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#1 2010-03-18 17:51:44

m4co
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Registered: 2009-12-29
Posts: 117
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[SOLVED] X gets extremly slow after a while

So basically this is what happens,

I'm using Arch 64, openbox, and after a while, say 1 hour or 2, the system gets extremely slow.

Like the rendering or something. if I open Thunar and move it around fast I will just see the window jumping instead of that smooth moving (I'm also running xcompmgr).
In fact that's how I find out when the slowness starts or not.

The problem here is that I can't find out what's causing this at all.
I asked on IRC once and one suggested that this might be a cronjob.
I do have a cronjob that runs every 3 hours, pacman -Sy, and it's concidentaly when the slowness starts.

But I just removed that cronjob today and the slowness came back after a while.

I try to see what's up with 'htop' but the same applications are there for when the system was normal. The swap is ok, the ram is ok.

How can I find out what's causing this??
It sounds like a zombie proccess sucking the resources but when I sort htop by resources I see nothing unusual.

I kept doing different tests to find out what it is. Not open a specific program, change browser, but the slowness will come back eventually and I can't find out who is causing it.

The only solution is to log out and log back in and use again until it comes back.

Any ideas ?

Last edited by m4co (2010-03-20 18:56:35)


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#2 2010-03-19 00:14:56

anonymous_user
Member
Registered: 2009-08-28
Posts: 3,059

Re: [SOLVED] X gets extremly slow after a while

What graphics card and driver are you using?

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#3 2010-03-19 08:26:53

m4co
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Registered: 2009-12-29
Posts: 117
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Re: [SOLVED] X gets extremly slow after a while

Sorry, forgot to post

Nvidia - GeForce 8600M GT

Using driver 'nvidia 190.53-1'

Latest kernel and all.


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#4 2010-03-19 18:25:00

m4co
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Registered: 2009-12-29
Posts: 117
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Re: [SOLVED] X gets extremly slow after a while

Ok, so this just happened again and it's becoming shorter.

After 1 hour it became very slow so I had to re-login.

Could this be because I have too many open programs?

I have 5 busy desktops: 2 browsers opened, wine, skype, geany, etc..
Even if my ram and swap shows fine, could it be because of this multi-tasking ?

It's hard to find out because I can't stay a day without opening those sad
I'll try some different combinations though..


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#5 2010-03-19 18:53:10

Cyrusm
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From: Bozeman, MT
Registered: 2007-11-15
Posts: 1,053

Re: [SOLVED] X gets extremly slow after a while

I would first try just running the DE alone without any open programs and see if the problem comes back.  that would narrow the problem down to X or the desktop environment.  if running with no open applications doesn't cause the problem to occur, then I'd start with the different program combinations.  possibly even trying programs one by one until you can recreate the problem.  It might be tedious, but that's how I would go about it.

also, make sure to keep a sharp eye on htop, and the output of ps -aux.


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           It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.

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#6 2010-03-20 18:56:12

m4co
Member
Registered: 2009-12-29
Posts: 117
Website

Re: [SOLVED] X gets extremly slow after a while

So lucky, my first try to find out what it is and I think I got it:

xcompmgr

Not only it didn't get slow after hours but the box is soooo much faster o_o

I just logged in without loading xcompmgr and things are flying
this thing is too buggy sad

I hope it stays like that but I'm almost sure this was the weird problem


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#7 2010-03-20 20:03:19

bernarcher
Forum Fellow
From: Germany
Registered: 2009-02-17
Posts: 2,281

Re: [SOLVED] X gets extremly slow after a while

xcompmgr obviously has memory issues. Yet a simple restart of it whenever the system becomes too slow cures this easily.

I use the start/stop script from the wiki (bound to some shortcuts in openbox) to accomplish this without extra effort.

Last edited by bernarcher (2010-03-20 20:06:18)


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#8 2010-03-20 20:52:40

m4co
Member
Registered: 2009-12-29
Posts: 117
Website

Re: [SOLVED] X gets extremly slow after a while

Thanks for the suggestion.

I think I'll try it out, the problem is that without compiz openbox is much much faster so I don't know if it's worth it anymore.

I'm going to try cairo-compmgr too


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