Michael Havens wrote:
>I was told that I should keep my computer running all the time (or at least
>that linux was designed/could do that; so yesterday I turned it on and went
>to school for the day. When I got home the machine was still going (which
>was a good sign) but when I loaded a program it took three times as long.
>(for instance: I loaded kspread <which takes 10 seconds normally> and it took
>like 30)
>
>Any idea as to what the problem is?
>
>
Generally it is a sign of resource contention.
Usually it means that you're using more of something that you have or
have processes that have memory leaks/etc that are consuming memory.
Sometimes this manifests itself in the form of swapping to disk when
you're using more memory than you have, or when there is excessive I/O
contention and it takes longer to retrieve things from the disk.
In the windows world this could be demonstrated by copying a large disk
to another on the same IDE channel, or by opening a bunch of large
images in photoshop.
Do the following commands from the command line:
ps -ef | less # note excessive number of processes/etc
top #(Note what its consuming memory or CPU resources)
free # Note how much you're swapping
--
JD Austin
Database Administrator
Maricopa Community Colleges
john.austin@domail.maricopa.edu
480.731.8759
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.",
Arthur C. Clarke
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