Arch Linux

Gigadoc 2

Member

Registered: 2009-11-14

Posts: 16

Website

General system slowness

Hi,

I am running Arch on my desktop for some years now (without reinstalling), but lately it seems to become very slow. For example, the first started terminal in a new session takes about 5 seconds to show the prompt. Also, input/display lags occur eventually (like typing in a ssh-session over wlan).

First i thougth it was KDE's fault, but since my system keeps getting slower even after a hardware-upgrade, I am in doubt about this…

I am writing this post from an openbox-session, but even now pacman needs nearly a minute to start up, if it's the first time in a session.

To me, this symptoms are looking like fragmentation problems, but on ext4 there is no fragmentation, right?

I would be very thankfully if someone helps me find the bottleneck, may it be hardware or software. Here is the output of lshw:

copernicus
    description: Desktop Computer
    product: System Product Name (To Be Filled By O.E.M.)
    vendor: System manufacturer
    version: System Version
    serial: System Serial Number
    width: 64 bits
    capabilities: smbios-2.6 dmi-2.6 vsyscall64 vsyscall32
    configuration: boot=normal chassis=desktop family=To Be Filled By O.E.M. sku=To Be Filled By O.E.M. uuid=00EDE836-7B4A-E011-8423-F46D04073FD4
  *-core
       description: Motherboard
       product: M4A87TD/USB3
       vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
       physical id: 0
       version: Rev 1.xx
       serial: 108996730001699
       slot: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
     *-firmware
          description: BIOS
          vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
          physical id: 0
          version: 1102
          date: 12/09/2010
          size: 64KiB
          capacity: 960KiB
          capabilities: isa pci pnp upgrade shadowing escd cdboot bootselect socketedrom edd int13floppy1200 int13floppy720 int13floppy2880 int5printscreen int9keyboard int14serial int17printer int10video acpi usb ls120boot zipboot biosbootspecification
     *-cpu
          description: CPU
          product: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 955 Processor
          vendor: Hynix Semiconductor (Hyundai Electronics)
          physical id: 4
          bus info: cpu@0
          version: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 955 Processor
          serial: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
          slot: AM3
          size: 3467MHz
          width: 64 bits
          clock: 200MHz
          capabilities: x86-64 fpu fpu_exception wp vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt pdpe1gb rdtscp 3dnowext 3dnow constant_tsc rep_good nopl nonstop_tsc extd_apicid pni monitor cx16 popcnt lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8_legacy abm sse4a misalignsse 3dnowprefetch osvw ibs skinit wdt npt lbrv svm_lock nrip_save
          configuration: cores=4 enabledcores=4
        *-cache:0
             description: L1 cache
             physical id: 5
             slot: L1-Cache
             size: 512KiB
             capacity: 512KiB
             capabilities: pipeline-burst internal varies
        *-cache:1
             description: L2 cache
             physical id: 6
             slot: L2-Cache
             size: 2MiB
             capacity: 2MiB
             capabilities: pipeline-burst internal varies
        *-cache:2
             description: L3 cache
             physical id: 7
             slot: L3-Cache
             size: 6MiB
             capacity: 6MiB
             capabilities: pipeline-burst internal varies
     *-memory
          description: System Memory
          physical id: 2c
          slot: System board or motherboard
          size: 4GiB
        *-bank:0
             description: DIMM Synchronous 533 MHz (1,9 ns)
             product: 9905403-173.A00LF
             vendor: Kingston
             physical id: 0
             serial: 3A62075C
             slot: DIMM0
             size: 2GiB
             width: 64 bits
             clock: 533MHz (1.9ns)
        *-bank:1
             description: DIMM Synchronous 533 MHz (1,9 ns)
             product: 9905403-173.A00LF
             vendor: Kingston
             physical id: 1
             serial: 3A37075B
             slot: DIMM1
             size: 2GiB
             width: 64 bits
             clock: 533MHz (1.9ns)
        *-bank:2
             description: [empty]
             product: ModulePartNumber02
             vendor: Manufacturer02
             physical id: 2
             serial: SerNum02
             slot: DIMM2
        *-bank:3
             description: [empty]
             product: ModulePartNumber03
             vendor: Manufacturer03
             physical id: 3
             serial: SerNum03
             slot: DIMM3
     *-pci:0
          description: Host bridge
          product: RX780/RX790 Chipset Host Bridge
          vendor: ATI Technologies Inc
          physical id: 100
          bus info: pci@0000:00:00.0
          version: 00
          width: 64 bits
          clock: 66MHz
          resources: memory:0-1fffffff
        *-pci:0
             description: PCI bridge
             product: RD790 PCI to PCI bridge (external gfx0 port A)
             vendor: ATI Technologies Inc
             physical id: 2
             bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
             version: 00
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: pci pm pciexpress msi ht normal_decode bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=pcieport
             resources: irq:40 ioport:e000(size=4096) memory:fc000000-fe9fffff ioport:d4000000(size=201326592)
           *-display
                description: VGA compatible controller
                product: nVidia Corporation
                vendor: nVidia Corporation
                physical id: 0
                bus info: pci@0000:05:00.0
                version: a1
                width: 64 bits
                clock: 33MHz
                capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
                configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
                resources: irq:18 memory:fc000000-fdffffff memory:d8000000-dfffffff memory:d4000000-d7ffffff ioport:ec00(size=128) memory:fe980000-fe9fffff
           *-multimedia
                description: Audio device
                product: nVidia Corporation
                vendor: nVidia Corporation
                physical id: 0.1
                bus info: pci@0000:05:00.1
                version: a1
                width: 32 bits
                clock: 33MHz
                capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
                configuration: driver=HDA Intel latency=0
                resources: irq:19 memory:fe97c000-fe97ffff
        *-pci:1
             description: PCI bridge
             product: RD790 PCI to PCI bridge (PCI express gpp port E)
             vendor: ATI Technologies Inc
             physical id: 9
             bus info: pci@0000:00:09.0
             version: 00
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: pci pm pciexpress msi ht normal_decode bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=pcieport
             resources: irq:41 ioport:d000(size=4096)
           *-ide
                description: IDE interface
                product: JMB368 IDE controller
                vendor: JMicron Technology Corp.
                physical id: 0
                bus info: pci@0000:04:00.0
                logical name: scsi0
                version: 00
                width: 32 bits
                clock: 33MHz
                capabilities: ide pm pciexpress bus_master cap_list emulated
                configuration: driver=pata_jmicron latency=0
                resources: irq:17 ioport:dc00(size=8) ioport:d880(size=4) ioport:d800(size=8) ioport:d480(size=4) ioport:d400(size=16)
              *-cdrom:0
                   description: DVD-RAM writer
                   product: DVDRAM GSA-4163B
                   vendor: HL-DT-ST
                   physical id: 0.0.0
                   bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0
                   logical name: /dev/scd0
                   logical name: /dev/sr0
                   version: A103
                   capabilities: removable audio cd-r cd-rw dvd dvd-r dvd-ram
                   configuration: ansiversion=5 status=nodisc
              *-cdrom:1
                   description: CD-R/CD-RW writer
                   product: CD-RW CRW4850
                   vendor: AOPEN
                   physical id: 0.1.0
                   bus info: scsi@0:0.1.0
                   logical name: /dev/scd1
                   logical name: /dev/sr1
                   version: 1.02
                   serial: [
                   capabilities: removable audio cd-r cd-rw
                   configuration: ansiversion=5 status=nodisc
        *-pci:2
             description: PCI bridge
             product: RD790 PCI to PCI bridge (PCI express gpp port F)
             vendor: ATI Technologies Inc
             physical id: a
             bus info: pci@0000:00:0a.0
             version: 00
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: pci pm pciexpress msi ht normal_decode bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=pcieport
             resources: irq:42 memory:fbf00000-fbffffff
           *-usb
                description: USB Controller
                product: uPD720200 USB 3.0 Host Controller
                vendor: NEC Corporation
                physical id: 0
                bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
                version: 03
                width: 64 bits
                clock: 33MHz
                capabilities: pm msi msix pciexpress xhci bus_master cap_list
                configuration: driver=xhci_hcd latency=0
                resources: irq:18 memory:fbffa000-fbffbfff
        *-storage
             description: SATA controller
             product: SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 SATA Controller [AHCI mode]
             vendor: ATI Technologies Inc
             physical id: 11
             bus info: pci@0000:00:11.0
             logical name: scsi2
             logical name: scsi3
             version: 40
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 66MHz
             capabilities: storage msi ahci_1.0 bus_master cap_list emulated
             configuration: driver=ahci latency=64
             resources: irq:49 ioport:a000(size=8) ioport:9000(size=4) ioport:8000(size=8) ioport:7000(size=4) ioport:6000(size=16) memory:f3ffa000-f3ffa3ff
           *-disk:0
                description: ATA Disk
                product: WDC WD3200AAJS-0
                vendor: Western Digital
                physical id: 0
                bus info: scsi@2:0.0.0
                logical name: /dev/sda
                version: 01.0
                serial: WD-WCAT15280850
                size: 298GiB (320GB)
                capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
                configuration: ansiversion=5 signature=0004f351
              *-volume:0
                   description: Windows NTFS volume
                   physical id: 1
                   bus info: scsi@2:0.0.0,1
                   logical name: /dev/sda1
                   version: 3.1
                   serial: 6850-d868
                   size: 98MiB
                   capacity: 100MiB
                   capabilities: primary bootable ntfs initialized
                   configuration: clustersize=4096 created=2010-12-20 06:32:39 filesystem=ntfs label=System Reserved state=clean
              *-volume:1
                   description: Windows NTFS volume
                   physical id: 2
                   bus info: scsi@2:0.0.0,2
                   logical name: /dev/sda2
                   version: 3.1
                   serial: 222a3f4b-79a8-764e-b90f-48224c08d5d0
                   size: 197GiB
