I'm guessing this may be related to an issue mentioned in the RH5.2 install
manual (the FAQ section), where systems with 512kb of cache could not see
memory over 64 Meg, even with an "append" command in the boot script. The
result of this bug was that systems with a lot of memory had degraded
performance of the kind you are describing.
At 09:47 AM 03/02/1999 -0600, Robert Johannes wrote:
>I've a PII system with 256mb ram, 450mhz cpu and a tekram DC390F scsi
>controller card. I installed Redhat 5.2, and things run fine, but I've
>not noticed performance difference between this system and the one it
>replaced, which was a cyrix 233 with 128mb ram (1mb of L2 cache) and a
>buslogic BT-946c scsi card. The PII actually seems slower in some
>aspects, such as opening up netscape-communicator, e.t.c.
>
>
>I've looked in the /var/log messages, and I've not seen any indication
>that something is not working properly. Most of the time the system has
>about 100mb of ram listed as free when I run top.
>
>Any body has a clue as to why this system seems to be laggish, and locks
>up? Why does netscape take forever to load on a system with 256mb ram
>running at 450mhz?
