Results 1 to 10 of 10

Thread: Lubuntu better than Xubuntu for Pentium 4 with 2.4GHz?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    England
    Beans
    178
    Distro
    Xubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin

    Lubuntu better than Xubuntu for Pentium 4 with 2.4GHz?

    I'm using a Pentium 4 with 2.4GHz with Xubuntu 12.04.

    Looking at system monitor I see that even with a few spreadsheets open but nothing being done (apart from the system monitor of course) the CPU usage is level on 50% and just requesting printing pushes it up to 100%.

    Would Lubuntu give a significantly lower CPU usage? I don't want to change over if it won't make any real difference.


    Susan
    Pentium 4, 2.4 GHz 1.5GB RAM
    Xubuntu 12.04
    Computers are my mid-life crisis - it could have been worse!

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Location
    United Kingdom
    Beans
    Hidden!
    Distro
    Lubuntu Development Release

    Re: Would Lubuntu be better for this processor?

    I used to have a machine with a specification similar to yours. It ran both Xubuntu and Lubuntu tolerably, but it was slightly more responsive with Lubuntu. If I recall correctly, the real benefit of Lubuntu over Xubuntu is the memory usage: Lubuntu used considerably less.

    I think the best thing to do would be to boot a live CD (or preferably USB) and see whether performance improves. Hypothetically, running off the storage medium shouldn't change the amount of CPU the operating system uses.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    England
    Beans
    178
    Distro
    Xubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin

    Re: Would Lubuntu be better for this processor?

    Thanks. I'll try that. Memory doesn't seem to be a problem though.

    Susan
    Pentium 4, 2.4 GHz 1.5GB RAM
    Xubuntu 12.04
    Computers are my mid-life crisis - it could have been worse!

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    England
    Beans
    178
    Distro
    Xubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin

    Re: Would Lubuntu be better for this processor?

    I've tried my Lubuntu 12.04 disc and since it doesn't have system monitor I had to look up the command line . Using 'top' the CPU usage was nowhere near as high, though there was a limit to what I could try.
    I went back to Xubuntu and used top and opened everything I could think of and didn't get above 92% - even though system monitor was showing 100%.

    Presumably the command line reading is the more reliable - if so it would seem I haven't really got a problem.

    Anyone have any comments on that?

    Susan
    Pentium 4, 2.4 GHz 1.5GB RAM
    Xubuntu 12.04
    Computers are my mid-life crisis - it could have been worse!

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Beans
    Hidden!

    Re: Would Lubuntu be better for this processor?

    I would reduce the Swappiness and put browsers' cache, Temporary files as much as I can to fill up that 1.5G RAM.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    England
    Beans
    178
    Distro
    Xubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin

    Re: Would Lubuntu be better for this processor?

    Can you explain that a bit more, please?

    Susan
    Pentium 4, 2.4 GHz 1.5GB RAM
    Xubuntu 12.04
    Computers are my mid-life crisis - it could have been worse!

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Location
    United Kingdom
    Beans
    Hidden!
    Distro
    Lubuntu Development Release

    Re: Would Lubuntu be better for this processor?

    Quote Originally Posted by s1wood View Post
    I've tried my Lubuntu 12.04 disc and since it doesn't have system monitor I had to look up the command line . Using 'top' the CPU usage was nowhere near as high, though there was a limit to what I could try.
    I went back to Xubuntu and used top and opened everything I could think of and didn't get above 92% - even though system monitor was showing 100%.

    Presumably the command line reading is the more reliable - if so it would seem I haven't really got a problem.

    Anyone have any comments on that?

    Susan
    Graphical tools tend to be less reliable than command-line tools, it's entirely possible that the system monitor is misreporting CPU usage. Based on the specification the machine is a desktop, so I guess what matters is whether there's any actual problems with it - does it feel 'laggy' or freeze for any noticeable period of time?

    What the other poster is suggesting is to put temporary data that is usually stored on the hard disk into memory. The 'swappiness' is a value that instructs the kernel how much to 'swap' data between the RAM and a special file or partition on disk. If you have plenty of memory and your hard disk is slow, decreasing the amount of swapping can improve performance, but it shouldn't affect the CPU usage. You can read more here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwapFaq.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Beans
    Hidden!

    Re: Would Lubuntu be better for this processor?

    A typical Ubuntu system uses about 500M of RAM. If the monitor show some swapping, when the memory is plentily available, that swapping is unnecessary.
    You can reduce that by doing

    sudo leafpad /etc/sysctl.conf

    add the follwing lines
    Code:
     
    # Sharply reduce swap inclination
    vm.swappiness=10
    # Improve cache management
    vm.vfs_cache_pressure=50
    To put cache into RAM for Firefox do

    In the browsing bar type : about:config
    set the value of the follolwing parameters as bellow

    browser.cache.disk.enable to false
    browser.cache.memory.enable to true
    browser.cache.memory.capacity to -1 (or whatever value you deem appropriate)

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Reykjavík, Ísland
    Beans
    13,647
    Distro
    Xubuntu

    Re: Lubuntu better than Xubuntu for Pentium 4 with 2.4GHz?

    Lubuntu 12.04 is out of support (and it wasn't really that good to begin with). If you decide to switch then 13.10 is a better choice.
    Bringing old hardware back to life. About problems due to upgrading.
    Please visit Quick Links -> Unanswered Posts.
    Don't use this space for a list of your hardware. It only creates false hits in the search engines.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    England
    Beans
    178
    Distro
    Xubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin

    Re: Lubuntu better than Xubuntu for Pentium 4 with 2.4GHz?

    Thanks all,
    I'll look into the 'swappiness'. The system works pretty well but can hang a bit sometimes.

    Susan
    Pentium 4, 2.4 GHz 1.5GB RAM
    Xubuntu 12.04
    Computers are my mid-life crisis - it could have been worse!

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •