On Thu, 2007-01-25 at 18:24 -0500, Matthew J. Roth wrote: > Les wrote: SNIP > > Les H > Les, > > Steve Siegfried provided some excellent advice, but I'd like to add a > few more points. Your computer definitely looks to be memory bound. I > totaled the %MEM column and came up with 150%. This means that the > Linux kernel must swap memory pages out to disk, causing operations that > would normally utilize the fastest part of the computer (RAM) to use the > slowest part (hard disk). > > The good news is that RAM is cheap and increasing your physical memory > to 512 MB (or 1 GB if your motherboard can handle it) should yield a > noticeable improvement. For now, you could shut down some of the more > memory hungry (and non-vital) services. yum-updatesd, beagled, and > spamd are accounting for 47.7% of your physical memory alone. Shutting > them down and configuring your desktop to consume fewer resources > (terminate unnecessary programs and applets, disable desktop effects, > etc.) should give you a reasonable idea of how the machine will perform > with more memory. > > Finally, those processes that begin with "k" are special kernel > processes. They should be there even if you are running from the > command line. In other words, killing them would be a VERY BAD THING. > > I hope this is helpful, Thanks, Matthew, I understand the system limitations. But I want to run within these physical limitations. Your response is a good start. Beagled and Yumupdatesd and spamd are all goners, at least for now. I know that I can buy more memory or a faster processor, but I am working on something that must run on such hardware and I would prefer to keep it as is. Regards, Les H
