Re: Slow response of X
On 09:12 Wed 19 Oct , Basajaun wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I have a weird problem with the response time inside X. I am running
> Debian Etch, kernel 2.6.12-1-686-smp on a P4 3.4GHz HT with a SATA
> drive and 1GB RAM. Whenever I start X (XFCE 4.2.2), I experience the
> following problems:
>
> a) When autocompleting a command with TAB in a terminal (mrxvt), it
> "freezes" for maybe 3 seconds or more, then proceeds. After the first
> time I do it, I have "fast" autocompletions (for other commands too),
> at least for a while. I would swear that this problem is not in the
> console.
Try restarting the font server. I had a similar situation where the
font rendering slowed X down.
>
> b) When moving the cursor over the icons in the panel, I sometimes get
> delays in their focus (and trigger responsiveness). Maybe 90% of the
> time the focus is immediate, but a 10% of the times it is not, with
> delays of even 10-20 seconds!!
>
> c) Some (all?) the apps take a long time to launch. Maybe they always
> did (with my previous computers/kernels), but I'd swear that 30 seconds
> to open KMail, or over 15 to start Firefox is not quite correct.
>
> d) Right-clicking on the background produces an XFCE menu (as it should
> be), but also with a delay, sometimes null, sometimes of 3-6 seconds.
For comparison i would try a minimal WM like icewm or fluxbox. They are
easy enough to switch back and forth to compare.
>
> Somehow (don't ask me how) I thought that I could fix the problem
> compiling a custom kernel (2.6.13.4 from kernel.org), because there are
> three options that sound interesting:
>
> 1) Preemption Model: "No Forced Preemtion (Server)", "Voluntary Kernel
> Preemption (Desktop)" and "Preemptible Kernel (Low-Latency Desktop)"
>
> If I understand it right, going from first to third make the system
> less "efficient", but more responsive to user input.
>
> 2) Preempt The Big Kernel Lock"
>
> Its "help" literaly says "Say Y here if you are building a kernel for
> a desktop system"
>
> 3) Timer frequency: 100, 250 or 1000Hz
>
> From the "help": 1000 HZ is the preferred choice for desktop systems
> and other systems requiring fast interactive responses to events.
>
> Well, I compiled the damned thing with 1) at "Preemptible Kernel", 2)
> at "Y" and 3) at 1000Hz, and still have the very same problems.
I would try running the kernel with 'nosmp' and also
CONFIG_PREEMPT_NONE=y. In the past this caused some problems for people.
>
> Could it be related to the HD? I have read somewhere that ReiserFS (the
> FS I use for all my partitions) may have been so much "tweaked", that
> it was pushed too far and it has speed problems. Could it be the
> problem?
Reiserfs works optimal with lots of small files although it should'nt
have the speed problems you are experiencing.
>
> Somewhere else a guy with similar problems got a response asking if DMA
> was enabled, but my "dmesg | grep -i dma" shows:
>
> DMA zone: 4096 pages, LIFO batch:1
> ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x1F0 ctl 0x3F6 bmdma 0xFFA0 irq 14
> ata1: dev 0 ATA, max UDMA/133, 398297088 sectors: lba48
> ata1: dev 0 configured for UDMA/133
>
> is it fine?
DMA is always on when using libata/SATA.
>
> I am presently quite lost, and would appreciate any clues on how to fix
> it, or at least what info I need to provide to get the right diagnosis.
>
> TIA,
>
> Basajaun
>
>
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