System slow while compiling

kirikou · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 03 Nov 2006 Posts: 83

Hello!
I have a problem with my system, each time I upgrade it or compile a new package, my system becomes to be unrespondant... (it took minutes to open epiphany, when I want to switch desktop, it tooks some seconds in order to redraw the desktop, ...)
I think it must be an error in my kernel configuration, but I was not able to find it....
Another error, that might be related, is that when I mount my external hard drive (160GB, whichi is almost full), it tooks minutes in order to be able to read it's content through nautilus (each time I wonder if nautilus has crashed or not).
Do you have any suggestion ?
Thanks!
(I can post any file which might be needed, but I didn't know if it was useful to post my full .config...)

poly_poly-man · Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 11:27 pm Post subject:

That's what compiling does... it's pretty cpu-intensive.

You _might_ find (experiment - YMMV) that there's a little speed lost in heat. I find occasionally that throttling my 3.0Ghz processor down to 2.25Ghz while cpu-intensive stuff is happening, I can get slight speed-ups.

Otherwise, suck it up, it probably means that your compile is using your cpu efficiently.
poly-p man
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jexxie · Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 11:38 pm Post subject:

If you'd like your compiles and emerging to sieze less of your computers hardware, you can enable the PORTAGE_NICENESS value in your /etc/make.conf

-19 is the highest priority you can set, and 19 is the lowest. Setting your emerges around 15 or so, should give you a speedy system while you compile.
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poly_poly-man · Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 11:46 pm Post subject:

linga · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 131

Personally, I think it's better to be able to use my computer effectively even while compiling many packages, so I have set PORTAGE_NICENESS="19". If I want to raise the priority of portage I usually do that by running `sudo htop´ and adjusting from there.
Note though that you might not be able to use the computer all the time anyway, during extreme compiles (openoffice, eclipse-sdk assembly phase) unless you have lots of ram (around 2GB).

kirikou · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 03 Nov 2006 Posts: 83

Thanks for all your replies!! I will try to play with

i92guboj · Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 7:49 pm Post subject:

i92guboj · Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 7:52 pm Post subject: Re: System slow while compiling

kirikou · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 03 Nov 2006 Posts: 83

Effectively, I can access it without problem from the command line! I did not think about trying it!
The file system on my external hard drive is FAT32.

i92guboj · Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 8:29 pm Post subject:

kirikou · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 03 Nov 2006 Posts: 83

Here are the last lines of dmesg (all that was about to my hard drive), EHCI seems to be used...

i92guboj · Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 10:09 pm Post subject:

If i am not mistaken, that is the cpu frequency daemon. It has the potential to lower your cpu frequency and that would slow down the whole system, but I don't know if that is the case. I don't know if that segfaults are something normal when using that daemon, because I never used it for any purpose at all. Maybe someone else around knows a bit more about that and can help.

kirikou · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 03 Nov 2006 Posts: 83

Do you think that options in the kernel like the Preemption model (set to Voluntary Kernel Preemption in my kernel) and Timer frequency (set to 1000 HZ in my kernel) might cause some slowdown ?
My install is quite recent (2 months) and my previous installations worked better... (that's why I think I must have a problem in my kernel configuration!)

i92guboj · Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 11:09 pm Post subject:

linga · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 131

As long as cpufreqd is running it should not impact performance a lot since it highers the cpu frequency when its needed and lowers it when the computingpower is not needed. If it crashes then maybe you're stuck at the lowest frequency. I have never used cpufreqd either, I use the ondemand cpufreq governoor instead.

kirikou · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 03 Nov 2006 Posts: 83

I use the ondemand cpufreq governor too, but I thought that I need cpufreqd in order to "manage" the governor... is it not the case ?
And what is the purpose of cpufreq-utils (another cpu stuff I found in my rc-update (default runlevel)) ?
Thanks!

tarpman · Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 10:37 pm Post subject:

kirikou · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 03 Nov 2006 Posts: 83

So there is no problem if I remove both (cpufreqd and cpufreq-utils) with rc-update del ? In fact, I can even un-merge them... ? Thanks!

boerKrelis · Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 6:16 am Post subject:

Is disk trashing amongst the symptoms?
If so, that might indicate excessive swapping, which would explain the unresponsiveness and I/O-problems.
- Use 'top' to look for a high systemload, with 'kswapd' using lots of CPU-time
- Have a look at your memory status (free -m)
If necessary, adjust MAKEOPTS to "-j1", and move your swap to faster disks.

micmac · l33t Joined: 28 Nov 2003 Posts: 996

Do you by any chance use SATA AHCI and th CFQ IO scheduler? If so try if disabling NCQ helps: http://linux-ata.org/faq.html#ncq

energyman76b · Advocate Joined: 26 Mar 2003 Posts: 2048 Location: Germany

kirikou · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 03 Nov 2006 Posts: 83

Thanks, I try the PORTAGE_NICENESS and it works wonderful!!
In effect, I'm using gnome.
I have 1G of RAM and even when I don't run emerge, my external hard drive take quite a lot of time to display folder (during this time I can't do anything with nautilus or it will crash).