Mandriva 2006 Control Center in disk loop?

Another Dave wrote:

> I've just done a clean (i.e. not update) install of Mandriva 2006.
> Everything went fine except I couldn't install my speedtouch 330 ADSL
> modem.
>
> I've booted up into KDE and everything seems OK. However when I attempt
> to go into the Mandriva Linux Control Center it loops i.e. the mouse
> cursor becomes VERY sluggish and jerky and the disk activity light
> glimmers (like my brain) constantly. I'm in "root" and it happens as
> soon as I select any hardware configuration i.e. it isn't a speedtouch
> problem nor is it a patience problem as it does it for at least half an
> hour. I only have 128meg of memory and I neglected to set up a swap
> partition - could this have anything to do with it?
>
> I've tried:
>
> find / -xdev -iname "*.lock"
>
> but couldn't see anything obvious.
>
> Any ideas gratefully received.
>
> Another Dave

Well - running KDE already consumes a lot of memory. If you did not set
up a swap partition chances are *very* big you run out of memory if you
do something more than a bit browsing. Also - there is a very intensive
disk and memory using program called "Kat". It uses a huge lot of
resources and can bring your computer down to a crawling state.

So -- My first advice is to stop Kat (the pussy symbol sitting on the
right of your task bar) as soon as the computer is started up. I myself
got sick of it and removed the package completely.

My second advice is to create and use a swap partition as soon as
possible. Using 128Mb memory without a swap file with a rich desktop
like KDE is a good way to teach yourself to have a *lot* of patience. If
you insist not to use a swap file (really not advisable) then use a less
memory hungry desktop manager.

John.