# Linux kernel >=2.6.2-rc2 very slow

## neonik

I've got such an impression >=linux-2.6.2-rc2 is very slow on P4 machines with HT support. I've talked to a few people, they claim the same.

System specs:

i875P mainboard with a P4 3.2GHz HT (D1) processor.

emerge info:

```
Portage 2.0.50-r1 (default-x86-1.4, gcc-3.3.2, glibc-2.3.3_pre20040207-r0, 2.6.2-rc2-mm1-n1)

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

System uname: 2.6.2-rc2-mm1-n1 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz

Gentoo Base System version 1.4.3.13

Autoconf: sys-devel/autoconf-2.59-r3

Automake: sys-devel/automake-1.8.2

ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86 ~x86"

AUTOCLEAN="yes"

CFLAGS="-O3 -march=pentium4 -fprefetch-loop-arrays -funroll-loops -pipe"

CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"

COMPILER="gcc3"

CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3.1/share/config /usr/kde/3.2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/lib/mozilla/defaults/pref /usr/share/config /usr/share/texmf/dvipdfm/config/ /usr/share/texmf/dvips/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/generic/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/platex/config/ /usr/share/texmf/xdvi/ /var/qmail/control"

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

CXXFLAGS="-O3 -march=pentium4 -fprefetch-loop-arrays -funroll-loops -pipe"

DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"

FEATURES="autoaddcvs buildpkg ccache sandbox"

GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://ftp.uni-erlangen.de/pub/mirrors/gentoo http://linux.rz.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/download/gentoo-mirror/ http://mirrors.sec.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de/gentoo ftp://sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/pub/Linux/gentoo ftp://ftp.tu-clausthal.de/pub/linux/gentoo/ http://gentoo.oregonstate.edu http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/gentoo"

MAKEOPTS="-j3"

PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"

PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"

PORTDIR="/usr/portage"

PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage"

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

USE="X aalib alsa apache2 apm arts avi berkdb bonobo cdr crypt cups directfb dvd encode esd firebird flash foomaticdb gdbm gif gnome gnutls gphoto2 gpm gtk gtk2 gtkhtml imlib java jpeg kde libg++ libwww mad mikmod mmx motif mozilla moznocompose moznoirc moznomail mozxmlterm mpeg mysql nas ncurses nls nptl nvidia oggvorbis opengl oss pam pdflib perl php png python qt quicktime readline ruby samba scanner sdl slang spell sse ssl svga tcltk tcpd tetex tiff truetype x86 xchattext xml xml2 xmms xv zlib"
```

I've also tried using noacpi and disabling framebuffer.

Here the .config: [1]

Links:

[1] http://neonik.net/gentoo/.config-2.6.3_rc2-love2

Edit:

1. added a link to the .config file

----------

## curtis119

I experienced a slowdown with that kernel as well. I have an athlonXP. I also experienced jittery mouse and a very BIG lag in switching workspaces and X refresh rate. The new 2.6.3-r1seems to have fixed the problems.  This has nothing to do with HyperThreading in my case (athlons don't have this feature) but it still points to a general lagginess in that particular kernel.

----------

## neonik

Humm... What's the reason then? It's damn laggy and just impossible to work  on a 2.6.3 kernel, same with 2.6.2 final (2.6.2-rc's are fine).

----------

## neonik

gentoo-dev-sources-2.6.3-r1 seems to fix this but it's still pretty slow, I'd say it's vanilla-slow (compared to regular mm-sources) but at least it's usable.

----------

## neonik

Even mm-sources-2.6.3-r2 is slower than all previous releases.

----------

## vificunero

Well same problem here: even if with gentoo-2.6.3 things seem a little bit faster. The big problem is Xfree: it needs a lot of cpu resources, more than with other kernels lik 2.4 and 2.6.0.

----------

## neonik

Yeah, and somehing for some reason eats my whole RAM and if loaded swap too.

----------

## AlterEgo

Since using 2.6.3-mm, I feel that very specific things have slowed down immensely:

opening and closing files in OpenOffice.org, and all other compression-related activities (tar, gzip, bzip2).

Changing schedulers makes no difference.

