[SOLVED] Arch becoming slower and slower

grabbexi · 2013-09-19 13:56:53

Hi there!

My Arch has been becoming slower and slower since two months back. The laptop is fairly new - which probably makes the OS the reason.
Programs like MATLAB, Emacs and Firefox have a very long startup-time, 20-30 seconds for Emacs and around 15 for Firefox. MATLAB loads normally, then freezes when it should be done (after it opens the console etc.) and unfreezes after about half a minute. I really have no idea what to do. Emacs have no config-file to load, so it's not that slowing it down. Also, whenever I run a program and look at "top" - it doesn't display any CPU-usage. Neither of this did happen when I was running xfce. Switched to wmii, and the problems started showing ~two weeks later.

Cpupower output for my processor:

analyzing CPU 0:
  driver: intel_pstate
  CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 0
  CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 0
  maximum transition latency: 0.97 ms.
  hardware limits: 800 MHz - 3.10 GHz
  available cpufreq governors: performance, powersave
  current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 3.10 GHz.
                  The governor "performance" may decide which speed to use
                  within this range.
  current CPU frequency is 1.30 GHz (asserted by call to hardware).
  boost state support:
    Supported: yes
    Active: yes
    25500 MHz max turbo 4 active cores
    25500 MHz max turbo 3 active cores
    25500 MHz max turbo 2 active cores
    25500 MHz max turbo 1 active cores

Solution was to att output from "hostname" to end of 127.0.0.1-line in /etc/hosts.

Last edited by grabbexi (2013-09-20 19:35:22)

drcouzelis · 2013-09-19 14:44:11

Is RAM being all used up? Is your computer using swap space? (It doesn't sound like this is the problem.)

Does the problem go away if you start using XFCE again?

If you create a new user on your computer, log in as the new user, and then start the applications, are they still slow?

...as for EMACS being slow, the fix is to use Vim.

grabbexi · 2013-09-19 14:50:14

Vim is certainly faster, RAM is not used up according to Archey. ~20% usage.
I have no swap space - but would I really need one with my RAM-usage or not?

I'll try xfce again and a new user. I'll come back asap with that.

jrussell · 2013-09-19 14:57:15

Test with a new user, are you using btrfs by any chance?

WonderWoofy · 2013-09-19 15:24:56

jrussell wrote:

…are you using btrfs by any chance?

I wondered this as well, as btrfs can become quite defragmented if you don't use the autodefrag mount option from the get go. But it also doesn't sound as though this machine is old enough for this kind of defragmentation to have occurred already.

@OP I think we need a lot more information about what is going on here.

grabbexi · 2013-09-19 19:08:18

Ok, I'm back. Working more than full-time, hence the delay.

ext4-partition, so no btrfs.
New user doesn't help.
Other WMs and DEs do not help.

What more can I supply? Loading times are sometimes horrible. I mean, 20 seconds to open Emacs on a dual-core ~2.5-3 GHz, COMEON.

ewaller · 2013-09-19 20:50:14

Could you please post the output of hostname as well as the contents of /etc/hosts ??

jrmrjnck · 2013-09-20 00:22:07

Does the laptop have an ssd or hdd, and have you installed or configured laptop-mode-tools recently?

Agent69 · 2013-09-20 01:18:24

I've come back to Arch after being gone a while and it feels as fast as it ever has in general use, and way faster during the boot-up process, which I assume is due to the change of the init system. But that is just my personal impression.

grabbexi · 2013-09-20 19:14:20

jrmrjnck wrote:

Does the laptop have an ssd or hdd, and have you installed or configured laptop-mode-tools recently?

[buser@badmin ~]$ hostname
badmin

[buser@badmin ~]$ cat /etc/hosts
#
# /etc/hosts: static lookup table for host names
#

#<ip-address>	<hostname.domain.org>	<hostname>
127.0.0.1	localhost.localdomain	localhost
::1		localhost.localdomain	localhost

# End of file

Laptop has HDD, no SSD. No laptop-mode-tools at all.

ewaller · 2013-09-20 19:22:42

There's your problem !

Add badmin to your hosts file. Change the 127.0.0.1 line to:

127.0.0.1	localhost.localdomain	localhost badmin

graysky · 2013-09-20 19:26:47

ewaller wrote:

There's your problem !
Add badmin to your hosts file. Change the 127.0.0.1 line to:
127.0.0.1	localhost.localdomain	localhost badmin

You sure about that?

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners%27_Guide#Hostname wrote:

Hostname
Set the hostname to your liking (e.g. arch):
# echo myhostname > /etc/hostname
Note: There is no need to edit /etc/hosts.

Last edited by graysky (2013-09-20 19:27:10)

grabbexi · 2013-09-20 19:27:51

graysky, that's exactly what I went to look up first. Should I try it or not?

ewaller · 2013-09-20 19:32:39

Hmmm,

I have both on my system. I installed this system so long ago, I've no recollection of whether that was the way it was done back then, or if it was sheer habit from my Gentoo days.