                   capacity: 197GiB
                   capabilities: primary ntfs initialized
                   configuration: clustersize=4096 created=2011-08-04 11:23:16 filesystem=ntfs state=clean
              *-volume:2
                   description: EXT4 volume
                   vendor: Linux
                   physical id: 3
                   bus info: scsi@2:0.0.0,3
                   logical name: /dev/sda3
                   logical name: /
                   version: 1.0
                   serial: b17c9702-2f62-41e4-9d64-b10cf4524a06
                   size: 49GiB
                   capacity: 49GiB
                   capabilities: primary journaled extended_attributes large_files huge_files dir_nlink recover extents ext4 ext2 initialized
                   configuration: created=2010-09-28 22:59:26 filesystem=ext4 label=Root lastmountpoint=/ modified=2011-09-10 18:50:10 mount.fstype=ext4 mount.options=rw,relatime,user_xattr,acl,barrier=1,data=ordered mounted=2011-09-11 03:34:54 state=mounted
              *-volume:3
                   description: Extended partition
                   physical id: 4
                   bus info: scsi@2:0.0.0,4
                   logical name: /dev/sda4
                   size: 50GiB
                   capacity: 50GiB
                   capabilities: primary extended partitioned partitioned:extended
                 *-logicalvolume:0
                      description: Linux filesystem partition
                      physical id: 5
                      logical name: /dev/sda5
                      capacity: 500MiB
                 *-logicalvolume:1
                      description: Linux LVM Physical Volume partition
                      physical id: 6
                      logical name: /dev/sda6
                      serial: cV4wDu-5bgw-YjLd-4WrU-3S2B-0b0e-IZnL3N
                      size: 49GiB
                      capacity: 49GiB
                      capabilities: multi lvm2
           *-disk:1
                description: ATA Disk
                product: WDC WD2500JS-75N
                vendor: Western Digital
                physical id: 1
                bus info: scsi@3:0.0.0
                logical name: /dev/sdb
                version: 10.0
                serial: WD-WCANK2493875
                size: 232GiB (250GB)
                capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
                configuration: ansiversion=5 signature=6f51095e
              *-volume
                   description: EXT4 volume
                   vendor: Linux
                   physical id: 1
                   bus info: scsi@3:0.0.0,1
                   logical name: /dev/sdb1
                   logical name: /home
                   version: 1.0
                   serial: b2fd972e-99f5-4bcc-b87c-7859d55cb20c
                   size: 232GiB
                   capacity: 232GiB
                   capabilities: primary journaled extended_attributes large_files huge_files dir_nlink recover extents ext4 ext2 initialized
                   configuration: created=2010-05-30 02:38:07 filesystem=ext4 label=/home lastmountpoint=/home modified=2011-09-11 03:34:54 mount.fstype=ext4 mount.options=rw,relatime,user_xattr,acl,barrier=1,data=ordered mounted=2011-09-11 03:34:54 state=mounted
        *-usb:0
             description: USB Controller
             product: SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller
             vendor: ATI Technologies Inc
             physical id: 12
             bus info: pci@0000:00:12.0
             version: 00
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 66MHz
             capabilities: ohci bus_master
             configuration: driver=ohci_hcd latency=64
             resources: irq:18 memory:f3ff3000-f3ff3fff
        *-usb:1
             description: USB Controller
             product: SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller
             vendor: ATI Technologies Inc
             physical id: 12.2
             bus info: pci@0000:00:12.2
             version: 00
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 66MHz
             capabilities: pm debug ehci bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=ehci_hcd latency=64
             resources: irq:17 memory:f3ffa400-f3ffa4ff
        *-usb:2
             description: USB Controller
             product: SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller
             vendor: ATI Technologies Inc
             physical id: 13
             bus info: pci@0000:00:13.0
             version: 00
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 66MHz
             capabilities: ohci bus_master
             configuration: driver=ohci_hcd latency=64
             resources: irq:18 memory:f3ff8000-f3ff8fff
        *-usb:3
             description: USB Controller
             product: SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller
             vendor: ATI Technologies Inc
             physical id: 13.2
             bus info: pci@0000:00:13.2
             version: 00
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 66MHz
             capabilities: pm debug ehci bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=ehci_hcd latency=64
             resources: irq:17 memory:f3ffa800-f3ffa8ff
        *-serial
             description: SMBus
             product: SBx00 SMBus Controller
             vendor: ATI Technologies Inc
             physical id: 14
             bus info: pci@0000:00:14.0
             version: 42
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 66MHz
             configuration: driver=piix4_smbus latency=0
             resources: irq:0
        *-multimedia
             description: Audio device
             product: SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)
             vendor: ATI Technologies Inc
             physical id: 14.2
             bus info: pci@0000:00:14.2
             version: 40
             width: 64 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=HDA Intel latency=64