I have checked my harddisk perfomance using hdparm, but that seems fine.

----------

## TinheadNed

I seem to get periods of about 5 seconds when X stops.  But the news ticker keeps scrolling and oggs keep playing.  It seemed to happen in linux-2.6.3-rc2-mm1 and has hung about ever since, except 2.6.3-mm2 and vanilla segfaulted on start on my desktop due to gameport cockups, and -mm1 refuses to compile on my laptop with a linker error.

I feel jinxed.

----------

## usingloser

painfully slow.....

----------

## To

I thought I was the only one   :Embarassed: 

Tó

----------

## neonik

Obviously you're not the only one...

If I only knew what's broken there... Any ideas what might cause this noticeable slowdown?

The only one working fine for me is still 2.6.2-rc2-mm1.

----------

## Steffen

Slow for me, too. Whenever I compile something audio skips like hell.  :Sad: 

I don't know exactly when it started, but 2.6.2 might be possible.

----------

## usingloser

I had to quit using a bloated wm, just to deal with it.  Enlightenment isn't so bad, but obviously not a good solution  :Wink: 

----------

## neonik

I would appreciate if you post your emerge info so we could find out what's similar on our systems, so we can find the reason for the slowdown. Obviously not everyone's systems are affected.

----------

## Steffen

```
cb3 root # emerge info

Portage 2.0.50-r1 (default-x86-1.4, gcc-3.3.3, glibc-2.3.3_pre20040207-r0, 2.6.3-bk5)

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

System uname: 2.6.3-bk5 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 Family CPU 2.40GHz

Gentoo Base System version 1.4.3.13

ccache version 2.3 [enabled]

Autoconf: sys-devel/autoconf-2.59-r3

Automake: sys-devel/automake-1.8.2

ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86 ~x86"

AUTOCLEAN="yes"

CFLAGS="-march=pentium4 -Os -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer"

CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"

COMPILER="gcc3"

CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/kde/cvs/share/config /usr/share/config /var/qmail/control"

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

CXXFLAGS="-O2 -mcpu=i686 -pipe"

DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"

FEATURES="autoaddcvs ccache sandbox"

GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://ftp.tu-clausthal.de/pub/linux/gentoo/ ftp://sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/pub/Linux/gentoo http://linux.rz.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/download/gentoo-mirror/ ftp://linux.rz.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/gentoo-mirror/"

MAKEOPTS="-j2"

PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"

PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"

PORTDIR="/usr/portage"

PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage"

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

USE="X acpi alsa apache2 arts artswrappersuid avi berkdb cdr crypt cups dvd dvdr encode esd foomaticdb gd gdbm gif gpm gtk2 imagemagick imlib java jpeg kde libg++ libwww mad maildir mikmod mng motif mozilla mpeg mysql ncurses nls nptl oggvorbis opengl oss pam pdflib perl php png python qt quicktime readline samba scanner sdl slang spell sse ssl svga tcpd truetype videos x86 xml2 xv zlib"
```

----------

## neonik

Well, since it's architecture independent, according to curtis119'sd post, I assume it's an issue of glibc-2.3.3_pre20040207-r0 and/or GCC.

I'll try to recompile with stable GCC and glibc. There's also this post: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?p=892613#892613

----------

## Steffen

Applied the CFLAGS mentioned in this thread (-pipe -finline-functions -finline-limit=662 -mfpmath=sse), compiled the kernel, rebooted, compiled kdelibs while playing an MP3 and then some kind of IO-Error stopped the kdelibs compilation and a few seconds later my computer freezed and rebooted after another second or so.  :Sad: 

Now using the "unoptimized" kernel image again.

----------

## neonik

Having some fun with that glibc...

So LoveChild was right on that, Steffen!

By the way, you guys happen to use NPTL'ed glibc instead of LinuxThreads?

I'm confused as for what it might be due to.

----------

## Steffen

I'm using NPTL since half a year or so, because it is said to be better / faster. I didn't notice an increase in speed, but didn't encounter any problems, too, so there is no reason to go back to LinuxThreads for me.

