suse 9.3 q's – 2823 days old

[JohnnySteele]

Hey everybody. First off, just want to say thanks for all your help with picking computer components and such. I'm writing from my new box right now. I ended up installing the 32-bit version of suse 9.3 from opensuse.org, and for the most part everything is well, but I have a few questions.

1.) Suse seems slow. Ok so thats not really a question. But for example, firefox loads in <=1 sec in windows and takes like 6 in suse. Just one example. I seem to remember linux being faster for me than windows on my old computer. Is this normal to have such a dramatic slowdown?

P.S. my graphics drivers are installed for my card

2.) Also, ACPI constantly registers the cpu temp as 40 C, when I know that it is in fact not that.

Can this cause problems?

Also, when I reboot, the bios shows that linux is running the cpu a good 5-6 deg C warmer than windows. If its still under 40 am I ok?

Sorry, I know thats kinda a lot of random stuff.

[Grogan]

Comparing Firefox in WIndows and Linux is comparing apples and oranges. Firefox doesn't use the same APIs in Windows as it does in Linux. There's probably more stuff to load from disk. It could also just be SuSE's firefox build too.

Your SuSE desktop will certainly have its share of bloat though and your kernel won't exactly be optimal for your hardware.

You can just build a normal kernel.org kernel in SuSE by the way. You don't need to use an initrd, just be sure that all drivers essential for booting are built right in.

I don't know what to tell you about the temperature differences between operating systems and ACPI drivers, but 40C isn't really very hot.

[JohnnySteele]

thanks G. Other than loading programs, everything is really responsive. My only concern with the ACPI thing was more that the fans wouldnt be controlled properly, than the actual processor running at 40. If its under load though, I'd like to know what its running at just so that I know. sort of OCD i guess.

Other than these few issues, suse is pretty kickass. Got dvdshrink running under wine, and I'm set to go.

[Alakazam]

Just a point of reference here JS, I run Suse along with WinXP on this machine and Suse is always about 4C higher when it's running. My other computer has had a couple of different Linux distros on it and has always run hotter too, so you're fine at 40C. The reason is that Windows incorporates the HLT command when things are slow with the bus, holding the temps down just a bit.

[Grogan]

Linux has always issued HLT, but nowadays ACPI is used for power throttling states. That may work better in Windows for some systems. I don't use that myself (I don't compile processor support under ACPI in my kernels). The kernel then doesn't use ACPI for the idle handler, and does HLT the old fashioned way.

SuSE could also be a pretty busy distro and the CPU could just be idle less.