try looking into the xorg log, kernel log and and dmesg and see why is is so slow. there should be something inside. if you don't see something strange maybe your dma isn't activated. have a look at hdparm -i /dev/(x)d(y) where (x) is h or s based on the stack you're using (ata or libata) and (y) is the letter of the device (a is the first device, b the second and so on). normally on ata stack you should have /dev/hda. if the asterics is on the best dma then you're ok, else you would have a great slowdown. this might happen if you're using the old hda stack without the new libata on some chipsets like the ati xpress ones, which from kernel 2.6.18 or 19 (i don't remember which) enable dma only on the libata stack after using the libata.atapi_enabled=1 in the boot menu. before doing it you must be sure to have the libata support compiled in the kernel, you have to remove the old ata one, modify your /etc/fstab to make the devices boot in the right way (modify hda in sda). these are the first things to control. if everything seems ok in the logs and the dma is activated then the problem is elsewhere. <div>2008/1/9, Samuel Thibault <<a href="mailto:samuel.thibault@ens-lyon.org"> samuel.thibault@ens-lyon.org</a>>:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">Gene Heskett, le Wed 09 Jan 2008 09:29:15 -0500, a écrit : > But it does seem to take an exceptionally long time, around a minute > to change from the c+A+f8 session back to the c+a+f7 root session. Wow, with a 1GB ram machine? You must have loads of things on your desktop to get such a long delay. I'm used to run several X sessions on my 128MB ram laptop... Samuel _______________________________________________ xorg mailing list <a href="mailto:xorg@lists.freedesktop.org"> xorg@lists.freedesktop.org</a> <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xorg">http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xorg</a> </blockquote></div> -- dott. ing. beso