Just installed, performance issue

geckoguykc · 2009-03-15 23:11:22

I just installed Arch on my laptop to try and get some experience with a more DIY type distro, and I'm having performance issues. Compiling my wireless driver from source took over an hour, and it only took about 10 minutes in ubuntu. I noticed that there was very little activity shown on the HD indicator LED. In ubuntu the LED would be lit up constantly when compiling anything. I think it might have something to do with my HD. I saw that having conflicting host names in the configuration files could be an issue so I checked that, but they were the same. I'm really new to this type of distro, so I'm probably missing something really obvious.

Inxsible · 2009-03-16 05:51:50

What kind of wireless driver are you using? did you not have an alternative available in the repositories or the AUR?

geckoguykc · 2009-03-16 12:41:10

To be honest I made the stupid assumption that it was not pre-installed, which it was.

A problem that has become pronounced lately is that pacman hangs when "retrieving packages from core" if I hit Ctrl+C and then run the command again it doesn't hang there. I have to do this everytime I use pacman. Does anyone know how I could fix this?

beretta · 2009-03-16 12:59:29

Some specific info about your system might be useful here. I'm still not experienced enough to tell you where to start looking, but some of the basic info would be found by running commands like lspci, lsmod, and such, and it would also help to have files like /etc/rc.conf available.

Anyone with more experience have a particular config you'd suggest we should look at first?

Ranguvar · 2009-03-16 15:02:59

Perhaps your hostname set wrong?

Check your /etc/rc.conf, the hostname should be set to something you want. Then check /etc/hosts -- there should be a line in the following format (whitespace doesn't matter):

localhost.localdomain YOURHOSTNAMEHERE.YOURDOMAINNAMEHEREORSOMERANDOMGARBAGE localhost YOURHOSTNAMEHERE

Inxsible · 2009-03-16 15:29:55

geckoguykc wrote:

To be honest I made the stupid assumption that it was not pre-installed, which it was.
A problem that has become pronounced lately is that pacman hangs when "retrieving packages from core" if I hit Ctrl+C and then run the command again it doesn't hang there. I have to do this everytime I use pacman. Does anyone know how I could fix this?

What do you mean it hangs? do you get any errors by pacman, or does it just sit there? If the latter, after you run pacman the first time and it hangs open another terminal and run

dmesg | tail

to see if there are any errors. You can also check the /var/logs.

geckoguykc · 2009-03-16 15:35:34

Oh maybe my etc/hosts is wrong. I was looking on the arch wiki and set it up in the format suggested there.

localhost.localdomain localhost hostname
^
I didn't know I was supposed to put anything here.

I'll have to try setting it up that way when I get home.

would my local domain just be the broadcast IP?

No there are no errors, it just sits there saying "retrieving packages from core/extras" and then I interrupt it and start it over and it works fine. I'm hoping that the /etc/hosts change will resolve things.

Also my GNOME crashes when I try to install a new icon theme package. I drag and drop the package onto the appearance window and it crashes. I know this is a valid theme file as I've used it successfully on other distros. I'm worried it could be instability caused by the 2.6.28 kernel, as that is what killed my ubuntu install. Also the reason I started using arch. I need to use that kernel to resolve the ACPI problems my laptop was having with previous kernels.

Last edited by geckoguykc (2009-03-16 19:10:47)

geckoguykc · 2009-03-16 19:08:19

Another problem I've noticed(probably something that could be fixed with some configuration..) is that nautilus opens a new window everytime I click on a folder. I don't know how to disable this.

geckoguykc · 2009-03-16 19:12:06

I think I'll just post a new topic about the gnome problems in the "desktop environments" section.

Inxsible · 2009-03-16 19:30:44

geckoguykc wrote:

Another problem I've noticed(probably something that could be fixed with some configuration..) is that nautilus opens a new window everytime I click on a folder. I don't know how to disable this.

In the preferences you have to select open in browser mode....or something to that effect. I haven't used Gnome in years.

geckoguykc · 2009-03-16 23:01:02

After some playing with the /etc/hosts things seem to have been fixed.

geckoguykc · 2009-03-16 23:29:13

Never mind, it has cropped back up again. I'm not really sure I configured /etc/hosts right. exactly what should I put for "localhost.localdomain"?

sand_man · 2009-03-16 23:32:28

Post your /etc/hosts file so we can see

geckoguykc · 2009-03-16 23:48:54

My hard drive performance is still terrible. When installing anything or copying files, the indicator just lights up every second or so instead of just staying lit.

