Slow netbook with 11.10

**buruntu** · March 6th, 2012

Hi smssms,

I used to love ubuntu till I updated to 11.04, which was pretty slow on my netbook. (an MSI wind replica, with 2 gb of ram and around 20-25 gbs of file system dedicated for ubuntu).

Just downloaded and updated to 11.10, it is unbelievably sloooooooow.

You're not alone my friend, you're not alone...

**smssms** · March 6th, 2012

I'm still going strong with Debian and Puppy Linux.
Debian is not lightning fast on my netbook but it seems very stable.
Puppy is fast and cool!

**kmanpilkers** · March 20th, 2012

Anyone have any reason for this yet? I just installed Ubuntu on my HP Mini 110. With no extra software installed a free -m from the command prompt tells me I am using 910MB of the total available 990MB of RAM!!!

No wonder it's a bit slow.. this is with me logged in under the Unity 2D desktop. Noticed it's a bit snappier under Unity 2D but nothing like usable really.

I'm pretty disappointed. Previously I'd used Ubuntu prior to unity and had a great experience.

Like others I think I will try Xubuntu or Lubuntu.. but the thing is I actually really like the idea of the unity interface, it's good if you can get it to respond!

**BertN45** · March 20th, 2012

Originally Posted by kmanpilkers

Anyone have any reason for this yet? I just installed Ubuntu on my HP Mini 110. With no extra software installed a free -m from the command prompt tells me I am using 910MB of the total available 990MB of RAM!!!

No wonder it's a bit slow.. this is with me logged in under the Unity 2D desktop. Noticed it's a bit snappier under Unity 2D but nothing like usable really.

I'm pretty disappointed. Previously I'd used Ubuntu prior to unity and had a great experience.

Like others I think I will try Xubuntu or Lubuntu.. but the thing is I actually really like the idea of the unity interface, it's good if you can get it to respond!

This memory occupation is completely normal, since I expect that half of that memory is used by cache and IO buffers. That is the normal behavior of any Linux system, it will use almost all free memory for disk and page cache. For Ubuntu 1GB of memory is on the limit, since it needs around 400-500MB for the OS. Others like the 10.04 use only half that size for the OS.

However if you develop the habit of closing the applications and browser tabs, you do not need anymore in the next couple of minutes, the system will be more responsive again. 1GB will work fine in this way.

**kmanpilkers** · March 21st, 2012

Thanks for the response. OK then, is there anything we can do about it, or like other users would you recommend a different version of Ubuntu like Xubuntu or Lubuntu for users with 1GB of RAM in a netbook?

**sheds** · March 22nd, 2012

My machine has almost 2 GBs of available memory, and I am currently running Chrome with a couple of open tabs. Believe me, it's not your hardware, it's unity or perhaps the innards of ubuntu oneiric slowcelot. I've been trying to find if it's possible to make it simpler, with no special effects but I haven't found those settings yet.

Regardless, I used the last LTS, that last version with gnome and it was lightning quick.

Canonical: please go back to something what works!!!! I don't care if it's gnome or HUD, just don't drive us away from ubuntu.

**kmanpilkers** · March 22nd, 2012

I found an old image of 11.04 yesterday and installed that instead. With the same machine and same size swap file it seems to run much better so I will probably just stick to this as others have done!

**holytree** · March 22nd, 2012

I believe you should try Lubuntu or puppy linux they are really good OSes to run on netbooks.

why dont u try the 10.10 or 10.04 ???

**kmanpilkers** · March 22nd, 2012

Originally Posted by holytree

I believe you should try Lubuntu or puppy linux they are really good OSes to run on netbooks.

why dont u try the 10.10 or 10.04 ???

Thanks for recommendation - I will try and stick to Ubuntu 11.04 for now and see how I get on with that, and try another variant if I'm still getting performance issues.

**sheds** · March 24th, 2012

Originally Posted by holytree

I believe you should try Lubuntu or puppy linux they are really good OSes to run on netbooks.

why dont u try the 10.10 or 10.04 ???

Hey man, got puppy linux running on my usb key and it works pretty awesome. It's fast, comes with a few things and no lagging at all when typing or scrolling. I read that it loads either entirely or almost entirely on ram, so that would make it really fast.

But hell, if I can keep a few documents I need up on the usb key, ubuntu has some serious problems now cause I may not go back to it.

Thanks for the tip man.