Problems with Suse 9.1

[Dodge7]

I installed Suse 9.1 on my 2 1/2 year old made to order system. Generally, the install was easy and it worked fine... I was pleasantly surprised..

However, in operation, it seems run slooow. My computer is rather basic [850 Mhz, celeron, 128 meg] but even so, it takes on the order of 3 to 4 times longer than Windows 2000 to open even a basic text program. Same for the brower, ect. Anything obvious that might be slowing it down? [It also takes a long time to load Linux]

Also, neither my modem or printer work. The modem is a U.S. Robotics 56k Fax. It is strange, it configures itself as COM 5, even though I only have 2 COMs. Windows did detect it, Linux didn't. With Windows I had to manually install it. I can't find in the Suse/KDE help documentation how to do this. Can anyone point me to where to start?

And is there is CLI command that accurately lists memory used and available disk space?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[mrmister1]

Linux will usually run slower, depending on the distro, especially on your computer. You may want to think about running a smaller distro, such as Damn Small Linux.

[Dodge7]

I checked on the modem.... seems it is a known problem and fixing it is a mess. Anyone know of a internal modem that is likely to work with this Suse ver?

Oh, and on KDE, I can't find anything like the Windows comann alt del that shows processes, CPU, memory. Does that exist?

[mrmister1]

In the menu, or if you right click on the desktop, there should be a Performance or Stats button.

[kilgoretrout]

For your performance issues, the biggest problem is your ram - 128MB isn't enough to run a heavy gui like kde or gnome. Linux loves ram and is very efficient in using and caching ram but takes a real perfomance hit when you run out of ram and have to go into to swap on the hard drive. Kde is the default desktop for suse and will take in excess of 100MB even shortly after boot. Your performance will improve if you use a lighter weight gui like icewm or fluxbox.

[mrmister1]

You're going to the comcast website to get your email, correct?

Try using an email client to get your email first of all.

[Dodge7]

I thought that Linux was faster and lighter than Windows? I mean, Win 2000 runs circles around this in terms of speed. And it is extra stable.

I'll try those other GUIs and see if they work.