# Why is my PC so slow? [SOLVED]

## p.n

It is a P4 3.0GHz with 1GB RAM.  It should not be sluggish.  But it is.  I need to know if this is normal or if there is perhaps something I have overlooked.   I run 2.6.14-gentoo-r5 with Gnome 2.12.1.

Here are some start up times for some common apps, all started from the GUI:

Openoffice 2 Spreadsheet:  35sec (this is after I just shut it down so in theory it should start up quicker than from cold)

Nautilus File Manager:  5sec

Epiphany Web Browser: 10sec

EoG: 7sec

Firefox: 6sec (this is with another instance already running!)

Terminal: 3sec

Gaim:5-6sec

The load average is relatively low during all these tests as shown below:

```
top - 22:03:21 up 3 days,  2:37,  4 users,  load average: 1.17, 0.89, 0.49

Tasks: 140 total,   1 running, 139 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie

Cpu(s): 21.4% us,  2.0% sy,  0.0% ni, 76.6% id,  0.0% wa,  0.0% hi,  0.0% si

Mem:    905224k total,   888308k used,    16916k free,    81132k buffers

Swap:   506036k total,      244k used,   505792k free,   328432k cached
```

To my knowledge I am not running any service I do not require.  I compile all apps from source and have no bins running.  (Including Openoffice which took nearly 48 hours to compile)

I would like to know if this is normal for this type of machine/setup.  It feels very sluggish and I don't enjoy the experience.

Anyone out there with some advice perhaps?

Thanks

p.n

----------

## djpenguin

Post the output of "emerge info" please.

----------

## atrus123

Yes, that is definately slow.  To compare, on my 1.7ghz Turion, oocalc2 opens in just over 7 seconds (on second opening).

Since you aren't using any binaries, maybe your make.conf would be helpful.

J.

----------

## p.n

emerge info:

```
Portage 2.0.53 (default-linux/x86/2005.0, gcc-3.3.6, glibc-2.3.5-r2, 2.6.14-gentoo-r5 i686)

=================================================================

System uname: 2.6.14-gentoo-r5 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz

Gentoo Base System version 1.12.0_pre12

dev-lang/python:     2.3.5-r2, 2.4.2

sys-apps/sandbox:    1.2.12

sys-devel/autoconf:  2.13, 2.59-r6

sys-devel/automake:  1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.6.3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6-r1

sys-devel/binutils:  2.16.1

sys-devel/libtool:   1.5.20

virtual/os-headers:  2.6.11-r2

ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"

AUTOCLEAN="yes"

CBUILD="i386-pc-linux-gnu"

CFLAGS="-O2 -mcpu=i686 -fomit-frame-pointer"

CHOST="i386-pc-linux-gnu"

CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3.3/env /usr/kde/3.3/share/config /usr/kde/3.3/shutdown /usr/kde/3.4/env /usr/kde/3.4/share/config /usr/kde/3.4/shutdown /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/lib/X11/xkb /usr/lib/mozilla/defaults/pref /usr/share/config /var/qmail/control"

CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d"

CXXFLAGS="-O2 -mcpu=i686 -fomit-frame-pointer"

DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"

FEATURES="autoconfig distlocks sandbox sfperms strict"

GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://distfiles.gentoo.org http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/gentoo"

MAKEOPTS="-j2"

PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"

PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"

PORTDIR="/usr/portage"

SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"

USE="x86 X alsa apm arts audiofile avi berkdb bitmap-fonts bonobo bzip2 cdr crypt cups curl eds emboss encode esd exif expat fam ffmpeg foomaticdb fortran gdbm gif glut gnome gpm gstreamer gtk gtk2 gtkhtml guile hal idn imlib ipv6 java jpeg lcms ldap libg++ libwww mad mikmod mng motif mozilla mp3 mpeg ncurses nls ogg oggvorbis opengl oss pam pcre pdflib perl png python quicktime readline samba sdl spell ssl svga tcltk tcpd tiff truetype truetype-fonts type1-fonts udev usb vorbis xml xml2 xmms xv zlib userland_GNU kernel_linux elibc_glibc"

Unset:  ASFLAGS, CTARGET, LANG, LC_ALL, LDFLAGS, LINGUAS, PORTDIR_OVERLAY

