Arch Linux

synthead

Member

Registered: 2006-05-09

Posts: 1,345

Arch instance living on USB mass storage device is very slow

I installed an instance of Arch on a USB stick.  This is a full installation, not a ramdisk-based "installer" or anything.  However, this little guy is very, very slow.  Sometimes, I have to wait for almost a minute between writes while the UI locks up (XFCE4, in case you're curious).

I think a lot of the problem comes from iowait load and pending write requests.  I've been considering experimenting with data=writeback, but I've never used this ext option before, and thought I'd ask you guys about it first.  I hear that sudden power failure can lead to pretty severe data loss with writeback enabled.  Anyone have any experience with this?  Are there any other tweaks I can apply to increase performance that would be appropriate for a USB mass storage device?  I have noatime enabled, but that only gives it an almost unnoticeable bump.

hifi25nl

Member

Registered: 2011-05-07

Posts: 264

Re: Arch instance living on USB mass storage device is very slow

Did you check this?
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=183190

see post #12

Last edited by hifi25nl (2014-09-08 20:47:51)

emeres

Member

Registered: 2013-10-08

Posts: 1,570

Re: Arch instance living on USB mass storage device is very slow

@hifi25nl You can link a post directly, by copying the link that is behind the date, at least with my theme, on the same height as the post number.
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 2#p1428782