[gentoo-user] problems with performance when booted using systemd

[gentoo-user] problems with performance when booted using systemd

[covici]

Hi.  I am having some strange performance problems when booted under
systemd.  These problems happened a little bit under openrc, but are
much more pronounced with systemd.

I am using just virtual consoles, no gui whatsoever at the moment.  I
also use tmux with 4 windows in one of the vcs.  My system is an i7
processor, quod core and 16g of ram and 2g of swap space which appears
not to be used.  I am using uvesafb for the console, so I get 64x160
screens.

The first problem is that if I don't press any keystrokes for several
minutes and then want to move to another vc, it takes about 3 or 4
seconds after the alt-left arrow or alt-right arrow command to take
effect.  Even within the same vt, if I don't do anything for several
minutes, it takes several seconds till the keystroke echoes and
something happens.  Once I have done this, things act normally, but its
kind of annoying.  Also, my load average seems to always be >1.  I have
looked at top and things seem to be OK, except that my cpu usage is like
this:
Tasks: 934 total,   2 running, 931 sleeping,   0 stopped,   1 zombie
%Cpu(s): 12.5 us,  1.2 sy,  0.0 ni, 86.0 id,  0.2 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,
0.0 st
KiB Mem:  16450248 total,  9678656 used,  6771592 free,  1084088 buffers
KiB Swap:  2097148 total,        4 used,  2097144 free.  1147688 cached
Mem

  PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+
  COMMAND
 9969 root      20   0     708     16      0 R 100.0  0.0   1549:10 v86d
  579 root      30  10       0      0      0 S   9.1  0.0  16:09.93
  speakup
11789 root      20   0   22524   2388   1116 R   0.7  0.0   0:00.03 top
    7 root       0 -20       0      0      0 S   0.3  0.0   0:10.41
  kworker/u:0H

and onward ...
This is an awful lot of tasks, I have never seen so many!

Anyone have any ideas?  Thanks much.


-- 
Your life is like a penny.  You're going to lose it.  The question is:
How do
you spend it?

         John Covici
         covici@ccs.covici.com

Re: [gentoo-user] problems with performance when booted using systemd

[J. Roeleveld]

On Friday, June 06, 2014 01:59:18 AM covici@ccs.covici.com wrote:
> Hi.  I am having some strange performance problems when booted under
> systemd.  These problems happened a little bit under openrc, but are
> much more pronounced with systemd.

I don't think it's necessarily systemd itself, just a setting that systemd 
does differently then openrc. See below for more.

> I am using just virtual consoles, no gui whatsoever at the moment.  I
> also use tmux with 4 windows in one of the vcs.  My system is an i7
> processor, quod core and 16g of ram and 2g of swap space which appears
> not to be used.  I am using uvesafb for the console, so I get 64x160
> screens.

Sounds similar to my laptop, except I run KDE and got 16g of swap (for 
hibernate)

> The first problem is that if I don't press any keystrokes for several
> minutes and then want to move to another vc, it takes about 3 or 4
> seconds after the alt-left arrow or alt-right arrow command to take
> effect.  Even within the same vt, if I don't do anything for several
> minutes, it takes several seconds till the keystroke echoes and
> something happens.  Once I have done this, things act normally, but its
> kind of annoying.

Sounds like a powersave setting. I used to get the same on my old laptop with 
spinning rust. SSDs tend to "spin-up" a lot quicker.

> Also, my load average seems to always be >1.  I have
> looked at top and things seem to be OK, except that my cpu usage is like
> this:
> Tasks: 934 total,   2 running, 931 sleeping,   0 stopped,   1 zombie
> %Cpu(s): 12.5 us,  1.2 sy,  0.0 ni, 86.0 id,  0.2 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,
> 0.0 st
> KiB Mem:  16450248 total,  9678656 used,  6771592 free,  1084088 buffers
> KiB Swap:  2097148 total,        4 used,  2097144 free.  1147688 cached
> Mem
> 
>   PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+
>   COMMAND
>  9969 root      20   0     708     16      0 R 100.0  0.0   1549:10 v86d
>   579 root      30  10       0      0      0 S   9.1  0.0  16:09.93
>   speakup
> 11789 root      20   0   22524   2388   1116 R   0.7  0.0   0:00.03 top
>     7 root       0 -20       0      0      0 S   0.3  0.0   0:10.41
>   kworker/u:0H
> 
> and onward ...
> This is an awful lot of tasks, I have never seen so many!