Anyway, it won't hurt to try.

grabbexi · 2013-09-20 19:34:20

Okay, I did add my output from "hostname" to the end of 127.0.0.1-line in /etc/hosts. It works now. Nothing loads loader than 5 seconds at first-load. Thanks!

WonderWoofy · 2013-09-20 19:35:48

Yeah it shouldn't hurt anything, as the nss-myhostname is indeed used these days, but its man page even states:

nss-myhostname(8) wrote:

It is recommended to put myhostname last in the nsswitch.conf line to make sure that this mapping is only used as fallback, and any DNS or /etc/hosts based mapping takes precedence.

ewaller · 2013-09-20 19:37:38

I am trying to figure out what to do next. Clearly there is a disconnect somewhere. Either the wiki needs to be updated, or there is a need for a bug report somewhere. Thoughts, anyone?

WonderWoofy · 2013-09-20 19:44:28

I think at least the beginners guide is fine. The /etc/nsswitch.conf is set up so that you can include your hostname there or /etc/hosts, but will also automagically pull from /etc/hostname to set things up. So as long as you have your /etc/hostname file set up correctly, it should be okay.

grabbexi · 2013-09-20 19:48:01

ewaller wrote:

I am trying to figure out what to do next. Clearly there is a disconnect somewhere. Either the wiki needs to be updated, or there is a need for a bug report somewhere. Thoughts, anyone?

Maybe you could add a note to the beginner-wiki that the file MAY need editing in case of programs not mapping correctly. I seriously don't know how my hostname disappeared from there in the first place - everything was working just fine before. It couldn't be the firewall-setup I did, och WM-switch? Just curious about theories.

graysky · 2013-09-20 19:50:41

If the wiki advice is wrong, it should be edited for correctness.

ewaller · 2013-09-20 20:37:54

grabbexi wrote:

It couldn't be the firewall-setup I did, och WM-switch? Just curious about theories.

Have you ever installed Avahi ?
Could you post your /etc/nsswitch.conf file?

grabbexi · 2013-09-21 11:50:11

ewaller wrote:

grabbexi wrote:
It couldn't be the firewall-setup I did, och WM-switch? Just curious about theories.
Have you ever installed Avahi ?
Could you post your /etc/nsswitch.conf file?

I have avahi installed as a dep on some other packages: sane, gvfs, libcups. I must have been installed quite a while back, since my CUPS and Sane were both up an running two weeks after Arch. Maybe an update?

Here's the nsswitch.conf:

# Begin /etc/nsswitch.conf

passwd: files
group: files
shadow: files

publickey: files

hosts: files dns myhostname
networks: files

protocols: files
services: files
ethers: files
rpc: files

netgroup: files

# End /etc/nsswitch.conf

ewaller · 2013-09-21 16:06:26

Okay, that looks fine. As part of installing Avahi, that file is usually modified to allow discovery of other machines that use Bonjour/Avahi. If the hooks are made, but the service is not running, then it can take a long time to resolve stuff. I was wondering if that might have been the problem. The hooks are not there, so you are okay.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-09-19 13:56:53

[SOLVED] Arch becoming slower and slower

#2 2013-09-19 14:44:11

Re: [SOLVED] Arch becoming slower and slower

#3 2013-09-19 14:50:14

Re: [SOLVED] Arch becoming slower and slower

#4 2013-09-19 14:57:15

Re: [SOLVED] Arch becoming slower and slower

#5 2013-09-19 15:24:56

Re: [SOLVED] Arch becoming slower and slower

#6 2013-09-19 19:08:18

Re: [SOLVED] Arch becoming slower and slower

#7 2013-09-19 20:50:14

Re: [SOLVED] Arch becoming slower and slower

#8 2013-09-20 00:22:07

Re: [SOLVED] Arch becoming slower and slower

#9 2013-09-20 01:18:24

Re: [SOLVED] Arch becoming slower and slower

#10 2013-09-20 19:14:20

Re: [SOLVED] Arch becoming slower and slower

#11 2013-09-20 19:22:42

Re: [SOLVED] Arch becoming slower and slower

#12 2013-09-20 19:26:47

Re: [SOLVED] Arch becoming slower and slower

#13 2013-09-20 19:27:51

Re: [SOLVED] Arch becoming slower and slower

#14 2013-09-20 19:32:39

Re: [SOLVED] Arch becoming slower and slower

#15 2013-09-20 19:34:20

Re: [SOLVED] Arch becoming slower and slower

#16 2013-09-20 19:35:48

Re: [SOLVED] Arch becoming slower and slower

#17 2013-09-20 19:37:38

Re: [SOLVED] Arch becoming slower and slower

#18 2013-09-20 19:44:28

Re: [SOLVED] Arch becoming slower and slower

#19 2013-09-20 19:48:01

Re: [SOLVED] Arch becoming slower and slower

#20 2013-09-20 19:50:41

Re: [SOLVED] Arch becoming slower and slower

#21 2013-09-20 20:37:54

Re: [SOLVED] Arch becoming slower and slower

#22 2013-09-21 11:50:11

Re: [SOLVED] Arch becoming slower and slower

#23 2013-09-21 16:06:26

Re: [SOLVED] Arch becoming slower and slower

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