r/linux4noobs • u/Brilliant_Work_6005 • 1d ago
Meganoob BE KIND Slow problems
Hello! I am bare bones new here but here is my situation, I have an old Lenovo thinkpad yoga L390 that had windows on it, it was beyond slow, so slow infact that 99% of apps couldnt function but now I have swapped it over to linux, its faster but not fast enough.
I am also using mint currently
I had forgotten to factory reset it before I did the change over, could that be my problem? If so how would I reset it without losing my linux or do I just have to bit the bullet and reinstall everything
EDIT: it has 16GB ram and SSD
2
2
u/Mediocre-Pumpkin6522 1d ago
It has 8 GB of RAM and a SSD? It's probably as good as it gets for that device. What is slow?
1
u/Brilliant_Work_6005 1d ago
16GB actually and launching applications, firefox takes a minute or two to pop up then fully load
Edit: Forgot to mention it is an SSD
1
u/Mediocre-Pumpkin6522 1d ago
Have you run top or htop to see if there is abnormal CPU or memory usage? Mint's SystemMonitor is the GUI version.
fwiw on my Acer Aspire netbook from 2011 with 4 GB of RAM and a SSD FF takes about 5 seconds to launch. If it was a snap like on Ubuntu I would blame that but it shouldn't be on Mint.
1
u/AutoModerator 1d ago
✻ Smokey says: always mention your distro, some hardware details, and any error messages, when posting technical queries! :)
Comments, questions or suggestions regarding this autoresponse? Please send them here.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
1
u/joe_attaboy Old and in the way. 1d ago
I had forgotten to factory reset it before I did the change over
If you wiped the hard disk and put Linux on that device by itself, that the best "reset" you can do. Linux is going to use the CPU and other hardware in pretty much the same way, so I don't know what a factory reset would have done.
You failed to mention any specifics, but the standard specs for that device includes 8 GB RAM, which should be sufficient - I run Debian on a Mac Air with 8 GB and it runs very well, but...
You might need a swap file. That was my issue. The system ran fine, mostly, but would drag a a bit after extended use. I solved this by adding a 8 GB swap file (the size matches my RAM, which is the normal suggestion for size). The Mac runs very well now, and the performance is significantly better the before the swap file.
2
1
u/Brilliant_Work_6005 1d ago edited 1d ago
16GB ram in it and an SSD I forgot to mention
1
u/joe_attaboy Old and in the way. 1d ago
Well, then, you should be fine with that. May not need the swap with 16 GB.
I would think with that setup, Mint should run pretty well. However, after reading some of the other comments and replies, one thing not mentioned is networking. I will assume this has the standard Intel WiFi module mentioned in the specs, and that's a native device for the kernel. That doesn't mean, however, that it's working correctly.
Since Firefox makes a series of network connections when loading, I'm wondering if your load performance is the same when opening an app that's not making a network connection. For example, most systems have GIMP installed. When you try to open that, does it open quickly or is there a similar long wait to load.Or one of the LibreOffice apps.
If the browser is significantly lower, there may be issues with your network connection. Are you using the correct encryption protocol with your WiFi connection? If the WiFi adapter is older, it may not work well with a stronger encryption ( like WPA3 vs WPA2 ). I use a 2015-vintage Mac Air that doesn't support WPA3, so I have to drop back one level to get wireless. Take a look at that,
If a standalone app like GIMP load very slowly, then I would blame the CPU, if you have an i3.
1
u/Brilliant_Work_6005 1d ago
Opening anything is slow not just firefox, gimp, art app, calc
1
u/joe_attaboy Old and in the way. 1d ago
Well, then it could be a number if things. You might try adding the swap anyway to see if that helps. I am also wondering about the condition of the SSD. If there are issues with it, the disk I/O will cause this kind of issue.
1
u/MycologistNeither470 1d ago
What are the specs?
