Arch Linux

chrepechrep

Member

Registered: 2021-03-01

Posts: 27

[SOLVED] Slow system for no reason

Setup:
qtile
Nvidia GTX1060 6 GB
i3 8100
8 GB RAM

So my pc runs super slowly, it sometimes crashes randomly, takes up to 10 seconds to start a terminal, browser tabs randomly taking 1 minute to load even tho I have good internet, I use rofi, and sometimes it just won't start when under load, I have an i3 so until now I've just assumed it's because of having a weak CPU, but recently I've put CPU and memory usage percentages on my bar and realized that while all these things happen my CPU will be at 24% load or my ram only at 80% (swap not included), so now I'm starting to think that I am just awful at configuring and administering my pc. It's so annoying to see the computer barely moving while the bar says "CPU usage: 20.10%" I love arch, and it's the only distro I really feel comfortable in, can anyone help me find out what I am doing wrong ?

journalctl: https://gist.github.com/bccf7801d9cdfcd … ded56ee5b9
dmesg: https://gist.github.com/be615a13c91201b … 96d6134632

Thank you kindly

Last edited by chrepechrep (2021-08-21 19:05:40)

Morn

Member

Registered: 2012-09-02

Posts: 886

Re: [SOLVED] Slow system for no reason

80% RAM use is already too high and will cause excessive swapping and slowness. I have 16 GB RAM (and no swap) and typically only use 20-40% RAM. So either add more RAM or find out which apps hog too much RAM and replace them with more lightweight options.

P.S. And Linux uses free RAM as a file buffer, so if there is (almost) no free RAM for buffering, this will make the system appear much slower because everything has to be loaded from disk again and again. At least with hard disk-based systems it is very noticeable...

Last edited by Morn (2021-08-13 17:59:11)

chrepechrep

Member

Registered: 2021-03-01

Posts: 27

Re: [SOLVED] Slow system for no reason

80% RAM use is already too high and will cause excessive swapping and slowness. I have 16 GB RAM (and no swap) and typically only use 20-40% RAM. So either add more RAM or find out which apps hog too much RAM and replace them with more lightweight options.

I will add 8 GB of RAM ass soon as possible, but that's not the most annoying part. What's making me furious is seeing "CPU usage: 20% RAM usage: 10%" and waiting 20 seconds for a terminal. 80% RAM usage was really an exaggeration, I don't really get pretty frequently because before I get to 60-70 my pc is already taking 20 seconds to respond to key presses.

Morn

Member

Registered: 2012-09-02

Posts: 886

Re: [SOLVED] Slow system for no reason

Maybe then it is due to some other problem? DBUS timeout perhaps? I had to add

dbus-update-activation-environment --systemd DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS DISPLAY XAUTHORITY

to my .xinitrc to avoid the problem where e.g. starting Gnome Terminal hangs for 30 seconds or so on first launch. So if it is that problem...

But yes, adding RAM is a good idea anyway. 8 GB is really a bit marginal for Linux these days; 16 GB is much better. And like I said, maybe consider disabling swap then.

chrepechrep

Member

Registered: 2021-03-01

Posts: 27

Re: [SOLVED] Slow system for no reason

Maybe then it is due to some other problem? DBUS timeout perhaps? I had to add

dbus-update-activation-environment --systemd DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS DISPLAY XAUTHORITY

to my .xinitrc to avoid the problem where e.g. starting Gnome Terminal hangs for 30 seconds or so on first launch. So if it is that problem...

But yes, adding RAM is a good idea anyway. 8 GB is really a bit marginal for Linux these days; 16 GB is much better. And like I said, maybe consider disabling swap then.

Can you please explain how you got to that solution ? In the grand scheme of things, I am trying to learn how to configure my system better / how to be a better sysadmin / about linux in general

Also, before that, is there really nothing that I can do for my system to run better? It's arch after all, it's not that resource hogging

Last edited by chrepechrep (2021-08-13 18:17:07)

Slithery

Administrator

From: Norfolk, UK

Registered: 2013-12-01

Posts: 5,776

Re: [SOLVED] Slow system for no reason

Maybe then it is due to some other problem? DBUS timeout perhaps? I had to add

dbus-update-activation-environment --systemd DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS DISPLAY XAUTHORITY

to my .xinitrc to avoid the problem where e.g. starting Gnome Terminal hangs for 30 seconds or so on first launch.

If you had followed the ~/.xinitrc wiki page correctly then that wouldn't be necessary.

---

No, it didn't "fix" anything. It just shifted the brokeness one space to the right. - jasonwryan
Closing -- for deletion; Banning -- for muppetry. - jasonwryan

aur - dotfiles

Morn

Member

Registered: 2012-09-02

Posts: 886

Re: [SOLVED] Slow system for no reason

Maybe then it is due to some other problem? DBUS timeout perhaps? I had to add

dbus-update-activation-environment --systemd DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS DISPLAY XAUTHORITY

to my .xinitrc to avoid the problem where e.g. starting Gnome Terminal hangs for 30 seconds or so on first launch. So if it is that problem...

But yes, adding RAM is a good idea anyway. 8 GB is really a bit marginal for Linux these days; 16 GB is much better. And like I said, maybe consider disabling swap then.

Can you please explain how you got to that solution ? In the grand scheme of things, I am trying to learn how to configure my system better / how to be a better sysadmin / about linux in general

I think there was a thread on here after a system update in which users (who did not use Gnome/KDE but other window managers, I use JWM) complained that starting apps suddenly took a long time. So finding the solution was not particularly hard the first time.

However, recently some stupid software (http://5dwm.org/) nuked my .xinitrc and replaced it with its own without warning. Unfortunately I had not backed that file up. So I had to try to remember and research this issue again! That was very annoying.

Long story short, create backups of your dotfiles too. :-)

Last edited by Morn (2021-08-13 18:21:49)

chrepechrep

Member

Registered: 2021-03-01

Posts: 27

Re: [SOLVED] Slow system for no reason

Closing this as I have reinstalled arch