System being incredibly slow, no idea why. Suggestions?

Declan · 2010-07-18 15:26:34

litemotiv wrote:

Declan wrote:
If I had to guess, I suspect it's an X problem. The fact that it was being slow at the gdm screen makes me think that. What can I do to test?
try out without gdm (run openbox straight from the console, see the openbox wiki page for information)
I've actually wondered: What are all those "heavy background gnome processes"?
gnome uses a lot of different libraries, including for instance the sessions handling (consolekit) that you encountered earlier.
by the way, you 3rd screenshot seems to imply that you are running a lot of kde stuff too, so that's even more background processes.
What can I run from a virtual console to "do stuff" ?
I'm all -Syu'd up, by the way.
well not that much, you can run irssi to chat or w3m to browse some webpages, playing some music with moc like x33a suggested could be a good test too.

I'm pretty positive it's a graphical thing, rather than something else. I've messed around in VC's enough and it never seems to do that. I have tried moving my .gconf files (so it would go to the regular gnome settings) which didn't really help anything. I've also switched to using Openbox as my WM, but that also hasn't helped much. I still get this ridiculous slowness when doing pretty much anything. Hell, closing an open window takes a few seconds.

What else can I do? "Mysterious slownesses" like this one are the reason I left windows years ago. What else can I try?

Thanks!

baion baion · 2010-07-18 16:36:19

I know this won't really help, but did you make any change to your system? Did the performance drop start after an update or something?

Declan · 2010-07-18 17:07:44

baion baion wrote:

I know this won't really help, but did you make any change to your system? Did the performance drop start after an update or something?

Nothing I can remember. While some Linux users use it for its changeability and such, I really just play it safe and enjoy a fast and safe system most of the time. I really don't do much adventurous stuff.

A friend suggested that they might've stopped maintaining my video driver. I use nvidia, and this is my card:

[declan@chilidog ~]$ lspci | grep nV
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Quadro NVS 140M (rev a1)

and I'm using this driver, from xorg.conf:

 Identifier     "Card0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "nVidia Corporation"
    BoardName      "Quadro NVS 140M"

Is that possible? Again, this seems to have come out of the blue, but I'm getting really sick of it. Any ideas?

Last edited by Declan (2010-07-18 17:08:58)

litemotiv · 2010-07-18 22:40:20

here's another (seemingly) similar report for your card: http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=167402

have you tried switching to the nouveau driver?

Declan · 2010-07-20 12:54:23

litemotiv wrote:

here's another (seemingly) similar report for your card: http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=167402
have you tried switching to the nouveau driver?

I haven't. In fact, I hadn't even heard of them till now. The little descriptions in pacman say that they're experimental, though.

Declan · 2010-08-10 05:35:59

I've switched to Openbox, but no dice. This is becoming unbearable. Arch has treated me so well in the past. What could have changed?

I'll try those drivers, but any other suggestions? This is ridiculous, having this problem with linux.

archman-cro · 2010-08-10 07:45:10

Just a wild guess, but have you tried other kernels from AUR? Try tayloring em. I got some nice results by slimming the -zen kernel with bfs. I can really feel the difference already.

Declan · 2010-08-11 02:20:44

Well, I tried using the vesa driver. I can't really tell how well that worked, since it would "peel" down windows when I minimized them.

But I tried the nouveau driver, and it seems to be working well so far! I'll whine back here if it starts acting up.

Declan · 2010-08-14 15:18:38

Declan wrote:

Well, I tried using the vesa driver. I can't really tell how well that worked, since it would "peel" down windows when I minimized them.
But I tried the nouveau driver, and it seems to be working well so far! I'll whine back here if it starts acting up.

I'm pretty positive that was it! My system is as fast as it ever was. No crazy applications taking up huge amounts of ram. Things are speedy! Woooooot!

Why the hell would a newer nvidia driver have done this? They always worked fine in the past.

valium97582 · 2010-08-15 15:22:32

Well, nvidia drivers tend to be unstable. Nouveau is stable, but the 3d acceleration it provides is unstable, so it is split into two packages (xf86-video-nouveau and nouveau-dri, I think).

Declan · 2010-08-15 22:56:51

Mod edit: no swearing.

I thought everything was fine and dandy because for a couple days it was going just as fast as it used to, it was perfect. Now it's doing the same old crap as before. Lagging like hell when mini/maximizing windows, taking forever to open things, etc.

WHAT CAN I DO? Is it possible my hardware is finally shot? I don't see why it would work, just more slowly, if that was the case.

Last edited by litemotiv (2010-08-22 09:23:17)

sparchy · 2010-08-16 16:20:18

This is going to sound weird but I ran into a problem similar to yours once on another distribution (and also a Arch when I first installed it and was messing around adding myself to video,audio,etc., groups) when I was adding/removing users and groups. Somehow my shadow passwd file in /etc (or shadow group file, I forget which one now) was out of sync with my passwd(or group) file(s). You can see if they don't match up by running a 'pwck' and 'grpck' on your passwd and group files. Those commands will inform you if your shadow file(s) entries match the plain passwd/group files(I'm assuming you have shadow passwords enabled). If you get invalid entries when you run 'pwck' or 'grpck' you can try to 'pwconv' and 'grpconv' which will correct the out of sync shadow passwd and group shadow files. Run 'pwck' and 'grpck' first they are noninvasive against your passwd/group files, if they check out okay(no warnings) you should be okay and shouldn't have to use 'pwconv' and 'grpconv' to sync the plain to shadow files.
My system seemed really slow and I was getting all sorts of mysterious slowdowns and lag(logging in,starting x,etc.,) when they were out of sync, once I got them back in sync with pwconv and grpconv zoom back to it's speedy self. This might not be your problem but it's something to check.

Declan · 2010-08-22 01:29:43

Wow, I may have actually found the problem: a WAD of dust blocking my fan. I cleaned it and it's been speedy since.

x33a · 2010-08-22 04:25:19

Declan wrote:

Wow, I may have actually found the problem: a WAD of dust blocking my fan. I cleaned it and it's been speedy since.

incredible

Note: Everyone, please clean your computer cases more often.
I thought linux geeks were more aware about cleaning their pcs

Arch Linux

#26 2010-07-18 15:26:34

Re: System being incredibly slow, no idea why. Suggestions?

#27 2010-07-18 16:36:19

Re: System being incredibly slow, no idea why. Suggestions?

#28 2010-07-18 17:07:44

Re: System being incredibly slow, no idea why. Suggestions?

#29 2010-07-18 22:40:20

Re: System being incredibly slow, no idea why. Suggestions?

#30 2010-07-20 12:54:23

Re: System being incredibly slow, no idea why. Suggestions?

#31 2010-08-10 05:35:59

Re: System being incredibly slow, no idea why. Suggestions?

#32 2010-08-10 07:45:10

Re: System being incredibly slow, no idea why. Suggestions?

#33 2010-08-11 02:20:44

Re: System being incredibly slow, no idea why. Suggestions?

#34 2010-08-14 15:18:38

Re: System being incredibly slow, no idea why. Suggestions?

#35 2010-08-15 15:22:32

Re: System being incredibly slow, no idea why. Suggestions?

#36 2010-08-15 22:56:51

Re: System being incredibly slow, no idea why. Suggestions?

#37 2010-08-16 16:20:18

Re: System being incredibly slow, no idea why. Suggestions?

#38 2010-08-22 01:29:43

Re: System being incredibly slow, no idea why. Suggestions?

#39 2010-08-22 04:25:19

Re: System being incredibly slow, no idea why. Suggestions?

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