Arch Linux

Warper

Member

From: Quito, Ecuador

Registered: 2008-04-08

Posts: 47

HAL is provoking performance issues

Hey everyone,

Since a week or so I've experimenting some kind of hiccups or performance hitches when using my computer. I though there was something related with having XFCE or E17 besides Gnome so I uninstalled XFCE but the problems didn't disappear. Finally two days ago I decided to do fresh install of Arch but the problem reappeared immediately after reinstalling Gnome.

What happens is that the system suddenly becomes unresponsive for a second or two when it starts or when I leave the computer without touching the keyboard or the mouse for an unspecified amount of time ranging from 30 secs to 2 mins. It does not depend on the time I leave it, just happens.

I thought that this could be related to compiz-fusion, synaptics, power management or the video driver but finally I discovered that the problem is HAL. If I don't load it (removing it from the deamons) the problem simply disappears, the laptop starts without sound hiccups, the mouse is responsive, the keyboard does not duplicate characters and everything works smoothly.

Does anyone is having the same problem? Does somebody know what is happening or what can I do to solve it?

TIA
Warper

Warper

Member

From: Quito, Ecuador

Registered: 2008-04-08

Posts: 47

Re: HAL is provoking performance issues

I forgot to point this out: I have a Dell Latitude D620.

Some extra info:
Sometimes it is very annoying because you can't even start to write, the laptop kind of hangs for two or three seconds even the sound freaks out.
This is the third time I reinstall Arch, but I've discovered that if I use some Gnome based Live-CD distros like Fedora or even Ubuntu, the system acts very close to what is happening to me now.
The mouse reports that has come out of sync in dmesg and when I type anything the letter appear doubled (when they appear).
I'm using 64bit version of Arch, and since my last install I don't use any xorg.conf to see if this helps.
I'm using b43 driver for wireless but I'm sure everything began when I set hal in deamons

Could it be Gnome related? Anyone?
Can I use anything else instead of hal?

Warper

Last edited by Warper (2008-06-16 19:36:57)

Fackamato

Member

Registered: 2006-03-31

Posts: 579

Re: HAL is provoking performance issues

Disable the polling of your cdrom might help. Install powertop and run it.

Suggestion: Disable 'hal' from polling your cdrom with:
hal-disable-polling --device /dev/scd0 'hal' is the component that auto-opens a
window if you plug in a CD but disables SATA power saving from kicking in.

Warper

Member

From: Quito, Ecuador

Registered: 2008-04-08

Posts: 47

Re: HAL is provoking performance issues

Thanks for your suggestion Fackamato. I installed PowerTOP and my energy is properly handled right now, but that didn't solve my problem.
The program ran hal-disable-polling but my system keeps on hanging for 2 to 3 seconds when I leave the mouse or keyboard untouched.

Warper

Member

From: Quito, Ecuador

Registered: 2008-04-08

Posts: 47

Re: HAL is provoking performance issues

Hey everyone,

I think I found a partial solution to my problem.
I just couldn't believe that this only happened to me, now I know that this is an specific Dell D-series problem. The complete description of my problem is clearly detailed in this bugtrack from Ubuntu: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour … bug/189814
I thought this was only an Arch issue but after trying with some other live CDs including Ubuntu, Fedora and  some other Gnome based distros, I discovered that it was common to all of them. Also tried with OpenSUSE but it was even worse. Finally I tried with Zenwalk and voila the problem was not there (at least as far as I used it)
Then I upgraded the BIOS, uninstalled compiz, reinstalled it again and finally installed XFCE discovering that the problem did disappear, but for some strange reason XFCE crashed more frequently than I expected and it didn't offer all the functionality that Gnome did.
I think the wiki and the forums are very helpful but in this case the number of Ubuntu users made the difference IMO.
Anyway I think I will reinstall Arch in the near future when I get tired of using Fedora because I really liked the Arch way.
Hope this can help anyone else with the same problem, the real solution will come when HAL gets fixed.

Warper