PS on exclusion Re: FC1 Users: Sample .... One more problem

[Beartooth]

On Tue, 02 Nov 2004 15:13:33 +0800, HaJo Schatz wrote:

> If switching workspaces takes considerable time (in the range of
> seconds)

                  Yes, it does.

> on a decent system with say 1.5GHz processor & 2D accelerated video
> card, then you're most likely running low on RAM and your kernel starts
> swapping things out to the hard drive.

Decent? Errr... Duhhh... My hardware browser on the current (newest)
machine tells me hda1 has 102 MB, hda2 has 14002, and hda3 has 486. My
System Monitor shows Used Memory and Used Swap pretty steady at 104 of 115
MB (used to be 112 or 113 of 115), and 161 of 486, respectively.

It also lists my video card as an SiS 650, and (Geom: 1860/255/63) as well
as (Model: ST315320A) for hda -- none of which means squat to me, decent
or not.

> While switching is slow, observe whether your HDD is constantly on,
> that's often a sign of swapping. 

How do I do that?

> You may also observe your swap-usage, say with "top".

                  ======
[root at localhost log]# top
 
 15:15:08  up 1 day,  1:41,  7 users,  load average: 0.02, 0.11, 0.14
88 processes: 86 sleeping, 1 running, 1 zombie, 0 stopped
 15:15:13  up 1 day,  1:41,  7 users,  load average: 0.09, 0.12, 0.14
88 processes: 86 sleeping, 1 running, 1 zombie, 0 stopped
CPU states:  cpu    user    nice  system    irq  softirq  iowait    idle            total    3.5%    0.0%    0.5%   0.0%     0.0%    0.0%   95.8%
Mem:   117944k av,  113680k used,    4264k free,       0k shrd,    1836k buff         54304k active,              47060k inactive
Swap:  498004k av,  164936k used,  333068k free                   30676k cached
                                                                         
  PID USER     PRI  NI  SIZE  RSS SHARE STAT %CPU %MEM   TIME CPU COMMA
                     <table snipped>
                  =====
Should I copy & post the table?

> If you encounter swapping:
> - Remove your fancy desktop background. It eats heaps of RAM!

That did help -- bringing the 112 or 113 of 115 down to 104, and
increasing apparent speed discernibly. Thanks!

>- Close unused apps

Which I identify how?

> - Buy more RAM

This machine being newest, I haven't tried that yet; the backup already
has all the tech at the computer store says will go in it.

-- 
Beartooth Autodidact, curmudgeonly codger learning linux
Remember I know precious little of what I'm talking about!