secs to open up. Even clicking on the Dash icon, it takes time. I see a heavy disk usage during this time.
I googled a lot & I see multiple posts. However there does not seem to be a solution to this problem. The software is up to date.

Question information

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samuel (samuel-h) said :
#1

Is it still slow if you use ubuntu 2d (at the login screen, click the ubuntu logo by your name then select unity 2d, then login as normal

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Miha Gašperšič (miha.gaspersic) said :
#2

Hi Anand,

my suggestion is that you buy some more ram to your computer. I think, that you should buy at least 1 GB of ram. Then are cheap and I am sure, that you will notice on your computer experience and performance with Ubuntu 12.04.

If this solved your question, please mark thread as solved.

Regards,
Miha

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#3

I suggest you run:

sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop

Then log off and use the Xubuntu desktop. It is designed to be better with lower resources and may help. Or you can use Lubuntu-desktop to go even lower :)

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#4

The system also uses an ATi mobility GPU, you may want to check that is setup ok.

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Anand Hebbal (hebbal1273) said :
#5

Using Unity 2d did not help. My laptop is already fitted with 1GB RAM. Are you saying that is not enough? I love the Ubuntu desktop I do not want to change it. BTW how do I check if ATI mobility GPU is setup properly? Any pointers?

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#6

Can you give the output of:

sudo lshw -C display; lsb_release -a; uname -a

Thanks

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Anand Hebbal (hebbal1273) said :
#7

Here you go!!. There seems to very heavy disk access when launching or closing applications. Even launching a simple text editor takes time. The only difference I see is that lshw has identified it as Xpress 200M whereas mine is Xpress 1150.

  *-display
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: RS482 [Radeon Xpress 200M]
       vendor: Hynix Semiconductor (Hyundai Electronics)
       physical id: 5
       bus info: pci@0000:01:05.0
       version: 00
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 66MHz
       capabilities: pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=radeon latency=64 mingnt=8
       resources: irq:17 memory:c0000000-c7ffffff ioport:6000(size=256) memory:d4300000-d430ffff memory:d4320000-d433ffff

Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS
Release: 12.04
Codename: precise

Linux ubuntu 3.2.0-29-generic #46-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jul 27 17:03:23 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

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Anand Hebbal (hebbal1273) said :
#8

Installed xubuntu & lubuntu desktops. Yes there is some improvement in the performance. However it feels like going back to 10.04 with those old style menus. I really like the Unity desktop. Is there no way to improve the performance? BTW what is the minimum h/w specs for 12.04 64 bit?

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#9
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Anand Hebbal (hebbal1273) said :
#10

Well, my laptop meets more than the requirements. Instead of 512MB RAM I have 1GB. In lieu of 700MHz processor I have AMD Turion 64 bit dual core. I think that should suffice.

In the mean time I have done the following changes with no improvements. Changed swappiness from 60 to 20. Added a commit value in fstab to 1000. Increased the swap size from 256MB to 1GB.

My above question regarding how do I check if ATI mobility GPU is setup properly si still not answered

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Anand Hebbal (hebbal1273) said :
#11

I do not know why, but when comapred to 10.04 even with desktop effects enabled, everytime I launch an application there is excessive hard disk activity. The way things are going on my hard disk wont last long. I think it has got to do with how hard disk read/write is executed.

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Anand Hebbal (hebbal1273) said :
#12

I have created a h/w report. How do I attach this?

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Anand Hebbal (hebbal1273) said :
#13

Okay I just upgraded my laptop to 4GB. But it is recognizing only 2885MB. Help !!!!!! About the speed its really good now but where did my other 1GB go????

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#14

If you run the memtest from Grub, does it show all the RAM?
What is the maximum RAM for your motherboard?

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Anand Hebbal (hebbal1273) said :
#15

It shows 2885MB. The motherboard supports 4GB (2x2GB). The funny thing is my Windows XP 32 bit detects the full 4GB physical memory with PAE mode enabled.

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Anand Hebbal (hebbal1273) said :
#16

Hold on, I do not have a memtest on the Grub menu. I booted into recovery mode & clicked on the system information. Is that sufficient?

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#17

If you run:

dpkg -l | grep memtest

What is output?

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Anand Hebbal (hebbal1273) said :
#18

Below is output of lshw
*-memory
          description: System Memory
          physical id: a
          slot: System board or motherboard
          size: 4GiB
        *-bank:0
             description: SODIMM DDR2 Synchronous 667 MHz (1.5 ns)
             product: JM667QSU-2G
             vendor: 7F4F000000000000
             physical id: 0
             serial: 000974F2
             slot: DIMM #1
             size: 2GiB
             width: 64 bits
             clock: 667MHz (1.5ns)
        *-bank:1
             description: SODIMM DDR2 Synchronous 667 MHz (1.5 ns)
             product: JM667QSU-2G
             vendor: 7F4F000000000000
             physical id: 1
             serial: 000974F2
             slot: DIMM #2
             size: 2GiB
             width: 64 bits
             clock: 667MHz (1.5ns)

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#19

All I can suggest is report a bug, make sure yu have the latest BIOS

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Anand Hebbal (hebbal1273) said :
#20

OK there was already a bug reported way bay in 2010.

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