----------

## kwaakie

 *Steffen wrote:*   

> I'm using NPTL since half a year or so, because it is said to be better / faster. I didn't notice an increase in speed, but didn't encounter any problems, too, so there is no reason to go back to LinuxThreads for me.

 

Are you running the glibc-2.3.3_pre version ?

I've also had lots of problems using 2.6.3, also r1,I'm using the gentoo sources. Also using the glibc-2.3.3..maybe that would be the cause of all this.

----------

## Steffen

 *kwaakie wrote:*   

> Are you running the glibc-2.3.3_pre version ?

 Yes.

----------

## neonik

kwaakie: can see it in emerge info posted above  :Smile: 

Got NPTL'ed system too.

glibc doesn't want to install (stable one).

----------

## Bague

Hmmm, when I first upgraded to 2.6, I had a massive slowdown, but that is because the kernel came with a bunch of intel crap already enabled, and I use an AMDXP. Before I disabled the etra useless stuff (including an extra VIDEO chipset), it would take 5 secs for Password to come up when I typed su. When emerging, it took 5-10 mins to display "calculating dependancies". I disabled a bunch of (but certainly not all) useless things, and now I seem to be close to my correct speed. I was happy when I could type frozen-bubble and have a game fully running in ~10 secs.

----------

## neonik

Thanks to Con Kolivas for pointing me out that dma might be a cause of that all, we can probably finally resolve issues with 2.6.3 kernel releases. He's absolutely right on that. It's caused by disabled DMA here. Try running hdparm /dev/hda (or which ever HDD you got). If you see using_dma    =  0 (off), then make sure to enable it (hdparm -d1 /dev/hda), which I personally can't perform here  :Smile: 

 *Quote:*   

> hdparm -d1 /dev/hdb 
> 
> /dev/hdb:
> 
>  setting using_dma to 1 (on)
> ...

 

I do have the drive built (as module here). Might only not get loaded, but it wouldn't recognize the ATA bus, would it?

----------

## Bague

Hmmm, I switched to Love kernel, which got rid of quite a large amount of lag, but DMA still does not load on boot. If I do hdparm -d1 /dev/hda4, I get,

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> /dev/hda4:
> 
>  setting using_dma to 1 (on)
> ...

 

----------

## neonik

Yeah, exactly the same. And nowhere can I find a solution how to yet enable it.

You happen to have an ICH5 chipset?

----------

## IWBCMAN

I am not sure if I have the same problem as has been reported here by others. My problem is that I get a 3-5 second delay when  starting applications-regardless of whether I am starting them for the first time or simply re-starting them. Once the application is up and running it is quite fast and responsive. Graphics speed has not changed at all(moving/resing windows etc.)-ie. I notice no slowdown regarding X with the new 2.6.3 kernel.  I should also note that I recently(same time as new kernel was installed) moved the entire /usr directory onto it's own partition-I can't imagine this causing a speed problem-for the partition is a) closer to the start of the harddrive and b) is on a faster 80GB w/MB cache Western Digitial drive....

Compared to 2.6.2 startup times- whether it be GDM initializing, starting mozilla, gedit, kate, quanta, gnome-terminal -you name it, whatever, it is awful damned slow. It's like the machine just decides to take a cigarette pause and ponder about something deeply before anything happens- my CPU usage spike during starting of applications and I really can count the seconds before the hard drive starts making noises. And yes DMA is enabled, although I do not get the hdaprm -Tt results that I got with 2.6.2-slower cache reads....

I compile my kernel again with Kernel Hacking options(-pipe -finline-functions -finline-limit=662 -mfpmath=sse), and I have neither noticed any speed improvment nor compilation/stability problems. I also found that I I need to use ide-scsi emulation to watch DVD's-which really sucks- I use ATAPI for burning CD-ROMs and hoped I would not ever have to use scsi emulation again.....

emerge info reports:

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

Portage 2.0.50-r1 (default-x86-1.4, gcc-3.2.3, glibc-2.3.2-r3, 2.6.3-evil2)

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

System uname: 2.6.3-evil2 i686 Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 2.40GHz

Gentoo Base System version 1.4.3.10

distcc[12040] (dcc_set_trace_from_env) ERROR: failed to open logfile /var/tmp/portage/.distcc/state: Is a directory [disabled]

