Decrease in responsiveness, what to do?

kelnoky · 2008-11-06 17:37:48

Ok, sorry for this being very vague, but I can't help it.
Lately (no specific update or time) my system has been reacting kinda slow. For example switching workspaces is laggy, the windows from the new workspace don't become visible as fast as they used to. Switching and loading tabs in Firefox has been incredibly slow (though that's mostly Firefox' fault) and mplayer is eating a lot of memory and CPU. One thing that really bothers me is that when I watch a normal *.avi with mplayer (no gui) and load a (flashless) page in Firefox in the background the mplayer picture starts to stutter (sound stays normal) and only after the page has loaded completely the movie resumes normal playback.
More precise data on my system: I've always updated everything regularly, using mostly lightweight programs, e.g. mpd+sonata, pidgin, weechat, claws mail, aria, urxvt (the daemon even) and firefox (can't help that). WM is fluxbox. This setup has worked perfectly and very responsive some time ago, I haven't changed anything major I can think of.

So any suggestions on how to speed things up again? Where could I improve responsiveness?

Thanks in advance,
kelnoky

Damnshock · 2008-11-06 18:29:59

I just can sadly say I totally agree with your feelings. Specially speaking about qt programs which were all I used but firefox. A couple of days ago I switched to GNOME and GTK and everything seems more responsive but still....

Damnshock

PS: prelink also helps a bit, at least IMHO

jamtat · 2008-11-06 18:44:12

Did you look at dmesg output? I had a machine that was acting strangely recently--somewhat like your description. I was suspecting maybe I'd picked up a rootkit or something. I had to look at some dmesg output around that time for some reason. I noted there were all kinds of errors being reported about hard drive access there. I think this was the cause of my performance problems. I've replaced the HD now but have not used the machine enough so far to ensure the problem's gone away. I'd say take a look at dmesg output and see if everything looks fine there.

James

kelnoky · 2008-11-06 19:49:47

Nothing noteworthy in dmesg.

R00KIE · 2008-11-06 21:34:11

Maybe slocate indexing files on your disk? It makes my laptop crawl to halt. I've removed the execute privilege from that cron script, no more slocate related slowdowns.
In your case maybe something else wrong .... try to take a look at the stuff in /var/log.

kelnoky · 2008-11-07 12:19:43

Slocate is indexing at midnight every day, so that's not it as well.

kelnoky · 2008-11-12 11:23:51

Huh. I am using kazehakase instead of Firefox again (even though kaze is relatively unstable, java crashes it a lot etc.) and most of the described problems are gone. Switching workspaces is fast again, mplayer doesnt stutter when reloading some web-page.

But Firefox can't be that bad for everyone else, right? What's wrong with it here? I haven't done anything weird to my about:config, nor do I have a lot of addons activated.

pyther · 2008-11-12 13:09:29

What happens if you create a new profile? firefox -ProfileManager

I'm running firefox on a 1.6ghz atom, w/ 1GB of ram

ashyanbhog · 2008-11-12 15:35:28

did u check task manager to see if u have anything that is consuming more CPU than it should? Xorg maybe?

firecat53 · 2008-11-12 20:00:44

If you suspect firefox, try installing firefox-spookyet from AUR. It actually will compile firefox from scratch. Seems a bit faster on my system, tho I wasn't having the slowdown issues.

Scott

kelnoky · 2008-11-13 12:19:34

I was using firefox-spookyet. But I only compiled that a few days ago, it didn't change anything, imho. Maybe I should really change the profile. Or just save my bookmarks and remove the whole .mozilla folder.

@ashyanbhog
Sometimes X takes up a lot of CPU, but it goes down again fast.

jacko · 2008-11-13 13:43:29

Well, I was having slowness issues with firefox as well, Then I finally installed firefox-optimized from the AUR, SHORT compiling time, isn't linked against libgnomeui. What a difference. Then I installed and started using preload, that made a huge difference once the machine was running. Finally I disabled pango. It's used for font rendering, but once disabled my fonts stayed the same so one other thing off the list.

I have a dual core cpu, 1 gig memory, sata HD, etc... Firefox was taking literally seconds to load for me. Now it loads in about a second for first time and from then on out preload launches it in nano seconds.

I would start there, but the other suggestion of a failing HD is a probability, even a lose cable. I just fixed a PC that had a 1720 code, imminent HD failure warning. It took that machine 10 minutes to boot windows ME. So it is a possibility.

Last edited by jacko (2008-11-13 13:44:08)

TheBodziO · 2008-12-10 21:12:19

Have you checked pidgin's processes? I've got a setup on which it takes 100% of CPU spawning multiple processes in time with no apparent reason. It's a pidgin from [extra] repo.

phrakture · 2008-12-10 21:32:58

When it comes to performance issues, my first test is usually to create a new user and load um a WM under that user. It will make it easier to figure out if this is a config issue or not.

If it's JUST firefox, try disabling you extensions one-by-one. I'd suspect it may be adblock... especially if you use it with Filterset.G

Arch Linux

#1 2008-11-06 17:37:48

Decrease in responsiveness, what to do?

#2 2008-11-06 18:29:59

Re: Decrease in responsiveness, what to do?

#3 2008-11-06 18:44:12

Re: Decrease in responsiveness, what to do?

#4 2008-11-06 19:49:47

Re: Decrease in responsiveness, what to do?

#5 2008-11-06 21:34:11

Re: Decrease in responsiveness, what to do?

#6 2008-11-07 12:19:43

Re: Decrease in responsiveness, what to do?

#7 2008-11-12 11:23:51

Re: Decrease in responsiveness, what to do?

#8 2008-11-12 13:09:29

Re: Decrease in responsiveness, what to do?

#9 2008-11-12 15:35:28

Re: Decrease in responsiveness, what to do?

#10 2008-11-12 20:00:44

Re: Decrease in responsiveness, what to do?

#11 2008-11-13 12:19:34

Re: Decrease in responsiveness, what to do?

#12 2008-11-13 13:43:29

Re: Decrease in responsiveness, what to do?

#13 2008-12-10 21:12:19

Re: Decrease in responsiveness, what to do?

#14 2008-12-10 21:32:58

Re: Decrease in responsiveness, what to do?

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