```

make.conf

```
CFLAGS="-O2 -mcpu=i686 -fomit-frame-pointer"

CHOST="i386-pc-linux-gnu"

CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS}"

MAKEOPTS="-j2"

USE="-qt -kde gtk gnome hal"

```

----------

## djpenguin

Here's the "emerge --info" for my 2.53 Northwood machine:

```
Portage 2.0.53 (default-linux/x86/2005.1, gcc-3.3.6, glibc-2.3.5-r2, 2.6.12-gentoo-r10 i686)

=================================================================

System uname: 2.6.12-gentoo-r10 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.53GHz

Gentoo Base System version 1.6.13

ccache version 2.3 [enabled]

dev-lang/python:     2.3.5-r2

sys-apps/sandbox:    1.2.12

sys-devel/autoconf:  2.13, 2.59-r6

sys-devel/automake:  1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.6.3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6-r1

sys-devel/binutils:  2.16.1

sys-devel/libtool:   1.5.20

virtual/os-headers:  2.6.11-r2

ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"

AUTOCLEAN="yes"

CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu"

CFLAGS="-O2 -march=pentium4 -pipe -mmmx -msse"

CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"

CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3.5/env /usr/kde/3.5/share/config /usr/kde/3.5/shutdown /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/lib/X11/xkb /usr/lib/mozilla/defaults/pref /usr/share/config /var/qmail/control"

CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d"

CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=pentium4 -pipe -mmmx -msse"

DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"

FEATURES="autoconfig ccache distlocks sandbox sfperms strict userpriv"

GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://gentoo.mirrors.tds.net/gentoo http://gentoo.mirrors.tds.net/gentoo http://gentoo.ccccom.com ftp://gentoo.ccccom.com"

MAKEOPTS="-j2"

PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"

PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"

PORTDIR="/usr/portage"

SYNC="rsync://rsync.us.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"

USE="X aac acl acpi aim alsa apm audiofile avi bash-completion berkdb bitmap-fonts bzip2 calendar cdparanoia cdr crypt cups curl dio divx4linux dvd dvdr dvdread eds emboss encode exif expat fam ffmpeg flac foomaticdb fortran ftp gdbm gif glut gmp gphoto2 gpm gstreamer gtk gtk2 idn ieee1394 imagemagick imlib ipv6 jabber jack java jpeg lcms libg++ libwww lm_sensors mad mikmod mmx mng motif mozilla mp3 mpeg nas ncurses nls nocd nptl ogg oggvorbis openal opengl pam pcre pdflib perl php png python qt quicktime readline recode samba sdl session shorten spell sse ssl svga tcltk tcpd tiff truetype truetype-fonts type1-fonts udev usb vorbis win32codecs wxwindows x86 xine xml xml2 xmms xv xvid zlib userland_GNU kernel_linux elibc_glibc"

Unset:  ASFLAGS, CTARGET, LANG, LC_ALL, LDFLAGS, LINGUAS, PORTDIR_OVERLAY

```

And here's my make.conf:

```
CFLAGS="-O2 -march=pentium4 -pipe -mmmx -msse"

CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"

CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS}"

MAKEOPTS="-j2"

USE="aac acl acpi aim alsa apm -arts audiofile avi bash-completion bzip2 calendar cdparanoia cdr crypt dio divx4linux 

dvd dvdr dvdread encode exif ffmpeg flac ftp gif -gnome gphoto2 gpm gtk gtk2 ieee1394 imagemagick ipv6 jabber jack 

java jpeg -kde lm_sensors mad mozilla mmx mp3 mpeg nas ncurses nocd nptl ogg oggvorbis openal opengl -oss pam perl php 

python quicktime readline samba session shorten spell sse ssl svga vorbis win32codecs wxwindows xml xml2 xmms xv xvid X x86"

AUTOCLEAN="yes"

PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"

PORTAGE_TMPFS="/dev/shm"

FEATURES="ccache userpriv"

CCACHE_SIZE="3G"

GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://gentoo.mirrors.tds.net/gentoo http://gentoo.mirrors.tds.net/gentoo http://gentoo.ccccom.com ftp://gentoo.ccccom.com"

SYNC="rsync://rsync.us.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
```

It looks to me like you've got your system configured to generically support all x86 processors from the P2 forward.  You may want to consider setting up your make.conf to optimize the code for the machine you're using, unless you plan to compile binaries for other x86 systems on that box.

