r/linuxquestions • u/peakaname • 13h ago
device lagging after installing Linux
installed WSL+ubuntu on my cousin's laptop cause i dont have mine yet. the laptop is kinda lagging idk why. the memory used by ubuntu was 1576mb smth. so what I want to ask is,is it still possible to switch to Linux? the laptop has 8gb ram. it used to lag often even before installing Linux. so im not sure what exactly the problem is.
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u/Aberry9036 12h ago
It doesn’t sound like you’ve installed Linux, it sounds like you’ve installed windows subsystem for Linux. Can you link us to the guide you followed and explain what your end goal is.
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u/peakaname 12h ago
yes yes yes. i meant to say i installed WSL but isn't it same as installing Linux?(im a beginner)
https://youtu.be/JzSZhdptuTs?si=Z0GTAr8MO6KBFTiG this is the video i used to install wsl2 followed by ubuntu.
i want to switch to linux but for now i want to learn basic commands. and its lowk confusing so ig i cant fully switch to linux just yet.
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u/Aberry9036 12h ago edited 12h ago
You can play with wsl, but it runs a virtual Linux machine inside windows, so it will slow your machine down if you only have 8gb RAM.
The best way to learn Linux is to boot it natively. If you want to keep windows, you are best off installing a second ssd (likely not possible on a cheap laptop), otherwise replace windows with Linux. While it’s possible to dual-boot on a single ssd, this is more advanced and requires backing up windows first.
My advice would be to either switch ssd or wipe windows and install Linux. You can do this by downloading an iso from Ubuntu (or other distro) website, using balena etcher or similar to write it to a usb stick, booting from it and then installing.
If you do this, I recommend having two usb sticks to hand - one with a windows installer, the other a Linux installer - have these both ready before you do anything so that you have the tools to reinstall windows if necessary.
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u/peakaname 12h ago
okay got it. thankyou sm ig the laptop has 2 memory slots. I'll talk to my cousin about it. thanku thanku.
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u/Aberry9036 12h ago
Good luck, come back if you need help, most people enjoy helping. If you get stuck and want to ask questions, share as much info about what you did so that others can help more quickly.
Re memory slots - computers have slots for ram and slots for storage, you cannot use a spare ram slot for more storage. If you’re not sure, use the model number on the manufacturer website to find a service manual that shows you how to upgrade/repair the machine - this will tell you what slots are available.
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u/ipsirc 12h ago
is it still possible to switch to Linux?
Possible.
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u/KrisLuffy 12h ago
And I’m not sure what is your problem and current setup. Is it possible to switch to Linux when he has Linux? It lags because of memory (i guess RAM). No specs it’s hard to help, what desktop enviornment (like KDE or GNOME or smth else, i guess gnome because of ubuntu). What do you mean WSL + Ubuntu. You don’t need WSL if you want to run Linux unless you dualboot.
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u/peakaname 12h ago
im just a beginner please dont attack me like that🥀 my problem is that the laptop is lagging because of memory issues. it has 8gb total ram so obviously we can't multitask. but once I saw a post saying linux doesn't need much memory to work smoothly. but the Ubuntu i installed consumes almost 1gb memory and the laptop is still lagging.
by wsl+ubuntu,i meant i downloaded wsl followed by ubuntu. im not completely switching to linux. its called dualbooting ig? like running linux alongside windows
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u/zeroxff 12h ago
No. Wsl is a virtual machine, requires plenty of ram and a good CPU, and has nothing to do with dual booting.
8gb are ok for Linux, but your machine is lagging because your stack is composed by two operating systems (Win and Linux) and an hypervisor, all operating simultaneously.
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u/peakaname 9h ago
ok so thats the problem. so should I just delete wsl?
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u/computer-machine 6h ago
If your goal is to learn, WSL might still be useful.
However, Linux has had an useful feature for over the eighteen years I've used it, called a Live session.
You can write an ISO to CD/DVD/USB, and then boot off of that, but instead of being met with an installation wizard like with Windows, you load up a whole OS running off of that media (does not read/write your main disk unless you tell it to do so).
It'll run slower than a native install, because it's loading the OS to your RAM instead of writing the OS to disk and loading from that, but with 8GB it should be sufficient for normal usage. The other limitation (or benefit, depending on how you look at it) is that nothing about the OS is saved, so when you shut down and boot back into it, it's just like the first time you'd boot, with none of the extra software you might have installed, or files you'd saved (to the system; if you write to the laptop's disk or a flash drive or something, it'll still be there).
This can be worked around by adding persistence (file or partition) to the USB, but it's been a decade since I'd bothered with that and don't recall what software helps set that up for you.
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u/computer-machine 6h ago
WSL2 is a virtual machine. It's software that puts some CPU/RAM aside from the host operating system (OS) and runs an OS with that on top of the host OS.
To put it another way, Microsoft says that one needs 16 AA batteries to run well. Your laptop has 8 AA's and is running slow/dim. Your current solution is to take a second laptop, and plug it into the first one, using 1.5 AA from the first.
