[P1] slow iBook

[Zoki]

Le 23/11/2003 18:20, « Don Hinkle » <donhinkle at mac.com> a écrit :

> My iBook is noticably running slow on nearly everything, especially on
> Mail and Safari, with delays before showing messages after I click on
> them, etc.
> I do have Cocktail and run it occasionally, but I only fix permissions
> and run the Cron scripts because I don't understand the other
> utilities. The Help file doesn't explain much either because frankly
> it's too technical for me.
> Can someone spell out the other utilities and what they do in simply
> lingo?
> Much thanks in advance!
> -don


*** You might want to check if your mailboxes aren't becoming too big.
Another issue with Mail is that it becomes slower when your Address book is
filling up. It has to reread the addressbook database in order to fill in
the address field when writing a message.

My tip would be to check and purge Mail. Just take a mailbox (not a folder
with a collection of mailboxes) and drag it from Mail to your backup disk
(if you have any), otherwise to your desktop and than burn it on a CD.

Another issue you might have is your disk filling ip with data and not
having enough space for the OS X system files, like the swap.

Cocktail 3.1.1

- Journaling on/off
A way of making the disk remember the data when your system crashed. That
way it can recover missing info faster during reboot. I have it on.

- Prebind
Optimize your system. Can't hurt.

- Scripts
Run system tasks that would normally run if your Mac was running 24/24. This
is UNIX stuff. Just do it. I run "ALL" on the iBook since it's not always
on.

- Cache
Data stocked in order to speed up the system. It can become very big. Up to
you if you want to run it or not. Can't do any harm.

- Startup
Choose if you want to see what your system is doing when you're booting. Not
useful to you.

- Files Locked
If you don't know what it means... means  you don't need it... ;-))

- DS Store
GUI config files. Let them be, they don't take up that much space.

- Logs
Removes old logs. Run this once in a while.

- Links
Creates UNIX type links, like in ln -sfi [target] [link_name]. An Apple link
(create alias) doesn't allow to redirect data to another place on the disk.
UNIX links do.
Ex.: Move Mail dir to your $HOME/Documents/Mail folder, delete the original
in Library and create there a "ln -sfi /Users/[username]/Documents/Mail
Mail" link and Mail will go on working and all your mail will now go to
/Users/[username]/Documents/Mail.

- Misc
UNIX has a command called "chattr" (change attribute) which allows you to
lock files or folders in a special way.

man chattr on Linux gives this explenation:

A  file  with  the `a' attribute set can only be open in append mode for
writing.  Only the superuser can set or clear this attribute.

A file with the `c' attribute set is automatically compressed on the disk by
the kernel.  A  read from  this  file  returns  uncompressed data. A write
to this file compresses data before storing
them on the disk.

A file with the `d' attribute set is not candidate for backup when the
dump(8) program is run.

A file with the `i' attribute cannot be modified: it cannot be deleted or
renamed, no link can be
created  to this file and no data can be written to the file. Only the
superuser can set or clear
this attribute.

A file with the `j' attribute has all of its data written to the ext3
journal before being  written  to the file itself, if the filesystem is
mounted with the "data=ordered" or "data=writeback"
options.  When the filesystem is mounted with the  "data=journalled"  option
all  file  data  is already journalled and this attribute has no effect.

When  a file with the `s' attribute set is deleted, its blocks are zeroed
and written back to the
disk.

When a file with the `S' attribute set is modified, the changes are written
synchronously on  the
disk; this is equivalent to the `sync' mount option applied to a subset of
the files.

A  file  with  the 't' attribute will not have a partial block fragment at
the of the file merged
with other files (for those filesystems which  support  tail-merging).
This  is  necessary  for
applications  such  as  LILO  which  read the filesystem directly, and who
don't understand tail-
merged files.

When a file with the `u' attribute set is deleted, its contents are saved.
This allows the  user
to ask for its undeletion.

- Network optimisation
Not very complicateed

- Ports
Allows to redirect some ports in case your ISP blocks the standard ones.
Allows you to run Apache on port 6565 instead of the default port 80. Allows
you also to avoid scans on standard ports. http://www.mysite.com:6565 isn't
standard so before somebody finds you... it may take a while. You don't know
what this means? You don't need it :-)

- DHCP
Get a new lease from your ISP. Maybe you prolong the lease time of your
actual IP address or you get a new one.

- Interface and Pilot
Not very complicated.

Without joking, if you don't know what it means, you probably don't need it.
Otherwise you will have to dive more into tech stuff.

Anyhow, knowing what Cocktail does isn't the solution of your issue. Try to
take care of Mail, purge address (read= backup by dragging them (one or
several at a time) to your backup disk) and maybe empty Safari's cache and
come back to tell us if it solved your problem.

-- 
Cheers,
Zoran. 

Windows software isn't released, it's allowed to escape.