Absurd System Lag - Still Not Solved [SOLVED]

undeadalex · 2022-11-08 02:34:05

Greetings all. I previously made this post

And since then I am still experiencing lag to an insane degree at random times on my system. It is painful.

I have done the following:

Uninstalled all drivers that somehow were installed for non existing gpus (radeon and nvidia somehow were installed)
Disabled picom to see if that was causing anything. Disabling it had no effect
Installed and then uninstalled the f86 intel driver just to see (it had no effect aside from renaming my output devices and messing up my config for xrandr....)
Various other troubleshooting- including disconnecting the smart board I use

Restatement of problem:

The problem is that my system will experience an absurdly bad lag spike randomly and for a random length of time. Examples of how this has happened include:

Using openboard software with my smartboard and the lag being so bad we cannot write or even move the cursor with the mouse
Just trying to navigate a website in firefox (formerly chrome but problem existed then too) and watching as my keyboard input was also stupidly laggy.
Just trying to toggle between windows/tabs/etc and the mouse barely moving and generally being unresponsive.

System Details and Logs and startup/config scrips:

Here are my system details:

OS: Arch Linux x86_64
Host: Latitude 5330
Kernel: 6.0.2-arch1-1
Shell: bash 5.1.16
Resolution: 1920x1080, 1920x1080, 1920x1080
WM: i3
Theme: Adwaita [GTK2/3]
Icons: Adwaita [GTK2/3]
Terminal: gnome-terminal
CPU: 12th Gen Intel i5-1235U (12) @ 4.400GHz
GPU: Intel Alder Lake-UP3 GT2 [Iris Xe Graphics]
Memory: 15687MiB
Hard Disk: 512GB - BTRFS

Note that I use the default bar in i3-gaps and can see the system load and it is never high when the lag spikes are happening. HTOP also confirms this as it shows no major cpu use while lagging out. But who knows, could still be heavy system use? Seems like its not the case.

Logs:
Xorg
and adding grep (EE)
journalctl -p 3 -b

startup/configs:
i3 config
custom startup script

list of installed programs:
all foreigners - AURS(pacman -Qm):

astrill 3.9.0.2180-0
betterlockscreen 4.0.4-1
gnome-books 40.0-1
google-chrome 107.0.5304.87-1
i3lock-color 2.13.c.4-1
openboard 1.6.4-1
unityhub 3.3.0-1
vino 3.22.0+74+g7a95e10-1
virtualbox-ext-oracle 7.0.2-1
xclicker 1.4.0-1
xinput_calibrator 0.7.5-3

all explicitly installed (pacman -Qqe)

Please let me know what other information may be necessary to help figure this problem out. This problem is driving me insane. It goes from no issue for hours to non stop when I really need to be able to use my system normally!

Last edited by undeadalex (2022-11-10 05:30:12)

ewaller · 2022-11-08 02:45:29

Is it thrashing? (swapping to disk with a flurry of page faults)
What is the output of free when you are having problems?

undeadalex · 2022-11-08 03:26:20

ewaller wrote:

Is it thrashing? (swapping to disk with a flurry of page faults)
What is the output of free when you are having problems?

Ok so just had a lag spike, here is the output:

free
               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:        16063612     4469156     6761256     1547716     4833200     9728936
Swap:        4194300           0     4194300

ewaller · 2022-11-08 03:32:06

Nope, not thrashing. You have not touched your swap space. That's good.

Anything interesting in the journal with a timestamp that corresponds with the lag? Looking for things like I/O errors, or WiFi re-association, or DHCP lease renewals.

undeadalex · 2022-11-08 05:30:32

ewaller wrote:

Nope, not thrashing. You have not touched your swap space. That's good.
Anything interesting in the journal with a timestamp that corresponds with the lag? Looking for things like I/O errors, or WiFi re-association, or DHCP lease renewals.

The only thing I see corrosponding with my last lag spike (that I checked the journal) was this:

Nov 08 12:15:50 leman-arch kernel: usb 3-1.3.1-port1: Cannot enable. Maybe the USB cable is bad?

I have a USB mouse/keyboard cononected to a dock. The lag seems to happen even with all this disconnected though?

Here is my lsusb:

Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 0c45:6d1d Microdia Integrated_Webcam_HD
Bus 003 Device 005: ID 8087:0033 Intel Corp. 
Bus 003 Device 006: ID 413c:b06e Dell Computer Corp. Dell dock
Bus 003 Device 009: ID 413c:b06f Dell Computer Corp. Dell dock
Bus 003 Device 020: ID 04ca:00bd Lite-On Technology Corp. Dell Wireless Device
Bus 003 Device 007: ID 1403:7501 Sitronix Knorvay Wireless Presenter
Bus 003 Device 031: ID 0b8c:5002 SMART Technologies Inc. SBID-MX075
Bus 003 Device 030: ID 0424:2514 Microchip Technology, Inc. (formerly SMSC) USB 2.0 Hub
Bus 003 Device 027: ID 05e3:0610 Genesys Logic, Inc. Hub
Bus 003 Device 004: ID 0bda:5413 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. Dell dock
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 0bda:5487 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. Dell dock
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 0bda:8153 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8153 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0bda:0413 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. Dell dock
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0bda:0487 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. Dell dock
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Not really sure if there is something with hardware or what?

