12.04 become unusable

[G.]

On Sun, Sep 9, 2012 at 10:53 PM, Drac Noc <drac.noc at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 09/09/12 17:33, G. wrote:
>> On Sun, Sep 9, 2012 at 4:55 PM, Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On 9 September 2012 15:18, G. <pegngaryubuntu at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> Well then there's something going on with this machine or
>>>> installation.  I've read some others using Unity without much trouble
>>>> on this very machine and with less memory installed.  I think all is
>>>> well with the memory and hard drive so there are some things slowing
>>>> it up.
>>>>
>>>> My only start up applications are drop box and the weather indicator,
>>>> which is not working any longer anyway.  At the moment, running just
>>>> Midori, I am using 1.2 gigs of memory running 2D.  Gnome system
>>>> monitor takes up quite a bit of cPU time but only from time to time.
>>>> I have seen it bounce up to 68% per System Monitor.
>>> Do bear in mind that the kernel will use a large chunk of any
>>> unoccupied memory for the disk cache. It leaves some RAM totally
>>> uncommitted so that if you load a large app, it can give the app that
>>> free space instantly without having to deallocate some of the disk
>>> cache then shrink it and free up memory that way.
>>>
>>> But yes, that does sound a bit odd.
>>>
>>> I might be tempted to try a different OS (or at least a different
>>> Linux distro) on the machine, just in case it highlights problems that
>>> Ubuntu is ignoring, not seeing or not telling you about.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Liam Proven • Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile
>>> Email: lproven at cix.co.uk • GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven
>>> MSN: lproven at hotmail.com • Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven
>>> Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 • Cell: +44 7939-087884
>>>
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>> I've installed Lunbuntu 12.04.  It is quick as a whip.  File manager
>> opens in a heartbeat.   I have not notice it highlighting any problems
>> relative to Ubuntu 12.04.
>>
>>
>> garyk
>>
> I have an NC110 w/ 12.04. Unity was a show stopper so I reverted it back
> to XFCE. The performance is much better. I haven't seen any performance
> issues so far, but I do know there was a huge bug with the backlight
> controls and some of the other Fn keys. It required a BIOS upgrade to
> fix them.
>
> That may have been resolved in 12.04 w/o the BIOS upgrade, but I had
> hell with them in 11.10. Drop FreeDOS onto a USB with the BIOS .exe
> file, then boot from USB, change to drive C: at the dos prompt and call
> the .exe.
>
> You'll need mains power and balls of steel - the NC110 gives off a lot
> of system beeps as it upgrades.
>
> --

So I am not the only one with this sort of problem.  Oddly, perhaps,
it is working just fine right now.  There was a kernel update
yesterday and since then it's well within the range of being
acceptable even in Unity.  I will use it until I have problems and
report back.

Am I right, though, in thinking that a kernel change can improve performance?


garyk