----------

## nutbar21

One of the most important speed-related lines is your CFLAGS line in your make.conf.  I would highly suggest that you do what djpenguin has done here; since you also have a P4 processor just change your CFLAGS line to the following:

```
CFLAGS="-O2 -march=pentium4 -pipe -mmmx -msse" 
```

You might also want to change your CHOST to something more specific:

```
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" 
```

The effect of this is kind of like narrowing the beam of a flashlight; you are becoming more and more specific to your own particular machine which allows for more performance (or more light if you follow my flashlight example) on that particular hardware setup.  However, you're losing your ability to compile for some other machines - so you have more light on one spot but can no longer see the wider area as well as you had before.

----------

## p.n

But will this make such a big difference to the speed?  Would I have to recompile every app as well assuming this would be done with emerege world newuse?

p.n

----------

## Kaste

Hmm given that you only considered startup times, it might be something wrong with your harddrive? Since your other hardware seems up to modern standards, I guess you didn't exactly get a slow one either, but it seems to me that this is the cause of your trouble. Anything unusual on this front? Is it working frantically or actually doing anything while you load these Programs?

----------

## p.n

Thanks, but definately not the harddrive.  200GB SATA with no excessive operation.

----------

## theD3viL

Maybe you havent enable your modules in kernel (the same happend with me), now i enabled all the modules, and now work allright.

Do hdparm -t /dev/yourdisc (my: hda) - ATA 66 i think 

Goes thats way: /dev/hda:

 Timing buffered disk reads:  158 MB in  3.02 seconds =  52.25 MB/sec

If you have much less you must enable modules in kernel 100%

----------

## beissemj

If it's just the load times you might look into prelinking.

----------

## kenthepostman

Whenever I've had this problem it's been problems with the hard drive.  Not that there is a problem with the actual hard drive but that certain kernel options were not enabled or I didn't use certain options with hdparm.  Post your output of hdparm /dev/hda or whatever your hard drive is.  Maybe you don't have something important enabled.

----------

## p.n

hdparm:

```
/dev/sda:

 IO_support   =  0 (default 16-bit)

 readonly     =  0 (off)

 readahead    = 256 (on)

 geometry     = 24321/255/63, sectors = 200049647616, start = 0

```

I do not think it is harddrive but I am still in the dark so am willin gto look any where at this stage.

----------

## jmp_

Are you running a preemptive kernel ?

----------

## sundialsvc4

What about: 

```
 hdparm -tT /dev/hda 
```

Is DMA enabled and running on the drives?

I would assume that this is clearly an I/O-related issue; that processor-specific recompile options would not make a significant difference.

----------

## p.n

How do I know if DMA is running?

----------

## andrewf

 *p.n wrote:*   

> How do I know if DMA is running?

 

```
hdparm -d /dev/sda
```

should it be off , you can try to enable it this way:

```
hdparm -d 1 /dev/sda
```

the output of hdpram -tT /dev/sda will show the speed of the harddrive (very usefull to see if something is wrong)

----------

## p.n

OK, this does not look good:

hdparm -tT /dev/sda gives the following output:

```

/dev/sda:

 Timing cached reads:   2168 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1083.93 MB/sec

HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(null) (wait for flush complete) failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device

 Timing buffered disk reads:  154 MB in  3.04 seconds =  50.72 MB/sec

HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(null) (wait for flush complete) failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device

```

and hdparm -d 1 /dev/sda this:

```
/dev/sda:

 setting using_dma to 1 (on)

 HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device

```

----------

## Paapaa

What does "dmesg" have? Could you post the whole thing?