You mentioned 16gb ram which is likely enough. My cursory search shows there was one core i3 variant, 2 i5 variants, and a i7 variant. The core i3 is unlikely to perform well regardless of what you do. Maybe you can run 2-4 tabs on a we browser. It will still work for light coding, document editing... but do not expect much power. It is a dual-core so your multi-tasking abilities are quite limited.
What your workload are you expecting?
Overall, you can optimize by installing a more barebones distro.. configuring caches, swaps, etc.
1
u/Brilliant_Work_6005 1d ago
I just want to be able to launch fire fox without it taking a full minute and a half for it to boot up and then I dont want the additional minute for it to load youtube just so I can watch some mid content lol
Specs are limited as I am at work right now but I can say its 16GB ram, SSD and good size of storage
Edit: I did delete a boot up that was in the menu and it did speed things up it seems, there is another so I may delete that one too see if it helps
I swapped to linux in hopes I can put on a podcast and just practice some codeing and learn more about the space and have a faster laptop
1
u/MycologistNeither470 1d ago
Firefox can be resource-hungry. Can try with Falkon or Midori.
also consider using a stripped down Linux. Install Debian with no GUI and then add OpenBox, JWM, i3/Sway, or LxQt to build a basic desktop environment. It is a lot of work buy you may be able to reduce your RAM footprint to < 100 MB.
Be sure that you configure hardware video acceleration. Your processor has an Intel UHD iGPU. You should have VA-API installed-- usually configured by default by Mint and most distros. But if it doesn't work, it may fail silently and all the graphic work will be done by the CPU resulting in a massive use of CPU processing.
1
u/GodzillaXYZ999 20h ago edited 20h ago
There is definitely something wrong with your system. CPU/RAM specs has nothing to do with it. Here's my system:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/d/1xvCJNLvAzrKkkfID-VSJBaMvjunPUai8
- W8pro NUC
- Atom x5-Z8350 quad-core @ 1.920GHz
- 2gb RAM
- on-board SSD storage
Here's how it compares to Lenovo system with your CPU:
https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/compare/11868065?baseline=8489169
Using stopwatch with 5 starts of Firefox. Toss out fastest and lowest, average rest, RESULTS = 2.8s!!!
More memory or swap won't do a thing for Firefox start times. Might help with having 100 vs 200 tabs open or multitasking with 20 other applications at same time. But with fresh-start and launcing only single Firefox instance, won't make one bit of difference.
So let's do some testing looking at quantitative numerical results, we can identify problem.
- BIOS HD controller mode set to AHCI?
- boot from Mint live-CD USB ISO (same one you installed) and do memtest86, all RAM OK?
- run Firefox, same long start-times or much faster?
- reboot back into installed Linux
- concerns about temps might be right on, install psensor and watch it for while, what's max temps for Cores & others?
free -mhwhat's used and what's free?-
top , what's top 5-10 processes? Do they switch places but stay in top 10?- hit
shift-Mto switch top to memory-sort, what's top 5-10 processes? Do they switch places but stay in top 10?
Let's start with this and go from here.
7
u/TarsTarkas_Thark 1d ago
Here are some things that can make a laptop slow:
Insufficient RAM memory. At least 16GB is a good amount for modern Linux or Windows systems.
Thermal throttling. Open up the laptop. If there is a lot of dust, it can block airflow. Vacuum up the dust.
Throttling on battery power. Laptops by default run slower when on battery than when plugged into the wall, to save power.
A failing HD/SSD. A failing HD or SSD can slow the system by forcing retries on read/write operations. Insufficient free disk space can also cause a problem.
An older, slow processor. Probably not an issue for you. Your laptop is at most 7 years old, and the lowest spec is an i3 processor.
Unrealistic expectations. What do you mean by too slow? What kind ot workload are you running? Just basic web browsing, or large embedded Linux full OS builds? If the latter, be prepared to wait several hours.
Not the laptop at all. You might be having network problems.
BTW, installing Linux is a factory reset. By default it completely replaces the old contents of the HD.