That is a lot, I am currently running KDE, firefox and a citrix remote desktop 
thing. (oh, and skype and kopete and a few other items)
KDE is installed with semantic-desktop, but the nepomuk stuff is disabled in 
system-settings.
I have 200 tasks (yes, nice round figure)

> Anyone have any ideas?  Thanks much.

For the amount of tasks, check that you are not starting too many unneeded 
services. For the load-average of 1, shouldn't be too much of an issue, had 
similar in the past with a lot of stuff running and slow disks.

For the freezing, I would suggest checking all the powersave options, 
especially the ones for the harddrives.
Is there anything in the logs when this happens? Eg. check the logs right 
after the system becomes responsible again, maybe there is a hint there what 
is causing this.

--
Joost

Re: [gentoo-user] problems with performance when booted using systemd

[covici]

J. Roeleveld <joost@antarean.org> wrote:

> On Friday, June 06, 2014 01:59:18 AM covici@ccs.covici.com wrote:
> > Hi.  I am having some strange performance problems when booted under
> > systemd.  These problems happened a little bit under openrc, but are
> > much more pronounced with systemd.
> 
> I don't think it's necessarily systemd itself, just a setting that systemd 
> does differently then openrc. See below for more.
> 
> > I am using just virtual consoles, no gui whatsoever at the moment.  I
> > also use tmux with 4 windows in one of the vcs.  My system is an i7
> > processor, quod core and 16g of ram and 2g of swap space which appears
> > not to be used.  I am using uvesafb for the console, so I get 64x160
> > screens.
> 
> Sounds similar to my laptop, except I run KDE and got 16g of swap (for 
> hibernate)
> 
> > The first problem is that if I don't press any keystrokes for several
> > minutes and then want to move to another vc, it takes about 3 or 4
> > seconds after the alt-left arrow or alt-right arrow command to take
> > effect.  Even within the same vt, if I don't do anything for several
> > minutes, it takes several seconds till the keystroke echoes and
> > something happens.  Once I have done this, things act normally, but its
> > kind of annoying.
> 
> Sounds like a powersave setting. I used to get the same on my old laptop with 
> spinning rust. SSDs tend to "spin-up" a lot quicker.
> 
> > Also, my load average seems to always be >1.  I have
> > looked at top and things seem to be OK, except that my cpu usage is like
> > this:
> > Tasks: 934 total,   2 running, 931 sleeping,   0 stopped,   1 zombie
> > %Cpu(s): 12.5 us,  1.2 sy,  0.0 ni, 86.0 id,  0.2 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,
> > 0.0 st
> > KiB Mem:  16450248 total,  9678656 used,  6771592 free,  1084088 buffers
> > KiB Swap:  2097148 total,        4 used,  2097144 free.  1147688 cached
> > Mem
> > 
> >   PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+
> >   COMMAND
> >  9969 root      20   0     708     16      0 R 100.0  0.0   1549:10 v86d
> >   579 root      30  10       0      0      0 S   9.1  0.0  16:09.93
> >   speakup
> > 11789 root      20   0   22524   2388   1116 R   0.7  0.0   0:00.03 top
> >     7 root       0 -20       0      0      0 S   0.3  0.0   0:10.41
> >   kworker/u:0H
> > 
> > and onward ...
> > This is an awful lot of tasks, I have never seen so many!
> 
> That is a lot, I am currently running KDE, firefox and a citrix remote desktop 
> thing. (oh, and skype and kopete and a few other items)
> KDE is installed with semantic-desktop, but the nepomuk stuff is disabled in 
> system-settings.
> I have 200 tasks (yes, nice round figure)
> 
> > Anyone have any ideas?  Thanks much.
> 
> For the amount of tasks, check that you are not starting too many unneeded 
> services. For the load-average of 1, shouldn't be too much of an issue, had 
> similar in the past with a lot of stuff running and slow disks.
> 
> For the freezing, I would suggest checking all the powersave options, 
> especially the ones for the harddrives.
> Is there anything in the logs when this happens? Eg. check the logs right 
> after the system becomes responsible again, maybe there is a hint there what 
> is causing this.

Unless systemd is setting some powersave options, I certainly never set
anything like that, this is a desktop  machine, not even a laptop.  Next
time this happens I will check the logs.  Does systemd set some
powersave options by default?

Thanks.


-- 
Your life is like a penny.  You're going to lose it.  The question is:
How do
you spend it?