I also think this has nothing to do with CFALGS or CHOST. Their effect is at most very small, mostly insignificant. Probably something wrong with kernel setup?

----------

## chrbecke

 *p.n wrote:*   

> 
> 
> hdparm -tT /dev/sda gives the following output:
> 
> ```
> ...

 

This is nothing to worry about, the errors have got something to do with hdparm using commands for PATA drives that your SATA drive doesn't understand. The transfer rates look O.K., so your problem isn't the hdd.

----------

## p.n

Ja, I found a useful thread https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-417782.html stating pretty much the same.  So I am back to step 1...  

However, this is also a useful thread wrt toe Openoffice startup issue.  It did make a significant change. https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-2864988.html

----------

## chrbecke

Maybe a RAM problem?

What does 

```
cat /proc/meminfo
```

 show?

You could try running memtest68 to see if your memory is allright.

----------

## p.n

cat /proc/meminfo gives me this:

```
MemTotal:       905224 kB

MemFree:         16164 kB

Buffers:         90388 kB

Cached:         360860 kB

SwapCached:          0 kB

Active:         537644 kB

Inactive:       224868 kB

HighTotal:           0 kB

HighFree:            0 kB

LowTotal:       905224 kB

LowFree:         16164 kB

SwapTotal:      506036 kB

SwapFree:       505796 kB

Dirty:              64 kB

Writeback:           0 kB

Mapped:         369836 kB

Slab:           118964 kB

CommitLimit:    958648 kB

Committed_AS:   375336 kB

PageTables:       1564 kB

VmallocTotal:   122580 kB

VmallocUsed:     17220 kB

VmallocChunk:   105216 kB

```

Nothing looks out the ordinary.  I'll do a memtest and see what comes up.

p.n

----------

## Paapaa

 *p.n wrote:*   

> Nothing looks out the ordinary.  I'll do a memtest and see what comes up.

 

Could you post the output of "dmesg" here? That might give us some information.

----------

## p.n

dmesg only has a lot of usb-storage messages.  Do not think it will be useful.

p.n

----------

## Paapaa

 *p.n wrote:*   

> dmesg only has a lot of usb-storage messages.  Do not think it will be useful.

 

I don't think USB storage messages are interesting, but "dmesg" shows everything kernel outputs during the boot. There might be some error messages that show something is wrong. But you can read it through yourself and see if there is anything odd. Posting the whole thing is also possible and won't get you banned  :Smile: 

----------

## p.n

Nope, even after startup I only get usb-storage messages from dmesg.  Nothing of value there.

----------

## Paapaa

 *p.n wrote:*   

> Nope, even after startup I only get usb-storage messages from dmesg.  Nothing of value there.

 

Now I see, you must be using modules and module messages are not stored in dmesg. I have everything built into the kernel so all the error messages are easily seen with "dmesg". A big advantage IMO. I have no idea where module messages are stored but you could see something looking at the scrollback history straight after boot (if you boot to text console). Or maybe you could see some errors during the boot? 

If the messages are not found easily you could allways prepare a test kernel which has everything built in. Remember to at least backup your present /usr/src/linux/.config. I'm not sure, but modules might be easily turned to built-in with "sed 's/=m/=y/' .config". Just remember the backups and allways have a working kernel in the GRUB/LILO boot-up menu.

How is your kernel configured and have you double checked all the options? If this is a hardware issue it is quite impossible to help without more information about your system and kernel setup.

----------

## chrbecke

On a second thought, bad RAM is unlikely to cause the error, anyways... You would have noticed other errors as well.

Maybe it's bad filesystem performance? What does 

```
df -T
```

 show?

----------

## GhePeU

can you try running "fc-cache -fv" as root? I noticed that an outdated font cache can increase the startup time of many applications, but I don't think that this is your case, because you wrote

 *p.n wrote:*   

> 
> 
>  I compile all apps from source and have no bins running.  (Including Openoffice which took nearly 48 hours to compile)
> 
> 

 

and this is a problem, my athlon xp 1700+ compiled openoffice 2.0.0 in 

```
ghepeu@KazeNoTani ~ $ genlop -t openoffice

 * app-office/openoffice

     Fri Oct 28 16:12:13 2005 >>> app-office/openoffice-2.0.0

       merge time: 9 hours, 15 seconds.