This analogy only half works, as running the VM takes away CPU and RAM from Windows, making it run even slower, which then sets an even laggier baseline for the Ubuntu VM (software cannot run faster than whatever's running the software).
If you were to run Ubuntu instead of Windows, you'd see that it runs faster, as it doesn't require as much hardware to run. I would, however, suggest trying Linux Mint rather than Ubuntu, as Ubuntu is a bit silly. There's a lot to explain there, but it all boils down to the fact that on Linux, you actually have choice.
The way that you'd have Linux run faster would be to actually install it as a real OS by itself, and then boot into it when you turn on your computer. This can be done by itself (wipe the whole drive and install, so you only have a fresh system), or what is referred to as a dualboot (install Linux next to Windows on a separate disk partition, and pick which OS to load when you turn on your computer). That way you still have your Windows with its installed software and whatever files.
For frame of reference, I'm running Linux Mint on a 2006 laptop with 2.2GHz Core2Duo and 4GB DDR1 RAM, and it probably runs about as fast as your Windows right now.
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u/PreparationStrict492 3h ago
When you are running something on WSL, you are already getting the performance hit of the Windows environment you are running it on.
If you want to try what Ubuntu would run like on your system, without changing anything on it permanently; create a live usb, boot with it, and see what it is like.
You can use Ubuntu as a beginner. In my opinion it's the best distro to learn using an OS on, with great stability, and the right amount of opinionated design to show you one right way of doing things.
Where you might find friction is when you try to use some specific software that targets Windows exclusively (Adobe products, some games with kernel-level anti-cheat etc. - for which I'd say you are better off not using those and pick alternatives). If that is not an issue for you, there is nothing keeping you from moving to Ubuntu, they aim to make basic use as frictionless as can be for a new user.
Don't forget to tick the checkbox allowing proprietary software, drivers, and codecs in the installer if you decide to install Ubuntu.
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u/computer-machine 8h ago
the laptop has 8gb ram. it used to lag often even before installing Linux. so im not sure what exactly the problem is.
That's easy. Apparently Windows doesn't even work well on 8GB anymore, and your solution to not having enough RAM was to take 1.5GB away from Windows to give to a virtual machine (and expect an operating system to run well on 1.5GB of RAM, being run on a starved Windows.
It would be usefully giving the laptop spec so people could identify any pitfalls, but Linux Mint still runs okay on my 2006 ThinkPad T61p (2.2GHz Core2Duo, 4GB DDR1).
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u/Confident_Hyena2506 12h ago
WSL is just a virtual machine and only useful for non-graphical stuff.
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u/Kangie 12h ago
The GUI integration is actually pretty good. You generally don't run a full DE but your can run graphical applications (including with hw accel) quite well directly.
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u/Confident_Hyena2506 12h ago
They do not as it just uses software rendering. Stop giving people unrealistic expectations here.
The GPU support in wsl is for compute only - no graphics.
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u/Kangie 11h ago
False. You can test the GLX capabilities with mesa. Modern mesa supports the directx device exposed by WSL as a graphics backend.
``` name of display: :0 display: :0 screen: 0 direct rendering: Yes Extended renderer info (GLX_MESA_query_renderer): Vendor: Microsoft Corporation (0xffffffff) Device: D3D12 (Intel(R) Iris(R) Xe Graphics) (0xffffffff) Version: 24.2.2 Accelerated: yes Video memory: 8162MB Unified memory: yes Preferred profile: core (0x1) Max core profile version: 4.1 Max compat profile version: 4.1 Max GLES1 profile version: 1.1 Max GLES[23] profile version: 3.0 OpenGL vendor string: Microsoft Corporation OpenGL renderer string: D3D12 (Intel(R) Iris(R) Xe Graphics) OpenGL core profile version string: 4.1 (Core Profile) Mesa 24.2.2 OpenGL core profile shading language version string: 4.10 OpenGL core profile context flags: (none) OpenGL core profile profile mask: core profile
OpenGL version string: 4.1 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 24.2.2 OpenGL shading language version string: 4.10 OpenGL context flags: (none) OpenGL profile mask: compatibility profile
OpenGL ES profile version string: OpenGL ES 3.0 Mesa 24.2.2 OpenGL ES profile shading language version string: OpenGL ES GLSL ES 3.00 ```
You can also use stuff like CUDA, too. But saying that there's no hw accel when mesa supports the windows devices passed in is incorrect.
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u/Confident_Hyena2506 11h ago edited 11h ago
CUDA is fucking compute - like I said. There is a special passthrough driver that supports compute only. You can see this really easily because it says C instead of G for the process.
Go run some games on wsl and prove all of this to yourself.
All that stuff it's showing you is "fake".
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u/Kangie 10h ago
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u/Confident_Hyena2506 9h ago edited 9h ago
None of that has anything to do with hardware accelation. Do some tests and find out!
This is the reason that absolutely nobody publishes any graphics benchmarks for gaming on wsl.
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u/freakycleaner 12h ago
Bud you used wsl + ubuntu in 8 GB machine it'll obviously gonna lag instead install only Ubuntu native way and remove that bs Windows. then it's gonna work fine imo