Hi, I installed MintPPC 11 to see if I could give my Pismo a useful life again. It's a 500mhz model with 640MB of RAM installed.

Problem is, it is EXTREMELY slow from the very start. I've just finished installing it and I don't see how I will ever be able to use it. The graphics performance is just way too laggy. Every window I move leaves trails behind it while it struggles to redraw. I tried to check out the CPU graph on the system monitor and as soon as the graph starts drawing the CPU usage goes up to 100%. Even just checking the process list instead of the graph uses around 15% of the CPU just to update the list once per second. That's really awful! It makes it feel very unresponsive at times. Even OS X 10.4 runs better, and it's pretty hefty for this machine.

It reminds me of trying to use an OS on a PC with just basic VESA drivers-- everything is being done in software. I thought that Linux had a driver for the Rage 128-- does it not work because it's so old?

Is there a way to improve this? Did something get configured wrong? I was under the impression that MintPPC was supposed to be fast and lightweight, and many people have recommend using it on a Pismo, but I don't see how it can be so strongly recommended when the whole thing is held back by this. I feel like I must be missing something, so if you know what's up, let me know.

You might want to try this:
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=827

I don't experience what you describe, I own a Pismo 400, which runs rather well with MintPPC 11.

No, your graphics performance should not be that lousy. I have a Wallstreet (two models and 2 years earlier than your pismo) with an even older version of the r128 mobile and it runs fine. Obviously, moving windows super fast leaves a small trail, but nothing to complain about. My guess is that something is wrong in your system.