```

----------

## p.n

Here is df -T:

```
Filesystem    Type   1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on

/dev/sda3     ext3    95611048  15893760  74860440  18% /

udev         tmpfs      452612       240    452372   1% /dev

/dev/sda1     ext2       38856     16059     20791  44% /boot

/dev/sda5     ext3     9621848   9621848         0 100% /mnt/portage

none         tmpfs      452612         0    452612   0% /dev/shm

```

and 

fc-cache -fv:

```

fc-cache: "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1": caching, 29 fonts, 0 dirs

fc-cache: "/usr/share/fonts": caching, 0 fonts, 12 dirs

fc-cache: "/usr/share/fonts/local": caching, 0 fonts, 0 dirs

fc-cache: "/usr/share/fonts/encodings": caching, 0 fonts, 1 dirs

fc-cache: "/usr/share/fonts/encodings/large": caching, 0 fonts, 0 dirs

fc-cache: "/usr/share/fonts/util": caching, 0 fonts, 0 dirs

fc-cache: "/usr/share/fonts/misc": caching, 52 fonts, 0 dirs

fc-cache: "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi": caching, 398 fonts, 0 dirs

fc-cache: "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi": caching, 398 fonts, 0 dirs

fc-cache: "/usr/share/fonts/cyrillic": caching, 0 fonts, 0 dirs

fc-cache: "/usr/share/fonts/Type1": caching, 29 fonts, 0 dirs

fc-cache: "/usr/share/fonts/TTF": caching, 23 fonts, 0 dirs

fc-cache: "/usr/share/fonts/ukr": caching, 0 fonts, 0 dirs

fc-cache: "/usr/share/fonts/default": caching, 0 fonts, 1 dirs

fc-cache: "/usr/share/fonts/default/ghostscript": caching, 35 fonts, 0 dirs

fc-cache: "/usr/share/fonts/afms": caching, 0 fonts, 1 dirs

fc-cache: "/usr/share/fonts/afms/adobe": caching, 0 fonts, 0 dirs

fc-cache: "/usr/local/share/fonts": skipping, no such directory

fc-cache: "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi": caching, 398 fonts, 0 dirs

fc-cache: "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi": caching, 398 fonts, 0 dirs

fc-cache: "/root/.fonts": skipping, no such directory

fc-cache: succeeded
```

Again, I do not see anything amiss here.  I did apparently lie about the merge time for openoffice though.  Never knew about genlop until today!

genlop -t:

```
 * app-office/openoffice

     Sat Dec  3 01:46:07 2005 >>> app-office/openoffice-2.0.0

       merge time: 1 day, 2 hours, 33 minutes and 48 seconds.

```

Still not a patch on your 9 hours though....

Thanks for all the help, keep it coming.

p.n

----------

## asg719

 *p.n wrote:*   

> 
> 
> fc-cache -fv:
> 
> fc-cache: "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1": caching, 29 fonts, 0 dirs
> ...

 

Your caching the same fonts twice, delete the fonts symlink in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11 then re-run fc-cache -fv.  You may need to restart X.

----------

## ekutay

Do you have your loop device up'n running?

----------

## p.n

```
lo        Link encap:Local Loopback

          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0

          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1

          RX packets:244 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:244 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0

          RX bytes:15368 (15.0 Kb)  TX bytes:15368 (15.0 Kb)
```

----------

## Paapaa

Just a wild guess, what locale are you using? You can find out by typing "locale".

----------

## p.n

```
LANG=

LC_CTYPE="POSIX"

LC_NUMERIC="POSIX"

LC_TIME="POSIX"

LC_COLLATE="POSIX"

LC_MONETARY="POSIX"

LC_MESSAGES="POSIX"

LC_PAPER="POSIX"

LC_NAME="POSIX"

LC_ADDRESS="POSIX"

LC_TELEPHONE="POSIX"

LC_MEASUREMENT="POSIX"

LC_IDENTIFICATION="POSIX"

LC_ALL=

```

----------

## Paapaa

 *p.n wrote:*   

> 
> 
> ```
> LANG=
> 
> ...