Autoconf: sys-devel/autoconf-2.58

Automake: sys-devel/automake-1.7.5-r2

ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"

AUTOCLEAN="yes"

CFLAGS="-O3 -march=i686 -funroll-loops -pipe -fstack-protector"

CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"

COMPILER="gcc3"

CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3.2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/share/config /usr/share/texmf/tex/generic/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/platex/config/ /var/qmail/control"

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

CXXFLAGS="-O3 -march=i686 -funroll-loops -pipe -fstack-protector"

DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"

FEATURES="autoaddcvs buildpkg ccache sandbox"

GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://gentoo.oregonstate.edu http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/gentoo"

MAKEOPTS="-j5"

PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"

PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"

PORTDIR="/usr/portage"

PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage"

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

USE="X aalib alsa apm arts avi berkdb bonobo breakme cdr cjk crypt cups d5d directfb divx doc dvd dvdr encode esd faad fbcon flac foomaticdb gdbm gif gnome gpm gtk gtk2 gtkhtml imlib java jpeg kde ldap libg++ libwww mad matroska mikmod mmx motif mozilla mpeg mysql nas ncurses nls nlscups nptl oggvorbis opengl oss pam pdflib perl png postgres ppds python qt quicktime readline samba scanner sdl slang snmp speex spell sse ssl svga tcpd tetex threads tiff truetype usb wmf x86 xml xml2 xmms xv xvid zlib"

----------

## neonik

Having just gained some experience, thanks to rac, I've got a solution to the ICH5(or any other mainboard-native IDE driver)/using_dma hdparm issue.

What you gotta do is check your dmesg or var/log/messages for what IDE driver was loaded. It should be "ICH5" or nVidia 2/3 (mainboard-native). If this is not the case, make sure you compile in support for PIIX (for ICH5) or VIA or nVidia/AMD for your kernel. It should be compiled in and not built as a module. I understand it so: the generic driver has higher priority than the ICH5 (or any other mainboard-native IDE driver) if it's compiled as a module (the generic one being compiled in in both cases). So, I suggest you compile it in, then see if it solves the problem with being unable to set hdparm -d1 /dev/hda (whichever).

IWBCMAN: does your hdparm /dev/hda (whichever) look normal (using_dma should be set 1), any difference between hdparm -tT /dev/hda (whichever) from previous kernel releases?

----------

## swimmer

 *neonik wrote:*   

> Thanks to Con Kolivas for pointing me out that dma might be a cause of that all, we can probably finally resolve issues with 2.6.3 kernel releases. He's absolutely right on that. It's caused by disabled DMA here. Try running hdparm /dev/hda (or which ever HDD you got). If you see using_dma    =  0 (off), then make sure to enable it (hdparm -d1 /dev/hda), which I personally can't perform here 
> 
>  *Quote:*   hdparm -d1 /dev/hdb 
> 
> /dev/hdb:
> ...

 

Hi neonik, 

getting slightly off-topic but can you explain this a little bit more? I experience the same thing here and would like to enable dma because otherwise I have a horribly bad performance here:

```
hdparm /dev/hda

/dev/hda:

 multcount    = 16 (on)

 IO_support   =  0 (default 16-bit)

 unmaskirq    =  0 (off)

 using_dma    =  0 (off)

 keepsettings =  0 (off)

 readonly     =  0 (off)

 readahead    = 256 (on)

 geometry     = 65535/16/63, sectors = 160086528, start = 0
```

```
hdparm -i /dev/hda

/dev/hda:

 Model=Maxtor 6Y080P0, FwRev=YAR41BW0, SerialNo=Y3KBW38E

 Config={ Fixed }

 RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=57

 BuffType=DualPortCache, BuffSize=7936kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=16

 CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=160086528

 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}

 PIO modes:  pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4

 DMA modes:  mdma0 mdma1 mdma2

 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 *udma6

 AdvancedPM=yes: disabled (255) WriteCache=enabled

 Drive conforms to: (null):

```

```
hdparm -tT /dev/hda

/dev/hda:

 Timing buffer-cache reads:   1036 MB in  2.00 seconds = 517.56 MB/sec

 Timing buffered disk reads:   24 MB in  3.22 seconds =   7.45 MB/sec

```

Thx in advance

Stefan

----------

## neonik

 *swimmer wrote:*   

> ...getting slightly off-topic but can you explain this a little bit more? I experience the same thing here and would like to enable dma because otherwise I have a horribly bad performance here...