Here's my /etc/hosts
"127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost lappy486"

geckoguykc · 2009-03-17 06:59:38

I'm starting to think that /etc/hosts is seriously the root of all of this. As I get deeper and deeper into my install, things are becomming noticeably slower than other distros. This is supposed to be a telltale sign of improper hotname configuration isn't it?

In rc.conf my hostname is "lappy486" and I want to make an /etc/hosts file that matches it. how do I do this. I have no domain name. I am on a wireless network with dhcp, so no static IP.....how should I make this /etc/hosts work? I desperately want to speed up this system.

kgas · 2009-03-17 08:04:37

In /etc/hosts correct your entry and make a try

#<ip-address> <hostname.domain.org> <hostname>
127.0.0.1 lappy486.localdomain lappy486

assuming you named the host as lappy486. Ensue the same host name is also in /etc/rc.conf

hope this will solve your hosts issue. :-)

Ranguvar · 2009-03-17 11:21:42

@geckoguykc, kgas: Those both are incorrect, I'm 90% sure Check my post. I'm almost positive that's the right way.

Shodan · 2009-03-17 12:17:25

/etc/hosts

127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain   localhost phantom

/etc/rc.conf in NETWORKING section

HOSTNAME="phantom"

Works fine for me, no slowdowns here.

geckoguykc · 2009-03-17 17:13:53

Is this right?

localhost.localdomain  lappy486.localdomain localhost lappy486

Am I supposed to put 127.0.0.1 at the beginning?

Statix · 2009-03-17 18:22:37

Based on the way I have mine, yours should be fine like:

127.0.0.1 lappy486.lappyland localhost.localdomain localhost lappy486

Last edited by Statix (2009-03-17 18:24:54)

geckoguykc · 2009-03-17 18:26:22

If this doesn't fix it I may just have to reinstall, maybe using the 64 bit cd. I wanted something light and fast, and now it's running very sluggish....

geckoguykc · 2009-03-17 18:36:55

That seemed to speed it up a little, but gnome is still slow. Maybe that's just gnome bloating....I'll see how xfce works out. Though the system has sped up, pacman still hangs at "retrieving pagackes" and I have to restart it. This must be some other issue

kgas · 2009-03-17 18:52:30

Mr.Ranguvar, when I installed arch first time I followed many guides. (raiden/Arch wiki/my-guide) + this video http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid … 0565640601. Since I followed this video and set the config files I keep them as it is till date :-) without any change :-). These settings still works for me. I know what is given in the wiki but left as it is.

dmartins · 2009-03-17 19:45:16

When things seem slow, have you checked the output from dmesg? Weird HD issues tend to dump messages here, if it's a hardware or driver issue anyways.

geckoguykc · 2009-03-17 19:59:53

My whole Install has become cluttered and xfce doesn't work any better. I'm going to reinstall with x86_64, and base my whole install on xfce and compiz. I'll see what happens.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-03-15 23:11:22

Just installed, performance issue

#2 2009-03-16 05:51:50

Re: Just installed, performance issue

#3 2009-03-16 12:41:10

Re: Just installed, performance issue

#4 2009-03-16 12:59:29

Re: Just installed, performance issue

#5 2009-03-16 15:02:59

Re: Just installed, performance issue

#6 2009-03-16 15:29:55

Re: Just installed, performance issue

#7 2009-03-16 15:35:34

Re: Just installed, performance issue

#8 2009-03-16 19:08:19

Re: Just installed, performance issue

#9 2009-03-16 19:12:06

Re: Just installed, performance issue

#10 2009-03-16 19:30:44

Re: Just installed, performance issue

#11 2009-03-16 23:01:02

Re: Just installed, performance issue

#12 2009-03-16 23:29:13

Re: Just installed, performance issue

#13 2009-03-16 23:32:28

Re: Just installed, performance issue

#14 2009-03-16 23:48:54

Re: Just installed, performance issue

#15 2009-03-17 06:59:38

Re: Just installed, performance issue

#16 2009-03-17 08:04:37

Re: Just installed, performance issue

#17 2009-03-17 11:21:42

Re: Just installed, performance issue

#18 2009-03-17 12:17:25

Re: Just installed, performance issue

#19 2009-03-17 17:13:53

Re: Just installed, performance issue

#20 2009-03-17 18:22:37

Re: Just installed, performance issue

#21 2009-03-17 18:26:22

Re: Just installed, performance issue

#22 2009-03-17 18:36:55

Re: Just installed, performance issue

#23 2009-03-17 18:52:30

Re: Just installed, performance issue

#24 2009-03-17 19:45:16

Re: Just installed, performance issue

#25 2009-03-17 19:59:53

Re: Just installed, performance issue

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