Linux very slow to boot and use (was..newbie to linux, having problems)

[Painted]

I installed red hat linux 9.0

i have athlon 800 with 256 mb of ram

boot up takes about 5 to 10 min and if i click on a program or a folder, it takes about 10-20 seconds for the computer to respond...

on win xp, takes about a minute to boot up...

can anyone tell me what the problem is...

i reinstalled about three times now cuz i wanna use linux so bad :(

[JohnT]

Watching the boot process in Linux you should be able to narrow down the part of the process that is causing problems. Look at /var/log/messages and /var/log/syslog for any indications.

[rocketpcguy]

you'l need lots of optimizations. i managed to get a 14 second boot from the bios to the desktop with everything loaded in linux. lots of threads, but a recent one:

http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=120007

[mdwatts]

Please take the time to read the JL Community Help Posting Guideline sticky thread at the top of each forum. The part about including a subject that relates to your question.

We already know most here are newbies and they have a problem or else they would not be posting at JL to begin with.

Usually we lock the threads that do not adhere to the posting guidelines, but since you have already received a couple of replies, I will have to just take the time and modify the subject myself.

As rocketpcguy posted, there are many, many threads on this same or similiar problem. Just do a forum search (based on titles only) for 'slow' and you will find lots including a couple of recent ones.

[shakin]

A 5 - 10 minute bootup sounds to me like something is not starting correctly and it's waiting for a timeout before continuing. Ie. Your network card may not be able to get a DHCP IP address for whatever reason and it's taking a couple of minutes until it stops trying.

During bootup it should say Ok or Failed beside each item. Write down which ones fail.

[mdwatts]

A MTA such as Sendmail or Postfix can really slowdown the boot process. If not being used, disable from starting.

Another is a misconfigured /etc/hosts.

If using dhcp (dynamic ip addressing)

127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost

[Painted]

Okay, the problem is not the boot up process...

even tho the computer is not connected to the internet

whenever i give a command, open a program, open a document/folder, it takes about 10-20 seconds for the computer to execute... :(

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by Painted
Okay, the problem is not the boot up process...

even tho the computer is not connected to the internet

whenever i give a command, open a program, open a document/folder, it takes about 10-20 seconds for the computer to execute... :(

Did you try any of the above suggestions as a misconfigured localhost will still cause problems even if you are NOT connected to the internet.

Check the MTA services?

Run top in a console/commandline to see what is taking the system resources. That or kpm in KDE.

[Painted]

Originally posted by mdwatts
Did you try any of the above suggestions as a misconfigured localhost will still cause problems even if you are NOT connected to the internet.

Check the MTA services?

Run top in a console/commandline to see what is taking the system resources. That or kpm in KDE.

okay how do i configure localhost and how do i check mta services

[mdwatts]

Best to read the Redhat documentation.

https://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/ref-guide/s1-boot-init-shutdown-sysv.html

https://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/ref-guide/ch-networkscripts.html

[Painted]

Originally posted by mdwatts
A MTA such as Sendmail or Postfix can really slowdown the boot process. If not being used, disable from starting.

Another is a misconfigured /etc/hosts.

If using dhcp (dynamic ip addressing)

127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost

it's not connected to the internet, how do i disable them

[Painted]

Originally posted by mdwatts
Best to read the Redhat documentation.

https://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/ref-guide/s1-boot-init-shutdown-sysv.html

https://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/ref-guide/ch-networkscripts.html

thank you

[Painted]

i read them, i still don't know how to fix the problem....

maybe it's best for me to go back to win xp :(

[mdwatts]

Add or modify the 127.0.0.1 line in /etc/hosts

127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost

The chkconfig manpage may help.

man chkconfig

Type chkconfig at the commandline and see what it says for Sendmail or Postfix.

[Painted]

just to update the story...

my hard drive had some bad blocks

so i got some disk fixer from western digital website

ran it...

now linux runs beautifully, thank u for the help