Re: Gnome very slow

[Telsa Gwynne <hobbit aloss ukuu org uk>]

On Sat, Feb 07, 2004 at 08:23:04AM -0600 or thereabouts, Hoyt Bailey wrote:
> > > > time to time)? Is the machine connected to a network? If
> > > > so, can it do DNS lookups (the period of inactivity could
> > > > be related to DNS timeouts in some circumstances)?
> 
> I did note that there is a DNS.  I know nothing about it 
> however, what, why, or what it does(Name Server:  What 
> names does it need to serve).

Computers know where to find each other by numbers. The
"dotted quads" of 216.239.37.99 and so on. We humans prefer
names (although I have known one or two networking gurus
who are happier with the numbers :)). DNS is the domain
name service and translates between the two. 

When my upstream nameserver goes down, I find that commands
like "lynx www.google.com" or "ssh some.machine.here" don't work. I 
have to use "lynx 216.239.39.99" or "ssh <machine's.IP.address>"

You can run a DNS server on your machine, or you can use one
elsewhere. Most ISPs tell you "and put this number in this box"
and one of those numbers will be their DNS server. 

For a standalone box, though, I don't think you need it. 

> > > Previous to today it was always there today things are
> > > 'normal'.  No network as far as I know no DNS.
> >              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> 
> No network at all.  There is however an eth0 card.  I suppose for connection
> to DSL should I wish to do so.  This box should be configured for a stand
> alone desktop.

Well, then, I may be barking up the wrong tree. If Gnome
knows that it's a standalone machine (for example, my laptop)
it doesn't (shouldn't) go trying to connect to networks that
don't exist to find out what address it's on. 

I begin to suspect I'm leading you astray here. Oh dear. 
But if the machine has been set up in such a way that it
thinks it's on a network, then Gnome will assume that too,
and go and try to ask "Hello, what machine is this?" of
the nameserver. It is possible to make the machine think
it's on a network when in fact it is not. But I think it
takes some effort. (Or, in my case, messing around with
the wrong files and forgetting to plug a cable back in.)

> > You can find out whether it's doing something like this
> > with strace, perhaps. This will generate _tons_ of output
> > so don't post it all to the list!
> 
> If you could post the command or directions I'll try it, strace is installed
> but I know nothing about the program.

It's what I use when all else fails. It tells you _everything_
that happens from when you type a command to when it completes,
including what files it tries to read, what files it manages
to read, and goodness knows what. 

However, I am informed by my local hacker that it will probably
not help here, so I think I'll drop that idea. 

> > I don't know enough about Mandrake to know how to do this,
> > but if you could somehow not only disconnect the box from
> > a network but convince the machine that it is disconnected
> > (comment out everything in resolv.conf etc), and this goes
> > away, I would focus on this as the problem.
> >
> There is no network.  Would this be located '/etc/resolv.conf' or where. Or
> where would you expect to find it?  Hope this helps,  remember I know little
> about Mandrake and not as much as I thought about Linux.

Mandrake has a suite of nice simple GUI tools for configuring
the system, but I don't know what they are. I am sure someone
else here knows. 

As to not knowing much about Mandrake or Linux, I don't think
this is the sort of stuff anyone should have to know unless
they're actually interested in it. You have clearly hit a bug,
since Gnome does not take 30s to open applications for most
people!

I'm not really sure what to suggest next, to be honest. The
network thing was my immediate guess because of the huge
lengths of time and because something similar used to happen
to people. 

There may well be other things to look for, but I don't know
what they are.

Telsa