BleepingComputer.com: Ubuntu 7.1

I finally got java installed and have had a few days to play around with the system. At this point, I have to say that I am quite disappointed. The entire operating system seems agonizingly slow, especially the firefox browser. Not only loading, but responding to keystrokes or mouse input. This isn't a new or top of the line computer, but it is running a Celeron CPU at 2.7 MHz, and has 768 MB of mem installed. I am running a dual boot configuration with Windows XP and XP just runs circles around Ubuntu. I might have screwed up my installation with several bootched attempts at installing java. Right now, I am considering a fresh install to see if it makes any difference. Can I just run the install over the old one or do I need to format the partition first?

No endorsement for Ubuntu from a beginner like me, but I like
it on a much older and hardly as robust as yours is.
BUT, I did do a re-install some time ago. I put the CD in and just
went through the procedure again.

Wait for one of the experts here though...and good luck

I meant to reply to this a couple of days ago.

Mis-installs of java are not going to do anything other than perhaps take up disk space. Java only runs when something needs it, which for most people is only when a web page needs it. Otherwise it isn't doing anything.

Ubuntu is a pretty full-fledged package, and probably has many more things running than you need or want. It might take some tweaking to optimize performance. Or it is possible that you have some hardware that it is not happy with. It is hard to say. Investigating the logs may help you find a problem, or it may not.

Some distros are just not happy on some hardware. I have a system on which I have been trying to install, and it just doesn't like my video cards. I have spent the better part of a week trying to get it going, and I am just unable to do it. So I threw Cent-OS back on, and was up and going in a matter of a half-hour. Of course, it will take me a couple of weeks to get it all set back up the way I want.

Where do you see XP as performing better than Ubuntu? What happens if you have 10 windows open in XP? I can do that in any distro of Linux with no problem. I have never seen any differences in Internet performance. I can get more done with Linux in a given amount of time than I can with Windows. It's just a matter of practice.

At any rate, if you want to reinstall, do a fresh install. It doesn't take that much longer.

Thanks for the replies. I am still having some problems with the entire system locking up. But it doesn't seem to be happening as much lately. My main problem is with the Firefox browser. It is slow to load pages and animations are extremely slow and jerky. When I attempt to play any on-line game, I can get several keystrokes (or mouseclicks) ahead of what is happening on the screen. Even playing a simple card game is impossible. When I click on a card to play it, it will move part way to the playing surface, stop for a second, and so forth. The problems with Firefox is what led me to suspect the java installation.
I learned that if I just delete everything in the Ubuntu partition, I will also lose my GRUB installation, which means that I can't boot anything. I am working on setting up a dedicated GRUB partition first before I try anything else. Then I might try a different browser before a fresh install. I may even have to try another distro to find something I can live with. But I'm hoping that I can get something working with Ubuntu since I like most everything else about it.
I am determined to find an alternative to Windows and all its bloat.

I run Firefox 2.0.0.11 on my Slackware 12 PC (dual-core 2GB RAM) and on my Vista laptop. Firefox on the Slackware box is a pig. It takes forever to load pages -- especially pages with ads. Do yourself a favor, try another browser on Ubuntu and see what surfing is like. When I use konqueror it is much faster.

(BTW, firefox on my vista laptop is much faster)

I had the same problem. I disabled IPv6 and it's running nice and stable... very little slowdown when surfing.

P4 1.2GHz
512 Mb RAM
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX420

oh, and it's a 2002 model Compaq Presario REFURB!!! lol

Here's how:


in the terminal type: sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/aliases

search for: alias net-pf-10 ipv6

replace with: alias net-pf-10 off #ipv6

save and close.

back in the terminal:

sudo gedit /etc/hosts

Comment out (insert # before the line) all the lines which has to do with Ipv6 in this file and save it then.
The final step is that you reboot the system to take effect.

Doomgiver13, I appreciate your input, but it didn't do anything for me. Actually, the games won't even load now, so I can't see if they play any better. I went back and removed the changes and rebooted the computer, but the games still won't load. So I am back to square 1.

Am I correct in assuming you are fully updated?

I have installed all recommended updates as they came available.

ok. I'll do some more research and see what I can come up with. In the mean time, maybe someone will have a good idea.

OK folks, I don't know what happened but my browser is now running faster than it has since I installed it. Unless disabling and then re-enabling IPv6 caused some change, I have no idea what happened. The games (java applets) are still a little slow loading, but run fine after they get loaded. Thanks to everyone for the help. You can consider this thread closed.

uslacker, on Jan 29 2008, 07:22 PM, said:

Do yourself a favor — install the AdBlock Plus extension. Ads? What ads? (If you add the string *google-analytics* to the list of blockable items, pages display even faster.)