 

swimmer, you need to issue the following command:

```
# hdparm -d1 /dev/hda
```

In case it displays an error message saying: *Quote:*   

> /dev/hda:
> 
> setting using_dma to 1 (on)
> 
> HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Operation not permitted
> ...

 

you will need to recheck your .config file and set the appropriate IDE interface driver for the native IDE controller of your mainboard to "y" - compiled/built in.

If you need further assistance, simply ask here  :Smile: 

----------

## swimmer

 *neonik wrote:*   

> swimmer, you need to issue the following command:
> 
> ```
> # hdparm -d1 /dev/hda
> ```
> ...

 

Hehehe - this did the trick  :Smile: 

Thx a lot!!!

Stefan

PS: Now I can continue with investigations how I get back my 2.4 performance in 2.6  :Wink: 

----------

## neonik

Say what's changed, will try to help you.

----------

## andreask

Hi!

 *neonik wrote:*   

> swimmer, you need to issue the following command:
> 
> ```
> # hdparm -d1 /dev/hda
> ```
> ...

 

I have exactly the same problem, and I have no idea which settings to change. I have a very old mainboard with 433er Celeron. Mainboard is an old Via Apollo pro chipset. 

How could I find out which setting I must use?

regards

Andreas

----------

## neonik

Andreas, you've got only a binary choice (either 0 or 1). Run hdparm /dev/hda | grep using_dma (replace "hda" with the right one). If you get a value of 0, you will need to try to enable it using hdparm -d1 /dev/hda (replace hda with the right one).

If it displays the same error mesage as the one in my quote included in your post, you will need to make sure your IDE controller is included for being built in. For that you will need to make sure VIA IDE is set "y" during kernel configuration.

For kernel 2.6:

 *Quote:*   

> Device Drivers:->
> 
> ->  ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support (IDE)->
> 
> ->    Generic PCI bus-master DMA support (BLK_DEV_IDEDMA_PCI)->
> ...

 

----------

## andreask

 *neonik wrote:*   

> Andreas, you've got only a binary choice (either 0 or 1). Run hdparm /dev/hda | grep using_dma (replace "hda" with the right one). If you get a value of 0, you will need to try to enable it using hdparm -d1 /dev/hda (replace hda with the right one).

 

that's what I did before. 

 *Quote:*   

> If it displays the same error mesage as the one in my quote included in your post, you will need to make sure your IDE controller is included for being built in. For that you will need to make sure VIA IDE is set "y" during kernel configuration.
> 
> For kernel 2.6:
> 
>  *Quote:*   Device Drivers:->
> ...

 

OK, I did not now that I have a "VIA82CXXX" Controller  :Wink: 

I will look at this point - thank you!

Another question - while booting gentoo complains that I have no devfs in my kernel.  But 2.6 doesn't need I thought?!

I have installed Gentoo with 2.4 Kernel and build a 2.6 Kernel later.

regards,

Andreas

----------

## wilburpan

 *IWBCMAN wrote:*   

> I am not sure if I have the same problem as has been reported here by others. My problem is that I get a 3-5 second delay when  starting applications-regardless of whether I am starting them for the first time or simply re-starting them. Once the application is up and running it is quite fast and responsive....

 

Just to confirm -- I've been seeing the same behavior since mm-sources-2.6.3-r*.  The startup time for KDE is much longer than it was before, but once it's going it seems to behave.  Some applications (KWrite, KEdit) seem to take much longer to start than before, while others don't seem to be affected at all.  There's also a long pause (~3 secs) before Fluxbox gets up and running.

DMA works fine for me -- that's not the issue here.

----------

## Bague

Hmmm, where in the menuconfig are the ide chipset settings located?

----------

## neonik

Andreas, Gentoo does need it, if you read the ewarn messages displayed after sources are emerged, you will see the same message.