 

Ok, that didn't help. My system slowed down considerably when I started to use "en_US.UTF-8" locale. Adding "cjk" to use flags corrected the problem - but you don't have that issue. I still think it could be very useful to know what your kernel and modules output during the boot. There may be hints to help solve your problem.

----------

## philc909

I'm having a similar problem:

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-423606.html

Could you post nbench benchmark results of your slow machine?

----------

## p.n

nbech results are as follows.  What should it be?

```
BYTEmark* Native Mode Benchmark ver. 2 (10/95)

Index-split by Andrew D. Balsa (11/97)

Linux/Unix* port by Uwe F. Mayer (12/96,11/97)

TEST                : Iterations/sec.  : Old Index   : New Index

                    :                  : Pentium 90* : AMD K6/233*

--------------------:------------------:-------------:------------

NUMERIC SORT        :          145.12  :       3.72  :       1.22

STRING SORT         :          14.042  :       6.27  :       0.97

BITFIELD            :      5.3048e+07  :       9.10  :       1.90

FP EMULATION        :          14.308  :       6.87  :       1.58

FOURIER             :          2444.9  :       2.78  :       1.56

ASSIGNMENT          :          3.7768  :      14.37  :       3.73

IDEA                :          244.47  :       3.74  :       1.11

HUFFMAN             :          173.69  :       4.82  :       1.54

NEURAL NET          :          2.7896  :       4.48  :       1.88

LU DECOMPOSITION    :           140.4  :       7.27  :       5.25

==========================ORIGINAL BYTEMARK RESULTS==========================

INTEGER INDEX       : 6.262

FLOATING-POINT INDEX: 4.492

Baseline (MSDOS*)   : Pentium* 90, 256 KB L2-cache, Watcom* compiler 10.0

==============================LINUX DATA BELOW===============================

CPU                 : Dual GenuineIntel Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz 3007MHz

L2 Cache            : 1024 KB

OS                  : Linux 2.6.14-gentoo-r5

C compiler          : 3.3.6

libc                :

MEMORY INDEX        : 1.902

INTEGER INDEX       : 1.348

FLOATING-POINT INDEX: 2.491

Baseline (LINUX)    : AMD K6/233*, 512 KB L2-cache, gcc 2.7.2.3, libc-5.4.38

* Trademarks are property of their respective holder.

```

----------

## philc909

Wow! a dual 3GHz pentium 4 that is 3% slower than an AMD K6 at string sorts!

Just as a reference here's how my Athlon 1800 runs nbench:

```

TEST                : Iterations/sec.  : Old Index   : New Index

                    :                  : Pentium 90* : AMD K6/233*

--------------------:------------------:-------------:------------

NUMERIC SORT        :           881.6  :      22.61  :       7.43

STRING SORT         :          62.735  :      28.03  :       4.34

BITFIELD            :      1.7583e+08  :      30.16  :       6.30

FP EMULATION        :           75.17  :      36.07  :       8.32

FOURIER             :           10232  :      11.64  :       6.54

ASSIGNMENT          :          12.644  :      48.11  :      12.48

IDEA                :          1568.1  :      23.98  :       7.12

HUFFMAN             :          666.14  :      18.47  :       5.90

NEURAL NET          :          14.433  :      23.19  :       9.75

LU DECOMPOSITION    :          566.52  :      29.35  :      21.19

==========================ORIGINAL BYTEMARK RESULTS==========================

INTEGER INDEX       : 28.344

FLOATING-POINT INDEX: 19.931

Baseline (MSDOS*)   : Pentium* 90, 256 KB L2-cache, Watcom* compiler 10.0

==============================LINUX DATA BELOW===============================

CPU                 : AuthenticAMD AMD Athlon(TM) XP1800+ 1161MHz

L2 Cache            : 256 KB

OS                  : Linux 2.6.12-gentoo-r4

C compiler          : 3.3.6

libc                :

MEMORY INDEX        : 6.987

INTEGER INDEX       : 7.138

FLOATING-POINT INDEX: 11.055

Baseline (LINUX)    : AMD K6/233*, 512 KB L2-cache, gcc 2.7.2.3, libc-5.4.38

