Going slow

oneandoneis2 · Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2004 5:37 pm Post subject: Going slow

I didn't expect much of a speed increase going from Slack to Gentoo - I haven't had time to get interested in the compilation options, so other than specifying my CPU and disabling KDE & Gnome support, I haven't done much to optimise things.

But I didn't expect to find it was significantly slower, either. Sadly, it is - it's almost painful watching it fire up X or Firefox for the first time. (Afterthe first time, it goes like blazes, presumably due to caching it in the RAM.)

So, can anyone suggest what I should be doing to get the speed up to at least equal what it was with a binary distro?

I haven't enabled DMA yet, which I imagine might account for some of it, as it refuses to let me:
gentoo root # hdparm -d1 /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
setting using_dma to 1 (on)
HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Operation not permitted
using_dma = 0 (off)

Other than that, I have no idea what might be making it crawl so much. Any ideas would be gratefully received!

aaronf0 · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 08 Dec 2004 Posts: 121

prelinking might help. it links the libraries to the applications before they are run, cutting down on load time. the guide is here:
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/prelink-howto.xml

BlackEdder · Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2004 9:52 pm Post subject:

What wm are you using? You might have forgotten to add your machine-name to /etc/hosts. This causes kde/gnome (and many appz) to pause, because it can't find the ip connected to your machinename.

dh003i2 · Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 5:05 am Post subject:

When adding your local machine name to /etc/hosts, are you supposed to enter "localhost" or your actual machine's name (e.g., on the bash prompt, shows up as @DavidHeinrich)?
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oneandoneis2 · Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 8:32 am Post subject:

BlackEdder · Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 10:28 am Post subject:

vonhelmet · Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 10:30 am Post subject:

I'll bet a lot of it is down to the DMA thing. Check that you have support for your IDE chipset compiled in your kernel.
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BlackEdder · Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 10:41 am Post subject:

oneandoneis2 · Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 11:48 am Post subject:

Oh joy, another thing to try and fix in the kernel

I was afraid getting DMA working would involve a kernel recompile.

(The NVIDIA graphic driver refuses to work with the kernel version I originally installed (2.6.7) and the framebuffer refuses to work properly with the newly-downloaded 2.6.9 - I get the Tux image, but text is at normal resolution)

I'll give it a go and see if that helps out, ta.

BlackEdder · Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 11:59 am Post subject:

getting dma fixed is relatively easy

I always enjoy doing that, because at least I know what I'm doing

BTW if you don't feel like setting up your kernel go with genkernel I would say

oneandoneis2 · Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 1:27 pm Post subject:

oneandoneis2 · Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 7:01 pm Post subject:

Okay, so it was easy

And now I'm worried. Everything is working. Fixed the framebuffer problem by replacing the "vga" option with "video", the soundcard fixed itself, and Firefox started in 3 seconds instead of twelve.

Everything's going right. I must be missing something

Thanks all for the help!

BlackEdder · Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 7:27 pm Post subject:

Always just press -5 with etc-update.. That will help help screwing things up