----------

## neonik

wilburpan, I've been having this issue since 2.6.2 final (any patchset). That's why I prefer 2.6.2-rc2 to the newer nes. 2.6.2-rc3 is also slow.

----------

## neonik

Bague, please do read other posts too:

 *Quote:*   

> Device Drivers:->
> 
> -> ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support (IDE)->
> 
> -> Generic PCI bus-master DMA support (BLK_DEV_IDEDMA_PCI)->

 

----------

## beandog

 *To wrote:*   

> I thought I was the only one  

 

Me too ... I noticed things were slowing down a bit with 2.6.3 when compiling anything, but I figured I just had some bloat, so I trimmed my use flags, ran revdep-rebuild, and even a partial emerge -e system.

Still slow.  :T

As for hdparm, why dont you guys just do rc-update add hdparm default?

Works for me..

Anyhoo, here's my emerge info:

```
Portage 2.0.50-r1 (default-x86-1.4, gcc-3.3.2, glibc-2.3.2-r9, 2.6.3)

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

System uname: 2.6.3 i686 AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2500+

Gentoo Base System version 1.4.3.13

Autoconf: sys-devel/autoconf-2.58-r1

Automake: sys-devel/automake-1.7.7

ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"

AUTOCLEAN="yes"

CFLAGS="-O2 -march=athlon-xp -pipe"

CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"

COMPILER="gcc3"

CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3.2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/share/config /var/qmail/control"

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

CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=athlon-xp -pipe"

DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"

FEATURES="autoaddcvs ccache sandbox"

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

MAKEOPTS="-j2"

PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"

PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"

PORTDIR="/usr/portage"

PORTDIR_OVERLAY=""

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

USE="3dnow X acpi alsa apache2 cdr crypt cups curl encode esd flac gd gif gnome gpm gtk gtk2 gtkhtml imlib java jpeg libwww mmx motif mozilla moznocompose moznoirc moznomail mpeg mysql ncurses nogcj nomac nowin oggvorbis opengl oss pam png ppds quicktime readline sdl slang speex ssl tcpd truetype usb x86 xmms zlib"
```

----------

## neonik

sdibb, hdparm should be set anyway at boot level. That's first. Second is that if you don't have the right kernel module built in the kernel image but do have support for generic IDE controller built in (haven't tried with both as modules), you will not have your chipset supported and will have the E-IDE generic driver being loaded at each kernel boot, which means you will not have your IDE controller completely and entirely supported, which in this case means that you will be unable to use DMA and other funky options. By the way, FreeBSD updated IDE and SATA a little in their new release 5.2.1.

----------

## IWBCMAN

I hate to admit this, but, my problem was not related to the 2.6.3 kernel. As I mentioned in my post I had recently moved the enitre /usr directory onto it's own partition on another hardrive. I also stated that I couldn't imagine that being the source of the problem due to it being a) on a faster harddrive w 8MB cache and b) on a partition close to the beginning of the drive-which does usually account for some speed difference. As it turns out it was GTK apps which were so slowly lagging-konqueror started up blindingly fast. So I just re-emerged gtk+ and did a 'fccache  -vf' and low and behold WHAM no more 3-5 second delay in starting apps......Sorry if my post added to the confusion surrounding these issues.....

----------

## neonik

IWBCMAN, that's great.

----------

## wilburpan

 *IWBCMAN wrote:*   

> I hate to admit this, but, my problem was not related to the 2.6.3 kernel....As it turns out it was GTK apps which were so slowly lagging-konqueror started up blindingly fast.

 

Unfortunately for me, this probably won't help me much, as my main desktop environment is KDE, and I don't use much in the way of GTK apps.

My most recent experiment was to start the 2.6.3-mm4 kernel without the cfq elevator.  I had been using the kernel with cfq on.  I don't see much in the way of improvement.  Fluxbox still has a lag when opening as well.

----------

## InfinityX

I've been noticing slowdown more and more the past few days, ever since going from 2.6.1 to 2.6.3 for reasons I can no longer remember.