```

----------

## Draconite

[SOLVED]

Not to go off topic, but I've been trying to get ccache to work, and I notice that djpenguin has his enabled when he does "emerge info"

I did emerge info myself, and see that ccache is listed as disabled (version 2.3) and I was wondering how I can enable it? Re-emerging it doesn't seem to help, despite the fact portage says it should take advantage of it automatically...

Any advice?

----------

## p.n

Ja.  Shocking indeed.  Here's a reference list http://www.tux.org/~mayer/linux/results2.html.  It would appear as though my P4 compares well with a 350MHz Celeron....

PS   *Quote:*   

> Wow! a dual 3GHz pentium 4

   Not sure why nbench decided that is a dual P4.  Only one processor last I checked, but even so.  Still way too slow.

----------

## Draconite

Nevermind, got it! Yes, I did a forum search but it just took me a little longer to find the exact thread I needed  :Smile: 

Apparently I forgot (and wasn't informed) to put FEATURES="CCACHE" into my /etc/make.conf

But now it works!

I love this Gentoo community   :Very Happy: 

----------

## Codo

Would it be your Xorg?

----------

## p.n

I'll run nbench outside of Xorg and see what the results are when I'm back at the machine.  Will post the results.

----------

## philc909

I don't think X is related. I have the same problem. I dropped to runlevel 1 (no services, no nothing) and still had the same bad performance. I even tried different kernels and I have to same slowness.

----------

## lpetersen

Just an idea: What does

```
cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/*/cpufreq/scaling_governor

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/*/cpufreq/scaling_cur_freq
```

tell you?

----------

## p.n

```
cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/*/cpufreq/scaling_governor

performance

performance
```

```
cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/*/cpufreq/scaling_cur_freq

3000000

3000000

```

----------

## philc909

my /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0 directory is empty.

Is this normal if I don't have cpufreq installed?

----------

## lpetersen

@ p.n.:

That looks like it should. (Hey, and you do have two CPUs!! :Very Happy: ) So forget about my idea.

@ philc909:

That shouldn't be a question of installing cpufrequtils (the userland tools) but of activating CPU frequency scaling in your kernel (and loading the proper modules) in the first place. But if you don't have frequency scaling, it's unlikely that your CPU is throttled inadvertently.

----------

## ahmedre

i had the exact same problem with the same processor -- but the thing for me was it was never that slow - it just suddenly started becoming slow -- what lpetersen said was my problem exactly.

the intel p4s tend to get really hot - so they automatically scale down the speed to avoid overheating (and, in excessive situations, they will shut down the system).  installing the kernel sensors, i saw my processor was reaching 90-100 degrees C, esp while compiling stuff!  getting a nicer processor fan solved this problem...

just a thought.

----------

## p.n

I tend to agree with this possible cause.  I restarted my PC recently and checked out the bios set up and the CPU temp was close to 90.  I ran a memtest and the cpu actually shutdown.  I have not been able to complete a memtest.  It is fairly hot this side of the world at the moment and ambient is often above 30.

Further support for this theory is a test I recently did where I ran nbench straight after startup and then after about 30 minutes without starting any processes in between and teh resutls were much much slower the second time round.