BTW here's the whole journal file for journalctl -p 3 -b:

Nov 08 09:46:23 leman-arch kernel: ACPI BIOS Error (bug): Could not resolve symbol [\_SB.PC00.VMD0.PEG0], AE_NOT_FOUND>
Nov 08 09:46:23 leman-arch kernel: ACPI Error: AE_NOT_FOUND, During name lookup/catalog (20220331/psobject-220)
Nov 08 09:46:23 leman-arch kernel: pci 0000:00:07.0: DPC: RP PIO log size 0 is invalid
Nov 08 09:46:23 leman-arch kernel: pci 0000:00:07.1: DPC: RP PIO log size 0 is invalid
Nov 08 09:46:23 leman-arch kernel: usb 3-1.3.1-port1: Cannot enable. Maybe the USB cable is bad?
Nov 08 09:46:28 leman-arch kernel: Bluetooth: hci0: Malformed MSFT vendor event: 0x02
Nov 08 09:46:31 leman-arch kernel: dell_smm_hwmon: unable to get SMM Dell signature
Nov 08 09:46:41 leman-arch gdm-password][1666]: gkr-pam: unable to locate daemon control file
Nov 08 09:46:43 leman-arch pulseaudio[1943]: GetManagedObjects() failed: org.freedesktop.systemd1.NoSuchUnit: Unit dbu>
Nov 08 09:46:53 leman-arch gdm-launch-environment][1292]: GLib-GObject: g_object_unref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object>
Nov 08 10:10:43 leman-arch kernel: iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Unhandled alg: 0x707
Nov 08 12:15:50 leman-arch kernel: usb 3-1.3.1-port1: Cannot enable. Maybe the USB cable is bad?

seth · 2022-11-08 09:14:58

cannot write or even move the cursor with the mouse
…
my keyboard input was also stupidly laggy.
…
the mouse barely moving

Nov 08 12:15:50 leman-arch kernel: usb 3-1.3.1-port1: Cannot enable. Maybe the USB cable is bad?

Remove *all* external usb devices, the dock, whatnot.

journalctl -p 3 -b

and don't filter the journal.
What what devices are on usb 3, they're more likely to be involved w/ the problem than others, but if the problem is limited to usb (input) while eg. videos/music keep playing fine etc. it's likely on that bus.
Also post "lspci -tvnn" and "lsusb -tv"

tpfkanep · 2022-11-08 10:35:23

FWIW - Not running arch on a laptop, but on PC and Pi4: when I experienced lag from my wireless keyboard and mouse input on both systems, I had to plug the wireless KB+M dongle into a USB extension cable and not directly into a USB port on the Pi/PC.

undeadalex · 2022-11-10 05:29:53

seth wrote:

cannot write or even move the cursor with the mouse
…
my keyboard input was also stupidly laggy.
…
the mouse barely moving
Nov 08 12:15:50 leman-arch kernel: usb 3-1.3.1-port1: Cannot enable. Maybe the USB cable is bad?
Remove *all* external usb devices, the dock, whatnot.
journalctl -p 3 -b
and don't filter the journal.
What what devices are on usb 3, they're more likely to be involved w/ the problem than others, but if the problem is limited to usb (input) while eg. videos/music keep playing fine etc. it's likely on that bus.
Also post "lspci -tvnn" and "lsusb -tv"

Ok I'm going to close the thread. I've been very busy the last two days, however those two days have been using the device the whole time, with the dongle etc. I am now very certain the issue was indeed that I had the USB M&K dongle into the dock and not directly into the laptop. I honestly cannot believe I hadn't thought of that. Obviously the dock is a bottle neck and further from the M&K than the laptop is, so there is lots of room for interference slowdown.... Occam's razor.

After moving the dongle to the laptop I have experienced no input lag. I have decided that I didn't think of this because I've never used a wireless m&k with a dock before. This was a blind spot.

Thanks for all the patience and help, really pleased this issue is [SOLVED]

undeadalex · 2022-11-10 05:31:50

tpfkanep wrote:

FWIW - Not running arch on a laptop, but on PC and Pi4: when I experienced lag from my wireless keyboard and mouse input on both systems, I had to plug the wireless KB+M dongle into a USB extension cable and not directly into a USB port on the Pi/PC.

This was exactly it (except the opposite of your situation). Was very busy with the device last two days and after moving the dongle for the m&k directly to device USB there is no input lag. I am shaking my head at the obviousness of this, I had just assumed it was a software problem, though now why I thought that I'm not sure. Thank you for the suggestion!

Last edited by undeadalex (2022-11-10 05:32:18)

Arch Linux

#1 2022-11-08 02:34:05