[gentoo-user] 2.6.28-gentoo sources quite sluggish on Dell Inspiron 8100 / 1GHz PIII

[gentoo-user] 2.6.28-gentoo sources quite sluggish on Dell Inspiron 8100 / 1GHz PIII

[Dan Farrell]

Hi all,

I recently updated my dell Inspirion 8100's software after I found to
my suprise I could no longer play video fast enough to watch.  I did a
kernel upgrade from 2.6.24 to 2.6.28, with a number of
reconfigurations, including moving from madwifi to in-kernel ath5k.
Also updated nvidia-drivers to go along with the new system.  

Now my system is extremely sluggish.  It updates the screen very slowly
in X and CPU performance is noticably slower without X running too.  
WiFi speed is dismal.  

I tried to remove all cruft and extras from the kernel, but I haven't
managed to improve matters yet.  Since it now takes hours to update the
system, I was hoping someone might have and idea as to what the cause
of the slowdown might be.  

Sound Familiar?  Any guesses?

Re: [gentoo-user] 2.6.28-gentoo sources quite sluggish on Dell Inspiron 8100 / 1GHz PIII

[Volker Armin Hemmann]

On Donnerstag 22 Januar 2009, Dan Farrell wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I recently updated my dell Inspirion 8100's software after I found to
> my suprise I could no longer play video fast enough to watch.  I did a
> kernel upgrade from 2.6.24 to 2.6.28, with a number of
> reconfigurations, including moving from madwifi to in-kernel ath5k.
> Also updated nvidia-drivers to go along with the new system.
>
> Now my system is extremely sluggish.  It updates the screen very slowly
> in X and CPU performance is noticably slower without X running too.
> WiFi speed is dismal.
>
> I tried to remove all cruft and extras from the kernel, but I haven't
> managed to improve matters yet.  Since it now takes hours to update the
> system, I was hoping someone might have and idea as to what the cause
> of the slowdown might be.
>
> Sound Familiar?  Any guesses?

group scheduling? get rid of it.

Re: [gentoo-user] 2.6.28-gentoo sources quite sluggish on Dell Inspiron 8100 / 1GHz PIII

[Dan Farrell]

On Thu, 22 Jan 2009 02:47:57 +0100
Volker Armin Hemmann <volkerarmin@googlemail.com> wrote:

> On Donnerstag 22 Januar 2009, Dan Farrell wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I recently updated my dell Inspirion 8100's software after I found
> > to my suprise I could no longer play video fast enough to watch.  I
> > did a kernel upgrade from 2.6.24 to 2.6.28, with a number of
> > reconfigurations, including moving from madwifi to in-kernel ath5k.
> > Also updated nvidia-drivers to go along with the new system.
> >
> > Now my system is extremely sluggish.  It updates the screen very
> > slowly in X and CPU performance is noticably slower without X
> > running too. WiFi speed is dismal.
> >
> > I tried to remove all cruft and extras from the kernel, but I
> > haven't managed to improve matters yet.  Since it now takes hours
> > to update the system, I was hoping someone might have and idea as
> > to what the cause of the slowdown might be.
> >
> > Sound Familiar?  Any guesses?
> 
> group scheduling? get rid of it.
> 

Good thought!  I didn't have it on though.  Not particularly useful on
a laptop.  

I fixed it though; it ended up being the BIOS.  An upgrade from 8 to
15 and it's like a new computer.  Yay!  

Thanks for the response.  

Re: [gentoo-user] 2.6.28-gentoo sources quite sluggish on Dell Inspiron 8100 / 1GHz PIII

[Dale]

Volker Armin Hemmann wrote:
> On Donnerstag 22 Januar 2009, Dan Farrell wrote:
>   
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I recently updated my dell Inspirion 8100's software after I found to
>> my suprise I could no longer play video fast enough to watch.  I did a
>> kernel upgrade from 2.6.24 to 2.6.28, with a number of
>> reconfigurations, including moving from madwifi to in-kernel ath5k.
>> Also updated nvidia-drivers to go along with the new system.
>>
>> Now my system is extremely sluggish.  It updates the screen very slowly
>> in X and CPU performance is noticably slower without X running too.
>> WiFi speed is dismal.
>>
>> I tried to remove all cruft and extras from the kernel, but I haven't
>> managed to improve matters yet.  Since it now takes hours to update the
>> system, I was hoping someone might have and idea as to what the cause
>> of the slowdown might be.
>>
>> Sound Familiar?  Any guesses?
>>     
>
> group scheduling? get rid of it.
>
>
>
>   

I have been using 2.6.23 kernel for a while for the same reason.  I'm
going to check my config now.

Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] 2.6.28-gentoo sources quite sluggish on Dell Inspiron 8100 / 1GHz PIII

[Paul Hartman]

On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 9:05 PM, Dale <rdalek1967@gmail.com> wrote:
> Volker Armin Hemmann wrote:
>> On Donnerstag 22 Januar 2009, Dan Farrell wrote:
>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> I recently updated my dell Inspirion 8100's software after I found to
>>> my suprise I could no longer play video fast enough to watch.  I did a
>>> kernel upgrade from 2.6.24 to 2.6.28, with a number of
>>> reconfigurations, including moving from madwifi to in-kernel ath5k.
>>> Also updated nvidia-drivers to go along with the new system.
>>>
>>> Now my system is extremely sluggish.  It updates the screen very slowly
>>> in X and CPU performance is noticably slower without X running too.
>>> WiFi speed is dismal.
>>>
>>> I tried to remove all cruft and extras from the kernel, but I haven't
>>> managed to improve matters yet.  Since it now takes hours to update the
>>> system, I was hoping someone might have and idea as to what the cause
>>> of the slowdown might be.
>>>
>>> Sound Familiar?  Any guesses?
>>>
>>
>> group scheduling? get rid of it.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
> I have been using 2.6.23 kernel for a while for the same reason.  I'm
> going to check my config now.
>
> Dale

On my laptop it is noticeably sluggish when using SLUB instead of SLAB
(despite SLUB being the default, I find it to be worse every time I've
tried it so far)

Re: [gentoo-user] 2.6.28-gentoo sources quite sluggish on Dell Inspiron 8100 / 1GHz PIII

[Dale]

Paul Hartman wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 9:05 PM, Dale <rdalek1967@gmail.com> wrote:
>   
>> Volker Armin Hemmann wrote:
>>     
>>> On Donnerstag 22 Januar 2009, Dan Farrell wrote:
>>>
>>>       
>>>> Hi all,
>>>>
>>>> I recently updated my dell Inspirion 8100's software after I found to
>>>> my suprise I could no longer play video fast enough to watch.  I did a
>>>> kernel upgrade from 2.6.24 to 2.6.28, with a number of
>>>> reconfigurations, including moving from madwifi to in-kernel ath5k.
>>>> Also updated nvidia-drivers to go along with the new system.
>>>>
>>>> Now my system is extremely sluggish.  It updates the screen very slowly
>>>> in X and CPU performance is noticably slower without X running too.
>>>> WiFi speed is dismal.
>>>>
>>>> I tried to remove all cruft and extras from the kernel, but I haven't
>>>> managed to improve matters yet.  Since it now takes hours to update the
>>>> system, I was hoping someone might have and idea as to what the cause
>>>> of the slowdown might be.
>>>>
>>>> Sound Familiar?  Any guesses?
>>>>
>>>>         
>>> group scheduling? get rid of it.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>       
>> I have been using 2.6.23 kernel for a while for the same reason.  I'm
>> going to check my config now.
>>
>> Dale
>>     
>
> On my laptop it is noticeably sluggish when using SLUB instead of SLAB
> (despite SLUB being the default, I find it to be worse every time I've
> tried it so far)
>
>
>   


Is there a howto for this sort of thing?  From what I read here and
other places, some laptops are really confusing but there are even
desktops that have issues with some new features.  How does one get a
idea of what they should try?  I remember a list ages ago when I first
installed Gentoo that has a list of CPUs andsome of the options a person
could put in make.conf.  I think we need one of those, maybe on a wiki
or something, that lists models and what setting really work.  I think
laptops would really benefit from this.  I have never had a laptop but
they seem to be tricky to be nice about it.

Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] 2.6.28-gentoo sources quite sluggish on Dell Inspiron 8100 / 1GHz PIII

[Paul Hartman]

On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 3:35 PM, Dale <rdalek1967@gmail.com> wrote:
> Paul Hartman wrote:
>> On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 9:05 PM, Dale <rdalek1967@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Volker Armin Hemmann wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Donnerstag 22 Januar 2009, Dan Farrell wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Hi all,
>>>>>
>>>>> I recently updated my dell Inspirion 8100's software after I found to
>>>>> my suprise I could no longer play video fast enough to watch.  I did a
>>>>> kernel upgrade from 2.6.24 to 2.6.28, with a number of
>>>>> reconfigurations, including moving from madwifi to in-kernel ath5k.
>>>>> Also updated nvidia-drivers to go along with the new system.
>>>>>
>>>>> Now my system is extremely sluggish.  It updates the screen very slowly
>>>>> in X and CPU performance is noticably slower without X running too.
>>>>> WiFi speed is dismal.
>>>>>
>>>>> I tried to remove all cruft and extras from the kernel, but I haven't
>>>>> managed to improve matters yet.  Since it now takes hours to update the
>>>>> system, I was hoping someone might have and idea as to what the cause
>>>>> of the slowdown might be.
>>>>>
>>>>> Sound Familiar?  Any guesses?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> group scheduling? get rid of it.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>> I have been using 2.6.23 kernel for a while for the same reason.  I'm
>>> going to check my config now.
>>>
>>> Dale
>>>
>>
>> On my laptop it is noticeably sluggish when using SLUB instead of SLAB
>> (despite SLUB being the default, I find it to be worse every time I've
>> tried it so far)
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> Is there a howto for this sort of thing?  From what I read here and
> other places, some laptops are really confusing but there are even
> desktops that have issues with some new features.  How does one get a
> idea of what they should try?  I remember a list ages ago when I first
> installed Gentoo that has a list of CPUs andsome of the options a person
> could put in make.conf.  I think we need one of those, maybe on a wiki
> or something, that lists models and what setting really work.  I think
> laptops would really benefit from this.  I have never had a laptop but
> they seem to be tricky to be nice about it.

I think, other than power-saving stuff, there shouldn't really be any
big difference between desktop and laptop settings...

http://linuxonlaptops.com has lots of info about specific
configurations for various laptops.