On Fri, 27 Dec 2002 12:57:05 -0500, "Stephen Gran" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said: > This one time, at band camp, Mark L. Kahnt said: > > On Fri, 2002-12-27 at 11:55, Jeff wrote: > > > Michael Evaniuck, 2002-Dec-27 09:40 -0700: > > > > If I run am running Debian and attempt to run multiple applications at > > > > the same time performance degrades a lot. For example if I am playing an > > > > MP3 on XMMS and while playing it run Mozilla the MP3 cuts out while it is > > > > loading. I have noticed this happens on some other distros but to a much > > > > lesser extent. On Gentoo this does not happen at all but I do not have > > > > the time to spend compiling all my software. Redhat/Mandrake it happens > > > > but not nearly as bad. Debian gives me the worst performance of two > > > > applications. Surprisingly Windows 98/2K/XP this does not happen at all > > > > and you can not tell me M$ multitasks better then Linux!! This happens in > > > > either KDE, Gnome, or Windowmaker. My system is as follows: > > > > > > > > Duron 800mhz > > > > 256MB RAM > > > > NVidea TNT2 (32MB) Graphics Card > > > > Ensoniq Sound Card > > > > > > > > BTW - I borrowed a 1.3Ghz processor and put in 512MB RAM and saw no > > > > difference. > > > > > > This is interesting. On my laptop (P3-750mhz, 256MB RAM), I have no > > > problems like you describe. I would suspect that your desktop > > > environment is eating up too many resources. I run xfce which is MUCH > > > lighter than KDE and Gnome, but I'm not sure about Windowmaker. > > > Perhaps load a light window manager and try it out. > > > > I would point the finger at the Linux implementation of the mpg123 > > routine, which is a heavier load on Linux than on other platforms it is > > implemented from my past experience, and is heavier than various other > > mp3 utilities from my experience. I used mpg123 on both Linux and OS/2 > > on my old Pentium 90 MHz box with its 80 MiB of RAM, and it was smooth > > under OS/2, but to keep it from breaking up under Linux, I had to cut > > the sampling by 4 and settle for mono playback. MPG321, meanwhile, has > > always been fine. > > He said he's using xmms, which has always done much better here than > mpg123. I'd have to guess offhand, without knowing more of his > circumstances, that the problem is likely to be DMA related. Many of > Debian's stock kernels don't seem to turn on DMA by default, and this > can easily make an otherwise wuick box feel sluggish. Try compiling > your own kernel with DMA turned on and see how you do.
I am running the stocl kernel on all installs so maybe this has something to do with it. After all Gentoo runs fine and you compile the kernel for your system. I will look into it when I am at home, unfortunitly I am working today :( Michael > > -- > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > | Stephen Gran | Miguel Cervantes wrote Donkey Hote. > | > | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Milton wrote Paradise Lost, then his > | > | http://www.lobefin.net/~steve | wife died and he wrote Paradise > | > | | Regained. > | > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
