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In Windows , we get the option "speed up sytem" on inserting a USB penDrive... Can we do the same in Linux... I am using ubuntu 12.04. I am working on a project in College and the system(desktop pc) given to us is Painfully slow... (Low RAM).. I tried installing preload and zswap... But i cant find much difference...

The system freezes or hangs-up if u have 5 applications open(say firefox, python shell , terminal, libre open office, Documents folder.. for example.) or if 7 tabs are open on firefox...! and wwe usually restart the system after waiting for some 5-10 mins.

Pls Advice..

Thanks in Advance!

The amt of memory installed

asd@asd-desktop:~$ sudo dmidecode --type memory [sudo] password for asd:

dmidecode 2.11

SMBIOS 2.4 present.

Handle 0x0014, DMI type 16, 15 bytes

Physical Memory Array

Location: System Board Or Motherboard

Use: System Memory

Error Correction Type: None

Maximum Capacity: 4 GB

Error Information Handle: Not Provided

Number Of Devices: 2

Handle 0x0015, DMI type 17, 27 bytes

Memory Device

Array Handle: 0x0014

Error Information Handle: Not Provided

Total Width: 64 bits

Data Width: 64 bits

Size: 512 MB

Form Factor: DIMM

Set: None

Locator: J6H1

Bank Locator: CHAN A DIMM 0

Type: DDR2

Type Detail: Synchronous

Speed: 667 MHz

Manufacturer: 0x0000000000000000

Serial Number: 0x00000000

Asset Tag: Unknown

Part Number: 0x3531323633363735304C0000000000000000

Handle 0x0017, DMI type 17, 27 bytes

Memory Device

Array Handle: 0x0014

Error Information Handle: Not Provided

Total Width: Unknown

Data Width: Unknown

Size: No Module Installed

Form Factor: DIMM

Set: None

Locator: J6J1

Bank Locator: CHAN B DIMM 0

Type: DDR2

Type Detail: None

Speed: Unknown

Manufacturer: NO DIMM

Serial Number: NO DIMM

Asset Tag: NO DIMM

Part Number: NO DIMM
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    You're running ubuntu on 512 MB of ram. No wonder yor computer's struggling. Why don't you try out one of the lighter desktop environments like LXDE or XFCE instead. Mar 15, 2013 at 8:05
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    If possible increase your RAM, its not expensive provided your computer can support it. If not use one of the lighter desktops. Take a look at Xubuntu which uses the XFCE desktop; or Lubuntu. I would recommend a clean install as it will remove the programs you don't need giving a cleaner system but you can install the desktop in addition if you prefer. Real RAM will be much faster than a pen drive and also pen drives use Flash which has a limited number of write cycles so will eventually wear out. Mar 15, 2013 at 9:08
  • Your RAM (512MB) and CPU speed (667MGZ) are way too low to handle any modern OS. I would suggest you switch to a lighter desktop environment such as LXDE, XFCE, etc. Mar 15, 2013 at 9:47
  • @PrahladYeri I dont think 667Mhz is the CPU speed. It's probably the ram speed
    – Amith KK
    Mar 15, 2013 at 12:37
  • Unfortunately I do not have comment rights yet otherwise this would go below Bolt64's statement. While true and I agree with Bolt64, the access speed of a flash disk is slower than RAM, especially when over something like USB2.0. However it may still be faster to place your swap disk onto a flash disk for two reasons. 1: It is common to put SWAP onto a different physical disk than any data or operating system, this is to reduce resource contention once SWAP is required. A disk that is dealing with both SWAP and data will be slower than a disk which does just one or the other. This may make a l Oct 18, 2013 at 9:06

2 Answers 2

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It won't make any difference if you already have a swap partition. The speed of the computer is not just determined by the amount of memory available, but also the access speed for that memory. For RAM, that speed is extremely high as compared to say, access speed on a usb flash drive. So even though you could extend your total memory, access speed to the part of the memory on the flash drive would be extremely slow, defeating your very purpose. For that purpose, a swap partition is created on your hard disk itself. What windows does is the same, it creates a swap space on the flash drive. So all in all, if you're running out of ram, adding more swap space isn't really a viable alternative. You're much better off upgrading your RAM. Read this for more info.

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  • I really dont think i can do that.. The office provided us with this PC... and they dont have a spare... :(
    – Shaima
    Mar 15, 2013 at 7:50
  • Well then, the next best thing you could probably do is increase the size of the swap partition on your hard drive. I don't think it will improve things much but it's worth a shot. Mar 15, 2013 at 8:03
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I run Lubuntu on old laptop with 512 megs of RAM, outside of upgrading my system memory to the max 2 gigs my hardware supports there's not much I can do to eliminate memory related issues. But there are options to somewhat improve the situation:

  1. Use a lighter weight OS branch like Lubuntu.
  2. Enable ZSWAP to make swapping more efficient.
  3. Be realistic about what applications you can run on your system.

I have found ZSWAP to be helpful in regards to improving overall responsiveness of my system.

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