         John Covici
         covici@ccs.covici.com

Re: [gentoo-user] problems with performance when booted using systemd

[J. Roeleveld]

On Friday, June 06, 2014 03:45:17 AM covici@ccs.covici.com wrote:
> J. Roeleveld <joost@antarean.org> wrote:
> > On Friday, June 06, 2014 01:59:18 AM covici@ccs.covici.com wrote:
> > > Hi.  I am having some strange performance problems when booted under
> > > systemd.  These problems happened a little bit under openrc, but are
> > > much more pronounced with systemd.
> > 
> > I don't think it's necessarily systemd itself, just a setting that systemd
> > does differently then openrc. See below for more.
> > 
> > > I am using just virtual consoles, no gui whatsoever at the moment.  I
> > > also use tmux with 4 windows in one of the vcs.  My system is an i7
> > > processor, quod core and 16g of ram and 2g of swap space which appears
> > > not to be used.  I am using uvesafb for the console, so I get 64x160
> > > screens.
> > 
> > Sounds similar to my laptop, except I run KDE and got 16g of swap (for
> > hibernate)
> > 
> > > The first problem is that if I don't press any keystrokes for several
> > > minutes and then want to move to another vc, it takes about 3 or 4
> > > seconds after the alt-left arrow or alt-right arrow command to take
> > > effect.  Even within the same vt, if I don't do anything for several
> > > minutes, it takes several seconds till the keystroke echoes and
> > > something happens.  Once I have done this, things act normally, but its
> > > kind of annoying.
> > 
> > Sounds like a powersave setting. I used to get the same on my old laptop
> > with spinning rust. SSDs tend to "spin-up" a lot quicker.
> > 
> > > Also, my load average seems to always be >1.  I have
> > > looked at top and things seem to be OK, except that my cpu usage is like
> > > this:
> > > Tasks: 934 total,   2 running, 931 sleeping,   0 stopped,   1 zombie
> > > %Cpu(s): 12.5 us,  1.2 sy,  0.0 ni, 86.0 id,  0.2 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,
> > > 0.0 st
> > > KiB Mem:  16450248 total,  9678656 used,  6771592 free,  1084088 buffers
> > > KiB Swap:  2097148 total,        4 used,  2097144 free.  1147688 cached
> > > Mem
> > > 
> > >   PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+
> > >   COMMAND
> > >  
> > >  9969 root      20   0     708     16      0 R 100.0  0.0   1549:10 v86d
> > >  
> > >   579 root      30  10       0      0      0 S   9.1  0.0  16:09.93
> > >   speakup
> > > 
> > > 11789 root      20   0   22524   2388   1116 R   0.7  0.0   0:00.03 top
> > > 
> > >     7 root       0 -20       0      0      0 S   0.3  0.0   0:10.41
> > >   
> > >   kworker/u:0H
> > > 
> > > and onward ...
> > > This is an awful lot of tasks, I have never seen so many!
> > 
> > That is a lot, I am currently running KDE, firefox and a citrix remote
> > desktop thing. (oh, and skype and kopete and a few other items)
> > KDE is installed with semantic-desktop, but the nepomuk stuff is disabled
> > in system-settings.
> > I have 200 tasks (yes, nice round figure)
> > 
> > > Anyone have any ideas?  Thanks much.
> > 
> > For the amount of tasks, check that you are not starting too many unneeded
> > services. For the load-average of 1, shouldn't be too much of an issue,
> > had
> > similar in the past with a lot of stuff running and slow disks.
> > 
> > For the freezing, I would suggest checking all the powersave options,
> > especially the ones for the harddrives.
> > Is there anything in the logs when this happens? Eg. check the logs right
> > after the system becomes responsible again, maybe there is a hint there
> > what is causing this.
> 
> Unless systemd is setting some powersave options, I certainly never set
> anything like that, this is a desktop  machine, not even a laptop.  Next
> time this happens I will check the logs.  Does systemd set some
> powersave options by default?

I do not know that for sure, best wait for more knowledgable systemd users to 
answer that. If it doesn't, then systemd itself is causing more freezes (as 
per your experience) then openrc.

I would guess it does or at least with the default configuration. What you 
describe makes me think the disks are switched to powersave sooner with 
systemd.
Can you provide the output of the following command:
#  hdparm -B /dev/sda
to get the APM settings of the disk. (If you have multiple disks, please run 
it for the others as well.

Question for others as well, how do you get the current setting for the 
spindown timeout set with "  hdparm -S <value> <device> "?
I couldn't find it.

I am happy with openrc and have no intention on switching to systemd as I 
haven't heard of a single feature that would actually make my life easier.