I just did an "emerge -s" and it took minutes before it even said searching, and by the time OpenOffice started I'd forgotten why I started it in the first place

emerge info

```
Portage 2.0.50-r1 (default-x86-1.4, gcc-3.2.3, glibc-2.3.2-r1, 2.6.3)

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

System uname: 2.6.3 i686 AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2600+

Gentoo Base System version 1.4.3.8p1

Autoconf: sys-devel/autoconf-2.58-r1

Automake: sys-devel/automake-1.7.7

ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"

AUTOCLEAN="yes"

CFLAGS="-O2 -march=athlon-xp -pipe"

CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"

COMPILER="gcc3"

CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3.1/share/config /usr/kde/3.2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/share/config /var/qmail/control"

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

CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=athlon-xp -pipe"

DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"

FEATURES="autoaddcvs ccache sandbox"

GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://212.219.247.13/sites/www.ibiblio.org/gentoo/ http://212.219.247.21/sites/www.ibiblio.org/gentoo/ http://212.219.247.20/sites/www.ibiblio.org/gentoo/ http://212.219.247.16/sites/www.ibiblio.org/gentoo/"

MAKEOPTS="-j2"

PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"

PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"

PORTDIR="/usr/portage"

PORTDIR_OVERLAY=""

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

USE="3dnow X aalib alsa apm arts avi berkdb cdr crypt cups dvd encode esd foomaticdb gdbm gif gpm gtk gtk2 imlib java jpeg jpg kde libg++ libwww mad mikmod motif mpeg ncurses nls oggvorbis opengl oss pam pdflib perl png python qt quicktime radeon readline sdl slang spell ssl svga tcltk tcpd tiff truetype usb x86 xml2 xmms xv zlib"
```

I'm going to switch to gentoo-dev-sources in a minute to see if that makes any difference.

IWBCMAN: what's fccache -vf'? I remerged gtk+ but that isn't a recognised command (forgive me I'm new)

Edit: That seemed to do it, now no matter what I throw at my system I can't make it slow down! I'm currently re-encoding an .avi whilst using XMMS, Opera and randomly opening and closing OpenOffice.

XMMS still seems to lag when using arts as the output plugin (which I like because it's gapless)

----------

## beandog

Just a typo, but its fc-cache -fv

----------

## IWBCMAN

InfinityX,

I misspelled the command, the correct command is:

```

fc-cache -vf

```

It is part of fontconfig, the program responsible for truetype(TTF) font configuration for GTK+/KDE.

Why on earth I needed to re-emerge GTK+  is  a total mystery to me. I cannot honestly say if it was due to the kernel change(2.6.2->2.6.3) or due to having moved my /usr directory to it's own partition on another drive.

wilburpan,

In my first post I noted that the laagy start-up speed was not only with GTK apps but also with Mozilla and Kate/Quanta. I just tried running Kate again, it took a couple of seconds (probably due to having to initialize the DCOP server) and then I closed it and re-started it once again- this time It popped up instantly. This is not the same behavior that I noticed when I first posted to this thread- each and every time I started an application the computer hung for 3-5 seconds before starting.

Now why does it work correctly now ? - it is inconcievable for me that re-emerging gtk+ could affect a QT-based Kate program. However I also did a 'fc-cache -vf' to regenerate the fonts- the same fonts used by GTK+, Mozilla and KDE. Now why did I need to regenerate the fonts ? Was it due to having moved the /usr directory to a new partition or was it due to the new 2.6.3 kernel ?

I honestly don't have a full picture of what is going on-you may wish to also try to regenerate your fonts with fc-cache- perhaps this will change something albeit I am at a loss to explain the positive speed boost which I have experienced. Does Fluxbox even use TTF fonts ?

neonik,

thanks for your help on this thread- your tips concerning DMA  and the correct IDE drivers  are quite helpful to many experiencing speed problems. Even though this was not the case for me- I double checked my kernel config to make sure all my settings were correct-I even re-compiled the kernel after removing still more cruft(ipv6, isapnp,udf,reiser4)-I believe I finally only have those kernel options compiled-in or compiled as modules which I actually use and need. My kernel is rather patched anyway-it is an EVIL kernel(linux-2.6.3-evil2) plus mISDN patches.......

----------