             resources: irq:16 memory:f3ff4000-f3ff7fff
        *-isa
             description: ISA bridge
             product: SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 LPC host controller
             vendor: ATI Technologies Inc
             physical id: 14.3
             bus info: pci@0000:00:14.3
             version: 40
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 66MHz
             capabilities: isa bus_master
             configuration: latency=0
        *-pci:3
             description: PCI bridge
             product: SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge
             vendor: ATI Technologies Inc
             physical id: 14.4
             bus info: pci@0000:00:14.4
             version: 40
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 66MHz
             capabilities: pci subtractive_decode bus_master
             resources: ioport:c000(size=4096) memory:f4000000-fbdfffff
           *-multimedia
                description: Multimedia audio controller
                product: SB X-Fi
                vendor: Creative Labs
                physical id: 7
                bus info: pci@0000:02:07.0
                version: 00
                width: 64 bits
                clock: 33MHz
                capabilities: pm msi bus_master cap_list
                configuration: driver=SB-XFi latency=64 maxlatency=5 mingnt=4
                resources: irq:22 ioport:cc00(size=32) memory:fbc00000-fbdfffff memory:f4000000-f7ffffff
        *-usb:4
             description: USB Controller
             product: SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI2 Controller
             vendor: ATI Technologies Inc
             physical id: 14.5
             bus info: pci@0000:00:14.5
             version: 00
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 66MHz
             capabilities: ohci bus_master
             configuration: driver=ohci_hcd latency=64
             resources: irq:18 memory:f3ff9000-f3ff9fff
        *-pci:4
             description: PCI bridge
             product: ATI Technologies Inc
             vendor: ATI Technologies Inc
             physical id: 15
             bus info: pci@0000:00:15.0
             version: 00
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: pci pm pciexpress msi ht normal_decode bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=pcieport
             resources: irq:43 ioport:b000(size=4096) ioport:d3f00000(size=1048576)
           *-network
                description: Ethernet interface
                product: RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller
                vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
                physical id: 0
                bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
                logical name: eth0
                version: 06
                serial: f4:6d:04:07:3f:d4
                size: 100Mbit/s
                capacity: 1Gbit/s
                width: 64 bits
                clock: 33MHz
                capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix vpd bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
                configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=2.3LK-NAPI duplex=full firmware=rtl_nic/rtl8168e-2.fw ip=192.168.1.173 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=MII speed=100Mbit/s
                resources: irq:50 ioport:b800(size=256) memory:d3fff000-d3ffffff memory:d3ff8000-d3ffbfff
        *-usb:5
             description: USB Controller
             product: SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller
             vendor: ATI Technologies Inc
             physical id: 16
             bus info: pci@0000:00:16.0
             version: 00
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 66MHz
             capabilities: ohci bus_master
             configuration: driver=ohci_hcd latency=64
             resources: irq:18 memory:f3ffb000-f3ffbfff
        *-usb:6
             description: USB Controller
             product: SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller
             vendor: ATI Technologies Inc
             physical id: 16.2
             bus info: pci@0000:00:16.2
             version: 00
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 66MHz
             capabilities: pm debug ehci bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=ehci_hcd latency=64
             resources: irq:17 memory:f3ffac00-f3ffacff
     *-pci:1
          description: Host bridge
          product: Family 10h Processor HyperTransport Configuration
          vendor: Hynix Semiconductor (Hyundai Electronics)
          physical id: 101
          bus info: pci@0000:00:18.0
          version: 00
          width: 32 bits
          clock: 33MHz
     *-pci:2
          description: Host bridge
          product: Family 10h Processor Address Map
          vendor: Hynix Semiconductor (Hyundai Electronics)
          physical id: 102
          bus info: pci@0000:00:18.1
          version: 00
          width: 32 bits
          clock: 33MHz
     *-pci:3
          description: Host bridge
          product: Family 10h Processor DRAM Controller
          vendor: Hynix Semiconductor (Hyundai Electronics)
          physical id: 103
          bus info: pci@0000:00:18.2
          version: 00
          width: 32 bits
          clock: 33MHz
     *-pci:4
          description: Host bridge
          product: Family 10h Processor Miscellaneous Control
          vendor: Hynix Semiconductor (Hyundai Electronics)
          physical id: 104
          bus info: pci@0000:00:18.3
          version: 00
          width: 32 bits
          clock: 33MHz
          configuration: driver=k10temp
          resources: irq:0
     *-pci:5
          description: Host bridge
          product: Family 10h Processor Link Control
          vendor: Hynix Semiconductor (Hyundai Electronics)
          physical id: 105
          bus info: pci@0000:00:18.4
          version: 00
          width: 32 bits
          clock: 33MHz

karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: General system slowness

pacman does need some time on the first run, but if it's really a minute - something is wrong.

Not sure if related, but we have already two threads about typing delay:
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=126252
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=126260

Gigadoc 2

Member

Registered: 2009-11-14

Posts: 16

Website

Re: General system slowness

Thanks for the links, I will follow the last topic, since it may be relevant.

What makes me shure that pacman's load time is not normal, is that it was faster once - even with slower hardware.

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 19,774

Re: General system slowness

Have you checked what your system load is like?  What does htop (or top) tell you?

Any chance that your KDE indexing service is chocking on a pdf file?

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karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: General system slowness

iotop can be of use too - especially if one of the issues is pacman starting a bit slow.

rwd

Member

Registered: 2009-02-08

Posts: 664

Re: General system slowness

the slowness with ssh sessions could be network related, not system related. For example a router that is badly configured or some process eating up bandwidth or bombarding the network with broadcast messages (avahi).

Gigadoc 2

Member

Registered: 2009-11-14

Posts: 16

Website

Re: General system slowness

System load is about 0.50 0.64 0.31 under KDE, an openbox-session has a bit more than the half of that.
iotop says, that there is almost no writing to or reading from disk. When starting pacman, it takes about 4% of IO capabilities.
Strigi says, that it is not actively scanning files.

@rwd:
I just mentioned ssh for comparison. The input lag I experience can be compared with a ssh-session over a bad connection, but I get this lag/freeze regardless of the program i am using.