--
Joost

Re: [gentoo-user] problems with performance when booted using systemd

[covici]

J. Roeleveld <joost@antarean.org> wrote:

> On Friday, June 06, 2014 01:59:18 AM covici@ccs.covici.com wrote:
> > Hi.  I am having some strange performance problems when booted under
> > systemd.  These problems happened a little bit under openrc, but are
> > much more pronounced with systemd.
> 
> I don't think it's necessarily systemd itself, just a setting that systemd 
> does differently then openrc. See below for more.
> 
> > I am using just virtual consoles, no gui whatsoever at the moment.  I
> > also use tmux with 4 windows in one of the vcs.  My system is an i7
> > processor, quod core and 16g of ram and 2g of swap space which appears
> > not to be used.  I am using uvesafb for the console, so I get 64x160
> > screens.
> 
> Sounds similar to my laptop, except I run KDE and got 16g of swap (for 
> hibernate)
> 
> > The first problem is that if I don't press any keystrokes for several
> > minutes and then want to move to another vc, it takes about 3 or 4
> > seconds after the alt-left arrow or alt-right arrow command to take
> > effect.  Even within the same vt, if I don't do anything for several
> > minutes, it takes several seconds till the keystroke echoes and
> > something happens.  Once I have done this, things act normally, but its
> > kind of annoying.
> 
> Sounds like a powersave setting. I used to get the same on my old laptop with 
> spinning rust. SSDs tend to "spin-up" a lot quicker.
> 
> > Also, my load average seems to always be >1.  I have
> > looked at top and things seem to be OK, except that my cpu usage is like
> > this:
> > Tasks: 934 total,   2 running, 931 sleeping,   0 stopped,   1 zombie
> > %Cpu(s): 12.5 us,  1.2 sy,  0.0 ni, 86.0 id,  0.2 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,
> > 0.0 st
> > KiB Mem:  16450248 total,  9678656 used,  6771592 free,  1084088 buffers
> > KiB Swap:  2097148 total,        4 used,  2097144 free.  1147688 cached
> > Mem
> > 
> >   PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+
> >   COMMAND
> >  9969 root      20   0     708     16      0 R 100.0  0.0   1549:10 v86d
> >   579 root      30  10       0      0      0 S   9.1  0.0  16:09.93
> >   speakup
> > 11789 root      20   0   22524   2388   1116 R   0.7  0.0   0:00.03 top
> >     7 root       0 -20       0      0      0 S   0.3  0.0   0:10.41
> >   kworker/u:0H
> > 
> > and onward ...
> > This is an awful lot of tasks, I have never seen so many!
> 
> That is a lot, I am currently running KDE, firefox and a citrix remote desktop 
> thing. (oh, and skype and kopete and a few other items)
> KDE is installed with semantic-desktop, but the nepomuk stuff is disabled in 
> system-settings.
> I have 200 tasks (yes, nice round figure)
> 
> > Anyone have any ideas?  Thanks much.
> 
> For the amount of tasks, check that you are not starting too many unneeded 
> services. For the load-average of 1, shouldn't be too much of an issue, had 
> similar in the past with a lot of stuff running and slow disks.
> 
> For the freezing, I would suggest checking all the powersave options, 
> especially the ones for the harddrives.
> Is there anything in the logs when this happens? Eg. check the logs right 
> after the system becomes responsible again, maybe there is a hint there what 
> is causing this.

Well, not a peep out of the logs -- I did journaldctl -rb right after
one of those pauses and not an entry -- in fact it  looked like mail was
being received, etc right along.


-- 
Your life is like a penny.  You're going to lose it.  The question is:
How do
you spend it?

         John Covici
         covici@ccs.covici.com

Re: [gentoo-user] problems with performance when booted using systemd

[covici]

