UBUNTU firefox and flashplayer problem. Very slow as if it hangs.

[William Gaatjes]

Hi,

I have recently installed ubuntu on an old compaq nx6125 for a friend.
He uses it mainly for web browsing. And there lies the problem.
I installed the latest firefox and the latest adobe flashplayer both available for linux.

yet it is slow as hell.

I have already disabled all ubuntu extensions for firefox.
And i found by googling some more optimizations that i can try.
But how do i solve the slow firefox with flash content ?

Do i need to do something with my graphic drivers ?
I cannot find my graphics card in ubuntu. All other hardware is listed in system.

Does anybody know what to do ?

 

[bbhaag]

Those are pretty lowly specs for a modern OS like Ubuntu 14.04. Single core Turions were slow from the get go. How much ram is installed?
ATI has abandoned anything older than the 4xxx series cards so you are relying on open source drivers(xorg)which honestly aren't as good.

What exactly do you mean by slow? Is it slow to load pages with video or just web pages in general are slow to load? Also what version of flash did you install? The latest release for Linux based systems is 11.2.202.429.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Those are pretty lowly specs for a modern OS like Ubuntu 14.04. Single core Turions were slow from the get go. How much ram is installed?
ATI has abandoned anything older than the 4xxx series cards so you are relying on open source drivers(xorg)which honestly aren't as good.

What exactly do you mean by slow? Is it slow to load pages with video or just web pages in general are slow to load? Also what version of flash did you install? The latest release for Linux based systems is 11.2.202.429.

I was going to write pretty much the same...

Most important is how much memory there is available. I'd see if I couldn't track down some compatible memory to upgrade to 2GB. The chipset does no appear to support more unfortunately. Don't spend too much on it. But no matter what you do, that single core CPU will hold you back.

I wouldn't worry too much about the graphics. The ATI Radeon Xpress 200M doesn't have useful video acceleration anyway, so long as there is a picture on screen everything is all-right.

In the end, I'd advise your friend to begin saving for a new PC. Doesn't have to be anything fancy, even a cheap Bay Trail laptop (think HP Stream or similar) will run circles around that Turion...

 

[lxskllr]

Unity's pretty heavy. I'd use Lxde or Xfce on that machine.

 

[William Gaatjes]

I opened up firefox and it works great. Until i get flash based content. For example a folder with reduced prices for groceries. Firefox just seems to stop responding and i have to shut it down.

I will have a look at those graphic drivers but i am afraid it is not going to work. Why is Ubuntu so heavy ? Seems like windows xp.

Reading that there is no hardware acceleration for flashplayer under linux gives me a bad vibe. My friend is willing to install windows 7 on the laptop. I warned him it will be slow but it is just for his wife to do some browsing. Unfortunately she uses facebook and just flash riddles sites of shops.

Maybe chrome OS will work ?

 

[Jodell88]

I opened up firefox and it works great. Until i get flash based content. For example a folder with reduced prices for groceries. Firefox just seems to stop responding and i have to shut it down.

I will have a look at those graphic drivers but i am afraid it is not going to work. Why is Ubuntu so heavy ? Seems like windows xp.

Reading that there is no hardware acceleration for flashplayer under linux gives me a bad vibe. My friend is willing to install windows 7 on the laptop. I warned him it will be slow but it is just for his wife to do some browsing. Unfortunately she uses facebook and just flash riddles sites of shops.

Maybe chrome OS will work ?

Even if you were to use Windows, it still would not have hardware acceleration for flash.

 

[William Gaatjes]

Even if you were to use Windows, it still would not have hardware acceleration for flash.

Why ?

Is the graphics chipset driver for windows too old ?

 

[Jodell88]

Why ?

Is the graphics chipset driver for windows too old ?

Hardware doesn't support it.

 

[escrow4]

Its 10yrs old. I think it may be time to upgrade. Even a $200 Bay Trail HP Stream would be faster with better battery life.

 

[lxskllr]

Even a $200 Bay Trail HP Stream would be faster with better battery life.

I got one of those for my daughter for Xmas. It's a nice little machine, and would get one myself if I needed a laptop.

 

[William Gaatjes]

Well, my friend removed ubuntu and installed windows 7. I am going to check later on how it is running and what version of W7 he has running. If it can run facebook and flash riddled websites (videos excluded) i am content with it.

 

[ph2000]

it's not from ubuntu
flash support in linux is bad
and the way firefox handle thread is even more problem
official release of flash in linux is 11.2
which is far from windows version
using pepperflash give newer version though
but performance is still lacking, flash can easily lock FF
better switch to chrome/chromium
better flash performance