Ubuntu

computer speed

Asked by davidzaq1

I have a Dell Vostro 1500 with Ubuntu 12.04. I am not sure but I think my system is running a little slower than before.
I ubdated the drivers and for a while it seemed to be really fast. I installed the updates recommended by the update manager and installed the flash plugin installer. Since then, it seems to be running a little slower and is not as fast with the processing as before.

I have 2gb of ram. Is it possibale that Ubuntu is using up more memory than what I have on the computer or is it possible that something else is slowing it down? I hope that you can give me some help with this.

thank you,
David

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

2Gb is a lot for a standard Linux desktop. Have you tried the Unity2D session. It is selectable at the login page.

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#2

Seems to have an Nvidia video chip. Is this correct? If you are unsure, run:

lsb_release -a; uname -a; lspci | grep -i vga

What is the output please?

Thanks

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davidzaq1 (david3a9x) said : 		#3

Here is the output of the command above.

 lsb_release -a; uname -a; lspci | grep -i vga
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS
Release: 12.04
Codename: precise
Linux roo 3.2.0-39-generic #62-Ubuntu SMP Thu Feb 28 00:28:53 UTC 2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation G86 [GeForce 8400M GS] (rev a1)

Thank you

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N1ck 7h0m4d4k15 (nicktux) said : 		#4

Hi davidzaq1,

show us please the output of

dpkg -l | grep -i nvidia

so we can see which nvidia driver version you've installed.

If you want greater - faster responsiveness you can login from unity-2D shell. You will not notice the difference in graphics(except if you are using special effects , such as cube - wobbling windows .. etc).
Have a look in following picture on how you can choose the ubuntu-2d (unity-2D) session.

http://i.stack.imgur.com/34AbA.png
http://i.stack.imgur.com/gPLtQ.png

Regards
 NikTh

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davidzaq1 (david3a9x) said : 		#5

Here is the output of the command above. I think the diriver is not the most current.
I seem to remember the most current is 304.14 or something like that. Maybe 314.10. In any case, I think my driver needs to be updated.

$ dpkg -l | grep -i nvidia
ii nvidia-current 295.40-0ubuntu1.3 NVIDIA binary Xorg driver, kernel module and VDPAU library
ii nvidia-settings 295.33-0ubuntu1 Tool of configuring the NVIDIA graphics driver

thank you,
David

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N1ck 7h0m4d4k15 (nicktux) said : 		#6

Hi ,

If you want to install the most recent - stable and supported (by Ubuntu developers) driver for your card , then you can do

  sudo apt-get purge nvidia-*
  sudo rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf
  sudo apt-get update
  sudo apt-get install nvidia-current-updates nvidia-settings-updates
  sudo nvidia-xconfig

Then reboot your system and to see which driver is now installed give the same command

  dpkg -l | grep -i nvidia

Other newer drivers for nvidia exist also , but they are considered as experimental. If you want to test them too , you can do it same way. Commands are same the only thing that changes is the package name. For example you can replace "nvidia-current-updates" with "nvidia-experimental-304" to install the 304 driver or "nvidia-experimental-310" from 310.

Regards
 NikTh

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davidzaq1 (david3a9x) said : 		#7

Problem is solvred, Thank you.