#1 2017-02-23 16:45:16

marky

Member

Registered: 2017-02-20

Posts: 19

PAE or NonPAE for ancient pc?

Recently I've installed bl-Hydrogen-i386_20160710.iso on someone's pc.
Almost all is fine now, but CPU gets very busy at times, specially when web browser (mozilla) is open.
CPU monitor (in docky) gets red often, showing even 80% of use, fan is always working at high speed.

Hardware:

CPU: Intel Pentium 4; 2.4 GHZ
RAM: 1 GB
Vcard: Radeon 9600 Pro

Is it possible for that system to run better on BL nonPAE installation?

Thanks,
m

Last edited by marky (2017-02-23 16:48:19)

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: London

Registered: 2015-09-29

Posts: 9,093

Website

Re: PAE or NonPAE for ancient pc?

Is it possible for that system to run better on BL nonPAE installation?

I do not think it would make a major difference. But I may be wrong

Why not try it and see?

There will still be a GRUB (boot) menu entry for your old kernel in the "Advanced Options" sub-menu.

I think that your problems are because the internet itself is very bloated and you are running a modern, full-featured browser that is designed to display as much of the bloat as possible.

Try:

sudo apt install xul-ext-noscript

This will cripple the browsing experience but lighten the load significantly and the scripting can be added back on a per-website basis.

If non-free software is not an issue then you can try Google Chrome, I find this to be noticeably quicker than Firefox; Chromium is also faster but seems to lag a little in respect of updates.

I can also recommend links as an alternative, light browser — it can be operated in graphical mode with:

xlinks2

Be aware though that the commonly-recommend "lightweight" (or, more accurately, "feature-light") webkit-based browsers such as Midori, et al, should not be used against untrusted websites because the libraries upon which they are based are vulnerable.

https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/ … r-security

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Para todos todo, para nosotros nada

nobody

The Great

Registered: 2015-08-10

Posts: 3,655

Re: PAE or NonPAE for ancient pc?

non-PAE won't make a difference with <4G of memory.

stevep

MX Linux Developer

Registered: 2016-08-08

Posts: 381

Re: PAE or NonPAE for ancient pc?

If you are running the xorg driver for the video card, it might also require the firmware-linux-nonfree package to enable hardware acceleration.

But nothing will help if you are going to go to some bloated website such as the HuffPo that dumps loads of crummy javascript on you for your browser to render.  Maybe an adblocker will help a little, but blocking javascript altogether now makes most sites unusable.

marky

Member

Registered: 2017-02-20

Posts: 19

Re: PAE or NonPAE for ancient pc?

Thank you, guys.

Since it's someone else's pc I'll check all your advises in a few days.

ohnonot

...again

Registered: 2015-09-29

Posts: 5,592

Re: PAE or NonPAE for ancient pc?

blocking javascript altogether now makes most sites unusable.

not true.

i use noscript & requestpolicy, and usually i have to first allow requests to some cdn server, and then most of the time most of the page loads.
requests, mind you, not javascript.

when the result is unsatisfactory i start fiddling with the addons, and usually it's enough to allow just one or two of the many javascripts to make the site usable.
fortunately the servers are named in a way that makes a distinction easy (google-images.com or adwords.google.com - which one are you going to allow requests to when images don't load?).

granted, it takes getting used to and the first few times can be daunting, esp. on a single core pentium, but once you get used to it, much less javascript means a usable internet even on slow machines.

PS:
it's not always the javascript that eats resources. CSS3 has quite some heavy stuff, too.
e.g. this site makes my cpu warm & the fan go off.

Last edited by ohnonot (2017-02-24 19:41:28)

marky

Member

Registered: 2017-02-20

Posts: 19

Re: PAE or NonPAE for ancient pc?

Well...

- Thermal grease application, and dust removing turned out to be the solution. :8

Anyway, bl was able despite all the opposition...
Love it.
And now after getting the obmenu-generator - even more!

Thank you guys
m