Virus??

Hello,

Since I installed Zorin OS 9 the premium version it has been steadily getting worse. I have been using it for about 7 months now on my Dell Laptop inspiron 1525. At first it was great fast and flawless. Now when I type the "type" jumps all over to texts above the line being typed. Also slow in showing the letters seconds delayed between them being typed and showing up on the screen. Also images on websites don't fully shift over when a new page is loaded past page images are still there in block types overlaying the new page. I have to run the cursor over them to get rid of them and sometimes that doesn't work.
I am using google chrome. When I first installed Zorin I had to change a setting on google chrome to keep it from crashing I had to disable the "use hardware accelerator," then after the crashing stopped and everything has been working fine up until a few months when slowly and steadily the response computer has gotten worse.

How do I check for virus? I know it has little to none for a chance supposedly in the Linux world but it can still happen.

Any other remedies?

Thanks BTW when I typed "thanks," the "anks," ended up at the end of my first paragraph after, "doesn't work." That happens alot.

HI, Your jumping cursor happens in Windows too! Newer Notebooks have (not all I admit) a 'touchpad lock' function - either in the function keys or in Dell's case an application to prevent the touchpad being used while typing up a wordprocessor document etc. As for Chrome I cannot comment as the only browsers I use in Zorin are Firefox and Opera - I need to use Opera if posting a screenshot - none of the other browsers support this (and it is not just in Zorin! - Midori and IceCat won't either!). As for the general slow-down I suspect it is with the newer updates as with every kernel release there are additional lines of code added as well as amendments - the kernel releases are not something which any GNU/Linux distribution has control over - this is overseen by Linus Torvalds.

Having checked the specs of your Notebook, we don't know if it has a Celeron Processor or a duo-core processor - your other issue might be down to the Intel Graphics chipset - the people behind the GNU/Linux drivers were less than helpful of late on not supporting Long Term Releases of Ubuntu (on which Zorin 9 is based). You may be better trying Zorin 9 Lite - and if still having issues, other lightweight distros to look at are LXLE, SolydX, Xubuntu, Lubuntu.

As for a virus highly unlikely - your biggest vector threats are:

Flash, Java - these are the weakest link on any Operating System because they are not part of the system but separate applications.

Other attack vectors are not viruses but tarball files with *nix script that if not inspected before extraction can wipe your entire system using commands to do so.

I have a dual pentium processor on my laptop. Also I found that Firefox would crash on me too, it wasn't until I used Google Chrome and disabled the" use hardware accelerator", that I found a browser I could use.

I did have a lot of pictures stored on my laptop and transferred them to a stick. Could it be possible that I took up too much memory by having them on the laptop?

Thanks.

It could just be a hardware compatibility issue, particularly with older Intel Graphics may no longer be supported - try LXLE and see if you suffer the same issues.

Thanks, i will consider the LXLE and look more into it.

Hello again,

If I put in LXLE where can I go to for support?

Thanks

Here:

http://lxle.net/support

Sorry I did see that at their site, thanks though.

Are they any programs I could get rid of to make my Zorin lighter? I really only use the Laptop for surfing for news in the morning and sometimes just general surfing.

Hi, Well if you only need internet then you could get rid of all the Office Programs, all the Music and Video applications and Games - that should make it somewhat lighter!

That said, you would be best to uninstall using Synaptic Package Manager - as it will warn you if it will remove any other dependencies - you don't want to end up with a completely broken system!

Thanks. Found the Synaptic Package Manager.

Thanks

"Other attack vectors are not viruses but tarball files with *nix script"

These "tarball files," and "nix script" can I check for theses? Are they like maleware that can be removed? If so how? I thought Zorin os9 was suppose to work fine a computer that used windows XP or windows vista? I am surprised it has been acting so poorly after about six months of use.

Thanks

As I have stated elsewhere - with GNU/Linux you are the driver - in Windows you are the passenger.

I discovered on another forum that I frequented that gnome-look.org had let a theme be posted that within the tarball was a script to remove everything off the drive - this is how YOU check before extracting any tarball from an 'untrusted' site:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=6076&p=28820&hilit=Blackwolf+ubundows8#p28820

Flash and Java are cross platform - this is not a GNU/Linux issue but poor code of Flash and Java!

Thanks, I will try that.

Sounds like he may have a hardware issue.

Have you tried testing the ram and hdd for errors and bad sectors?

Yes you could be right - to test your hard drive:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/87035/ho ... erformance

OK guys I ran the first terminal command mentioned what does it mean?

Thanks

/dev/sda:
Timing cached reads: 2006 MB in 2.00 seconds = 1003.70 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 164 MB in 3.03 seconds = 54.07 MB/sec

It would be useful to find out what your make and model of drive is expected to achieve from its spec sheet. Plus you need to run the read test 3 times to get accurate readings:

http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/how-fast- ... -disk.html

Dell inspiron 1525 intel Pentium Dual Core

Memory - 2.0 GiB
Processor - Intel® Pentium(R) Dual CPU T3200 @ 2.00GHz × 2
Graphics - Intel® 965GM x86/MMX/SSE2
OS Type - 32 bit
Disk - 243.9 GB

I have this for now, I will run the test again 3 times, Thank you.

1st Test - /dev/sda:
Timing cached reads: 1922 MB in 2.00 seconds = 961.53 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 162 MB in 3.01 seconds = 53.85 MB/sec

2nd Test - /dev/sda:
Timing cached reads: 1920 MB in 2.00 seconds = 960.59 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 164 MB in 3.04 seconds = 54.03 MB/sec

3rd Test - /dev/sda:
Timing cached reads: 2032 MB in 2.00 seconds = 1016.72 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 164 MB in 3.02 seconds = 54.38 MB/sec

Thanks

OK, now compare this with your Hard Drives Tech Sheet - check with Manufacturer website - out of curiosity, how old is the hdd?

Something else for you to run at boot - change to Advanced boot for Zorin and run 'fsck' - this will check for any errors,

http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2012/08/fsc ... -examples/

Well the computer is about 6 years old. Thanks I will get back to you on the rest.

Merry Christmas!

Download and run memtest on a cd to test out the ram.

Download and run partition wizard on a cd to test for bad sectors on a hdd.

BTW, the cpu on that laptop is a bottom of the barrel one even when the laptop was new, very slow.

IceDigger wrote:BTW, the cpu on that laptop is a bottom of the barrel one even when the laptop was new, very slow.

That's good to know, I do have the LxLE on disc and knowing what you just stated is making me think I should just install it. I did download FS
lint and that did seem to help considerably.

Thanks

Thanks guys for your help! I am just going to install LXLE and see how that goes.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!