Iced Latte on a 256Mb Compaq, xxxterm stalls. (SOLVED)

[BJF]

Iced Latte installed faultlessly and works faultlessly with IceWM and the XP Theme. Except for...
xxxterm has remained my browser of choice and it does all I ask but it bogs down on random visited sites and sits indefinitely with continuous HDD activity. The CPU activity graph on the Taskbar drops to a tiny green worm at the bottom but both mouse and keyboard inputs are ignored and most times a CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE is too.

Can anyone offer an idea where to look for the solution that doesn't require input during the event, or suggest modifications to avoid it, please? They may just be hungry sites, of course, but interestingly the machine ran LXDE 2011.06 with FFox without trouble, but it quickly fell behind in updates and had none until the old HDD failed a couple of weeks ago. Obviously not recommended!!

Is it possible for the one RAM chip to have a fault too? Can this be checked other than by replacement? (Sorry, multiple questions. Just rambling..)

Thanks,
John.

[Hootiegibbon]

John,

As its just xxxterm that gets "bogged down" if you use Atl+r and type "killall xxxterm" without quotes it will kill off xxxterm without dragging down the rest of the session (if this is an earlier IcedLatte that has not had alt+r set up just launch a terminal and type "killall xxxterm"  for the same effect.

Also while xxxterm is running use the following

press escape and type a colon ":" (this puts xxxterm into a command mode) followed by "ver" (in the lower left hand corner of the browser it will show as ":ver" - and press enter this will confirm the version you are using, it should be 1.81.

The cause of the "bogdown" on some sites is due to an issue with the version of webkitgtk we utilize and affects most "basic" webkit browsers under certain circumstances - it is far less prevalent in the 1.10.0 version I am testing.

as for updates - just check weekly(or fortnightly) via synaptic and you will be ok.

As for the RAM stick, yes its possible for one to fail and not teh other, install "memtest86+" from the repo - it should then show as an option in the grub boot menu at start up, choose that and let it run - leave it for as long as you can it will show any bad areas of RAM. 

Thanks for using Iced-Latte - a new iso is on teh way, although so long as you are up to date - there is no need to reinstall it (when its released I will also publish the updated config files or up to date previous installs to be the same.

Jase




 

[BJF]

Dear Jase,

Did things to xxxterm and yes, it is V1.8.1. Then I looked at the boot choices (correct?) at start and the Install only offers Regular and Unleaded options. Normal and Safe, that is. Memtest86+ is installed, how do I tell it to do the business at Boot, please?
I'm happy to wait "until it's ready" for the next chapter. These nano-OS's are a trip! Thank you for your smarts that make them hum.

John.

[Hootiegibbon]

Dear Jase,

Did things to xxxterm and yes, it is V1.8.1. Then I looked at the boot choices (correct?) at start and the Install only offers Regular and Unleaded options. Normal and Safe, that is. Memtest86+ is installed, how do I tell it to do the business at Boot, please?
I'm happy to wait "until it's ready" for the next chapter. These nano-OS's are a trip! Thank you for your smarts that make them hum.

John.

If Memtest has not shown up as a boot option - use PCC to "redo" the bootloader (PCC> boot tab >set up  boot system) - it will see it as a bootable option then
 

Jase

[BJF]

Sorry Jase, but I don't see an opportunity to Redo MBR anywhere. No PCC> Boot tab, and nothing in the Configuration menu where I'd expect it. 

[Hootiegibbon]

Sorry Jase, but I don't see an opportunity to Redo MBR anywhere. No PCC> Boot tab, and nothing in the Configuration menu where I'd expect it. 

John,

PCC = configure your computer

Boot tab= bottom option in list on left hand side

Jase

[BJF]

Nope, sorry Jase, but I'm going to have to be spoon-fed this one. Revisited PCC>Boot and looked for options containing %memtest%, then stepped through what was available accepting defaults through to Finish. Little box said it was rewriting but still only Normal and Safe options at boot-up. Can I write it another entry at the Add option in Boot? Syntax??

Thanks,
John.

[Hootiegibbon]

Nope, sorry Jase, but I'm going to have to be spoon-fed this one. Revisited PCC>Boot and looked for options containing %memtest%, then stepped through what was available accepting defaults through to Finish. Little box said it was rewriting but still only Normal and Safe options at boot-up. Can I write it another entry at the Add option in Boot? Syntax??

Thanks,
John.

It wont have a "memtest" area , just redo the bootloader, and ensure it finishes (give it a bit of time),

When you reboot, at the grub menu there will be a "memtest" option automagically

All it takes is installing memtest and redoing the bootloader via PCC > Boot > setupboot >next > next > finished, other than clicking in that order no other interaction is required

Jase

[BJF]

Jase,
Instructions carried out. Only one 'Next', then Finish, and bootloader was rewritten in about a second. No change on boot-up still. Synaptic>Reload>Mark Updates>Apply, then: Reinstall memtest86. Run through your instructions again and note that now memtest appears before rewrite happens. And Success! I have a Memtest option at boot-up! Gonna leave it run overnight and see what it turns up. Thanks heaps for that.

(Edit:) No errors overnight. Memory chip appears fine. Perhaps it's the browser interaction after all. Looking forward to trying V1.10.0. I'll make it SOLVED.