I'll have a look at other CPU fans and post results.

p.n

----------

## p.n

OK.  I think it is solved.  Here is nbench before:

```
BYTEmark* Native Mode Benchmark ver. 2 (10/95)

Index-split by Andrew D. Balsa (11/97)

Linux/Unix* port by Uwe F. Mayer (12/96,11/97)

TEST                : Iterations/sec.  : Old Index   : New Index

                    :                  : Pentium 90* : AMD K6/233*

--------------------:------------------:-------------:------------

NUMERIC SORT        :          145.12  :       3.72  :       1.22

STRING SORT         :          14.042  :       6.27  :       0.97

BITFIELD            :      5.3048e+07  :       9.10  :       1.90

FP EMULATION        :          14.308  :       6.87  :       1.58

FOURIER             :          2444.9  :       2.78  :       1.56

ASSIGNMENT          :          3.7768  :      14.37  :       3.73

IDEA                :          244.47  :       3.74  :       1.11

HUFFMAN             :          173.69  :       4.82  :       1.54

NEURAL NET          :          2.7896  :       4.48  :       1.88

LU DECOMPOSITION    :           140.4  :       7.27  :       5.25

==========================ORIGINAL BYTEMARK RESULTS==========================

INTEGER INDEX       : 6.262

FLOATING-POINT INDEX: 4.492

Baseline (MSDOS*)   : Pentium* 90, 256 KB L2-cache, Watcom* compiler 10.0

==============================LINUX DATA BELOW===============================

CPU                 : Dual GenuineIntel Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz 3007MHz

L2 Cache            : 1024 KB

OS                  : Linux 2.6.14-gentoo-r5

C compiler          : 3.3.6

libc                :

MEMORY INDEX        : 1.902

INTEGER INDEX       : 1.348

FLOATING-POINT INDEX: 2.491

Baseline (LINUX)    : AMD K6/233*, 512 KB L2-cache, gcc 2.7.2.3, libc-5.4.38

* Trademarks are property of their respective holder.

```

and after I cleaned all the muck and dust off my CPU's heat sink and fan as well as the casing fan:

```
BYTEmark* Native Mode Benchmark ver. 2 (10/95)

Index-split by Andrew D. Balsa (11/97)

Linux/Unix* port by Uwe F. Mayer (12/96,11/97)

TEST                : Iterations/sec.  : Old Index   : New Index

                    :                  : Pentium 90* : AMD K6/233*

--------------------:------------------:-------------:------------

NUMERIC SORT        :          977.44  :      25.07  :       8.23

STRING SORT         :          101.44  :      45.33  :       7.02

BITFIELD            :      3.7596e+08  :      64.49  :      13.47

FP EMULATION        :            99.2  :      47.60  :      10.98

FOURIER             :           16597  :      18.88  :      10.60

ASSIGNMENT          :          26.722  :     101.68  :      26.37

IDEA                :          1653.4  :      25.29  :       7.51

HUFFMAN             :          1203.2  :      33.36  :      10.65

NEURAL NET          :          19.682  :      31.62  :      13.30

LU DECOMPOSITION    :          974.52  :      50.49  :      36.46

==========================ORIGINAL BYTEMARK RESULTS==========================

INTEGER INDEX       : 43.594

FLOATING-POINT INDEX: 31.116

Baseline (MSDOS*)   : Pentium* 90, 256 KB L2-cache, Watcom* compiler 10.0

==============================LINUX DATA BELOW===============================

CPU                 : Dual GenuineIntel Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz 3007MHz

L2 Cache            : 1024 KB

OS                  : Linux 2.6.14-gentoo-r5

C compiler          : 3.3.6

libc                :

MEMORY INDEX        : 13.559

INTEGER INDEX       : 9.222

FLOATING-POINT INDEX: 17.258

Baseline (LINUX)    : AMD K6/233*, 512 KB L2-cache, gcc 2.7.2.3, libc-5.4.38

* Trademarks are property of their respective holder
```

My CPU is also running at a more acceptable 58-66 degrees C as opposed the 85 - 90 degrees C.

----------

## Kuhndog86

Just an FYI, A P4 with HT enabled will appear to be two CPU's to the OS.

----------

## p.n

Well that solves that mystery.  Thanks.

p.n

----------

## andrewf

Great to see that you solved the problem.

But I was still wondering, What is that /mnt/portage partition?

 *p.n wrote:*   

> 
> 
> ```
> Filesystem    Type   1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
> 
> ...

 

If it realy is a local partition and it realy is 100% full that might slowdown some things as well..

----------

## p.n

```
But I was still wondering, What is that /mnt/portage partition? 
```

my portage backup.

----------