J. Roeleveld <joost@antarean.org> wrote:

> On Friday, June 06, 2014 03:45:17 AM covici@ccs.covici.com wrote:
> > J. Roeleveld <joost@antarean.org> wrote:
> > > On Friday, June 06, 2014 01:59:18 AM covici@ccs.covici.com wrote:
> > > > Hi.  I am having some strange performance problems when booted under
> > > > systemd.  These problems happened a little bit under openrc, but are
> > > > much more pronounced with systemd.
> > > 
> > > I don't think it's necessarily systemd itself, just a setting that systemd
> > > does differently then openrc. See below for more.
> > > 
> > > > I am using just virtual consoles, no gui whatsoever at the moment.  I
> > > > also use tmux with 4 windows in one of the vcs.  My system is an i7
> > > > processor, quod core and 16g of ram and 2g of swap space which appears
> > > > not to be used.  I am using uvesafb for the console, so I get 64x160
> > > > screens.
> > > 
> > > Sounds similar to my laptop, except I run KDE and got 16g of swap (for
> > > hibernate)
> > > 
> > > > The first problem is that if I don't press any keystrokes for several
> > > > minutes and then want to move to another vc, it takes about 3 or 4
> > > > seconds after the alt-left arrow or alt-right arrow command to take
> > > > effect.  Even within the same vt, if I don't do anything for several
> > > > minutes, it takes several seconds till the keystroke echoes and
> > > > something happens.  Once I have done this, things act normally, but its
> > > > kind of annoying.
> > > 
> > > Sounds like a powersave setting. I used to get the same on my old laptop
> > > with spinning rust. SSDs tend to "spin-up" a lot quicker.
> > > 
> > > > Also, my load average seems to always be >1.  I have
> > > > looked at top and things seem to be OK, except that my cpu usage is like
> > > > this:
> > > > Tasks: 934 total,   2 running, 931 sleeping,   0 stopped,   1 zombie
> > > > %Cpu(s): 12.5 us,  1.2 sy,  0.0 ni, 86.0 id,  0.2 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,
> > > > 0.0 st
> > > > KiB Mem:  16450248 total,  9678656 used,  6771592 free,  1084088 buffers
> > > > KiB Swap:  2097148 total,        4 used,  2097144 free.  1147688 cached
> > > > Mem
> > > > 
> > > >   PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+
> > > >   COMMAND
> > > >  
> > > >  9969 root      20   0     708     16      0 R 100.0  0.0   1549:10 v86d
> > > >  
> > > >   579 root      30  10       0      0      0 S   9.1  0.0  16:09.93
> > > >   speakup
> > > > 
> > > > 11789 root      20   0   22524   2388   1116 R   0.7  0.0   0:00.03 top
> > > > 
> > > >     7 root       0 -20       0      0      0 S   0.3  0.0   0:10.41
> > > >   
> > > >   kworker/u:0H
> > > > 
> > > > and onward ...
> > > > This is an awful lot of tasks, I have never seen so many!
> > > 
> > > That is a lot, I am currently running KDE, firefox and a citrix remote
> > > desktop thing. (oh, and skype and kopete and a few other items)
> > > KDE is installed with semantic-desktop, but the nepomuk stuff is disabled
> > > in system-settings.
> > > I have 200 tasks (yes, nice round figure)
> > > 
> > > > Anyone have any ideas?  Thanks much.
> > > 
> > > For the amount of tasks, check that you are not starting too many unneeded
> > > services. For the load-average of 1, shouldn't be too much of an issue,
> > > had
> > > similar in the past with a lot of stuff running and slow disks.
> > > 
> > > For the freezing, I would suggest checking all the powersave options,
> > > especially the ones for the harddrives.
> > > Is there anything in the logs when this happens? Eg. check the logs right
> > > after the system becomes responsible again, maybe there is a hint there
> > > what is causing this.
> > 
> > Unless systemd is setting some powersave options, I certainly never set
> > anything like that, this is a desktop  machine, not even a laptop.  Next
> > time this happens I will check the logs.  Does systemd set some
> > powersave options by default?
> 
> I do not know that for sure, best wait for more knowledgable systemd users to 
> answer that. If it doesn't, then systemd itself is causing more freezes (as 
> per your experience) then openrc.
> 
> I would guess it does or at least with the default configuration. What you 
> describe makes me think the disks are switched to powersave sooner with 
> systemd.
> Can you provide the output of the following command:
> #  hdparm -B /dev/sda
> to get the APM settings of the disk. (If you have multiple disks, please run 
> it for the others as well.
> 
> Question for others as well, how do you get the current setting for the 
> spindown timeout set with "  hdparm -S <value> <device> "?
> I couldn't find it.
> 
> I am happy with openrc and have no intention on switching to systemd as I 
> haven't heard of a single feature that would actually make my life easier.

I don't have hdparm on the system, is it only for  older disks?  If
memory serves, it did not work at all when I tried it as my disks are
all /dev/sda, etc, but that may be wrong.



-- 
Your life is like a penny.  You're going to lose it.  The question is:
How do
you spend it?

