> > > Elaborate on "thrashing". As in what/when/how.
> > 1) Hard drive
> > 2) Especially prevalent right after I start Netscape (which pretty much does
> > not come up unless I leave the room for a long while) but I've seen it after
> > using the system a while as well.
> > 3) Not sure there is a "how" answer short of going into drive mechanics.
> > (????)
> > Bearing in mind the fact that, as I said, I'm a bit new to Linux, I'm afraid
> > I really do not know where to start troubleshooting this one or really even
> > where to begin describing the issue in detail. It has also been suggested
> > that Linux may not be using the full capacity of the memory.
> > James
> James,
> just wondered if you have confirmed that netscape is the culprit
> i.e have you t
> tried using the command "top" when the machine is thrashing - it gives a list
> of
> the most cpu-intensive processes.
Would top show anything useful here? If it is thrashing, Netscape
would not be using much cpu time; it would be waiting for IO. BTW, top
can list the most memory-intensive programs instead by typing "M"
(without the quotes) to it.
Let us ask a few questions first:
How much memory does the O.P. have on his machine? If less than 64
Megabytes, he can expect trouble with a program like Netscape (more
trouble, that is, than with more memory).
How much swap space does the O.P. have for his machine? Is it a file
or a partition?
Does he run any other program(s) using a lot of memory at the same
time?
--
.~. Jean-David Beyer Registered Linux User 85642.
/V\ Registered Machine 73926.
/( )\ Shrewsbury, New Jersey http://counter.li.org
^^-^^ 7:40am up 5 days, 14:30, 4 users, load average: 3.07, 3.08, 2.91
by