Google chrome in Windows 7 in Ubuntu – speed differences

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Problem :

I’ve recently converted to Linux (Ubuntu 11.04) and installed Google Chrome (not chromium). To my surprise it works very slow. The firefox included in the ditro is much faster (2-4 times as fast, sometimes more) – consistently.

Strangely enough, a chrome running in a Windows 7 VM (virtual box, NAT bridging) is working much faster as well – just as fast as I was used to before going the linux way.

Why? How can I fix the linux chrome?

Details: Ubuntu 11.04, up-to-date. Linux chrome: 13.0.782.218. Windows chrome: 13.0.782.218 m. No proxy.

Solution :

Found the issue!
Apparently it was DNS resolving – but chrome didn’t report it as so. Specifically, mdns services.
To fix, edit /etc/nsswitch.conf (sudo of course). Replace this line

hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4

with this (drop mdns4_minimal and mdns4):

hosts: files dns

then restart networking by running:

sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

Another thing (not related to the question but I found while searching) you can add is “wins” to enable windows domain resolving.

Strange that FF wasn’t affected by the same thing. Does it have its own DNS resolving?

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