Comment from a one time user. SOLVED!

[bobcollard]

Hi, I heard about your version through the forum on Kubuntu. Thought I'd give it a shot while waiting for Karmic Koala to make it's debut. I've been using Kubuntu for about a year now. Not too happy the way knetwork-manager has turned out and was looking for something similar even if it is an earlier version. I'm sorry to say I was disappointed. I downloaded Linux Mint Gloria in the KDE version, probably 386 instead of 64 bit, but, I have only 3Gib RAM and that is what you recommend. To begin with it is slow, too slow for me, my computer is a Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop running at 2.16Ghz. It ran slower than my eMac at 1.25Ghz. Then there are the earlier versions of software that didn't upgrade when I ran the first mint upgrade. Things like firefox which is up to 3.5 now, not 3.0. Sorry guys, I'll have to pass unless someone knows why this was like this and can tell me what to do to straighten it out. I want to give you a fair shake, but, even my wireless network did not work.
I'm willing to listen to your comments or criticisms.
Bob
Robert Collard
Springfield, IL

[GrayWizardLinux]

Welcome. Sorry to hear about the issues.

Personally, and I am no geek; I had great luck with mint on various laptops. Ubuntu had way to many issues. I never tried the KDE version so I am coming from the main Gnome versions Bea to Gloria and also the new Gloria XFCE on an ancient dell. still cannot get wireless to work on that one. But it runs for being slow and old and 256 ram.

I am sure there will be people in the know around to help you and comment.

[bobcollard]

Hi, thanks for the input. I started with Ubuntu, most people do I guess. Gnome seems crude compared to KDE. XFCE I tried as an alternative when KDE 4.3 came out and crashed so often but I don't care for all the icons on the desktops.
Bob

[deleted]

Bummer...
My Gnome install of Gloria hums right along on my dell 4600c (6 years old) with 2 gigs of RAM.
I did add a agp NVIDIA card so I can get the wobbly windows... Out of the box it had integrated intel video.
-H

[lagagnon]

To begin with it is slow, too slow for me, my computer is a Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop running at 2.16Ghz......I have only 3Gib RAM
Robert Collard

Robert: something is seriously wrong with your system/setup/install if you are finding Mint "slow" on that machine. I run Mint on a significantly older, slower box (XP2500, 1GB RAM). I suggest that you may not have loaded the correct video driver for your video card and hence the slowness. Just a guess. Did you go to Menu, Control Center, Hardware, Hardware Drivers and see if it recommended a better driver for you. That is what I would do first. Then, if that still does not work come back here and show us the output to the terminal command: "inxi -G". Thirdly, when you are experiencing "slowness" open a terminal and run "top" and see what processes are consuming RAM and CPU and tel us what they are...

believe me, you have a system fault somewhere...

mintUpdate keeps your system up to date, not major software that might be swapped out for a different browser. You have to keep your main software up to date yourself, which is a very easy task to do with FF. And regarding your wireless show us the output to "inxi -N" and maybe we can help you....

[emorrp1]

I agree with lagagnon, there's no reason it should be so slow with that much power and RAM. On the app versions front, you may want to give this a read http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=31954

[GrayWizardLinux]

mint ran fast on a celeron with 1 Gb of ram - i too agree that there is something major league wrong here.

[bobcollard]

A Shot in the dark! Sorry, system crashed, broken packages or something, took three reboots to get it fixed. Now running, again. System Setting/Advanced/Hardware shows Hal Power, Network Management backend and Bluetooth Management Backend, no Drivers. inxi -G and inxi -N with or without sudo shows "Command not found" Next: That's the only reference I can find to Hardware in the KDE Menu. The slowness does not seem to be in the screens, but, in loading applications including firefox which I am using now. I agree it is not my machine. Still slow loading. I don't mind updating my own software, maybe that will help? firefox currently ver 3.0.14, KDE 4.2.4 With Gloria 7 ver i386 I guess? Any other suggestions, anything I need to install to get inxi working? Familiar with command line. Years of using an eMac with UNIX Root, I learned.
Bob

[dequire]

FWIW and how fast it is, I would just re-install Mint. Something went awry somewhere it seems.

[bobcollard]

FWIW I just did that, (Reinstalled Linux Mint) gained a little, lost a little. That's where the crash came in on the first updates via sudo apt-get dist-upgrade which took forever. Sigh, oh well. At least I knew enough to fix it. I don't mind using Mint per se I like to experiment, that's why I was using Kubuntu 9.10 Beta for awhile. Talk about flaky and crashes, but, that's the thing with a Beta. I expected it and I'm always learning. I'd just like to settle down with something stable that works with my hardware. Straight Kubuntu only lives for six months at a time then, bang, upgrade.
Bob

[deleted]

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade which took forever.

That's because Ubuntu got slammed yesterday since they had a release candidate.
-H

[bobcollard]

Thanks, didn't know about that. Thought I'd give you guys a fair shake so I downloaded Linux Mint 7 x64 with gnome and cranked it up. Guess what? Speed is back. Now if I could just get rid of these icons on my desktop, sigh. Oh, I got my wireless up and running, thanks. And I remembered how to get my desktop nice and pretty with my own pictures etc. from the old Gnome. Things are looking better. Figured out how to get rid of Icons using Mint Desktop. Great, all set. Another satisfied client. Notice this is solved.

[GrayWizardLinux]

Trash what you don't want and there is a setting re: desktop that you can uncheck what you don't what. Maybe under appearance. On a Mac at the minute.

[bobcollard]

GrayWizard, Thanks for your help, got it We crossed in the mail I solved it while you wrote your reply. Marked it Solved.
Bob

[Lantesh]

Another satisfied client. Notice this is solved.

Great to hear. Welcome to the community. Please stick around and participate. I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say I'm glad you are here, and have found Mint.