         John Covici
         covici@ccs.covici.com

Re: [gentoo-user] problems with performance when booted using systemd

[Mick]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: Text/Plain, Size: 411 bytes --]

On Friday 06 Jun 2014 06:59:18 covici@ccs.covici.com wrote:
> I am using uvesafb for the console, so I get 64x160 screens.

Why don't you use KMS?  I am asking in the off-chance that uvesa is not 
working happily with your video card and the native kernel drive performs 
better.

This of course would not explain the high number of tasks; are these only 
evident under systemd?

-- 
Regards,
Mick

[-- Attachment #2: This is a digitally signed message part. --]
[-- Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 490 bytes --]

Re: [gentoo-user] problems with performance when booted using systemd

[covici]

Mick <michaelkintzios@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Friday 06 Jun 2014 06:59:18 covici@ccs.covici.com wrote:
> > I am using uvesafb for the console, so I get 64x160 screens.
> 
> Why don't you use KMS?  I am asking in the off-chance that uvesa is not 
> working happily with your video card and the native kernel drive performs 
> better.
> 
> This of course would not explain the high number of tasks; are these only 
> evident under systemd?

Under openrc, I get much fewer tasks and even  when I first booted
systemd, it was fewer, but it was maybe be 400 whereas openrc had 200 or
less.  I am using uvesafb, because when I tried the kernel driver,
nvidia closed source driver was not happy when X was started.


-- 
Your life is like a penny.  You're going to lose it.  The question is:
How do
you spend it?

         John Covici
         covici@ccs.covici.com

Re: [gentoo-user] problems with performance when booted using systemd

[J. Roeleveld]

On Friday, June 06, 2014 04:46:35 AM covici@ccs.covici.com wrote:
> J. Roeleveld <joost@antarean.org> wrote:
> > On Friday, June 06, 2014 03:45:17 AM covici@ccs.covici.com wrote:
> > > J. Roeleveld <joost@antarean.org> wrote:
> > > > On Friday, June 06, 2014 01:59:18 AM covici@ccs.covici.com wrote:
> > > > > Hi.  I am having some strange performance problems when booted under
> > > > > systemd.  These problems happened a little bit under openrc, but are
> > > > > much more pronounced with systemd.
> > > > 
> > > > I don't think it's necessarily systemd itself, just a setting that
> > > > systemd
> > > > does differently then openrc. See below for more.
> > > > 
> > > > > I am using just virtual consoles, no gui whatsoever at the moment. 
> > > > > I
> > > > > also use tmux with 4 windows in one of the vcs.  My system is an i7
> > > > > processor, quod core and 16g of ram and 2g of swap space which
> > > > > appears
> > > > > not to be used.  I am using uvesafb for the console, so I get 64x160
> > > > > screens.
> > > > 
> > > > Sounds similar to my laptop, except I run KDE and got 16g of swap (for
> > > > hibernate)
> > > > 
> > > > > The first problem is that if I don't press any keystrokes for
> > > > > several
> > > > > minutes and then want to move to another vc, it takes about 3 or 4
> > > > > seconds after the alt-left arrow or alt-right arrow command to take
> > > > > effect.  Even within the same vt, if I don't do anything for several
> > > > > minutes, it takes several seconds till the keystroke echoes and
> > > > > something happens.  Once I have done this, things act normally, but
> > > > > its
> > > > > kind of annoying.
> > > > 
> > > > Sounds like a powersave setting. I used to get the same on my old
> > > > laptop
> > > > with spinning rust. SSDs tend to "spin-up" a lot quicker.
> > > > 
> > > > > Also, my load average seems to always be >1.  I have
> > > > > looked at top and things seem to be OK, except that my cpu usage is
> > > > > like
> > > > > this:
> > > > > Tasks: 934 total,   2 running, 931 sleeping,   0 stopped,   1 zombie
> > > > > %Cpu(s): 12.5 us,  1.2 sy,  0.0 ni, 86.0 id,  0.2 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0
> > > > > si,
> > > > > 0.0 st
> > > > > KiB Mem:  16450248 total,  9678656 used,  6771592 free,  1084088
> > > > > buffers
> > > > > KiB Swap:  2097148 total,        4 used,  2097144 free.  1147688
> > > > > cached
> > > > > Mem
> > > > > 
> > > > >   PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+
> > > > >   COMMAND
> > > > >  
> > > > >  9969 root      20   0     708     16      0 R 100.0  0.0   1549:10
> > > > >  v86d
> > > > >  
> > > > >   579 root      30  10       0      0      0 S   9.1  0.0  16:09.93
> > > > >   speakup
> > > > > 
> > > > > 11789 root      20   0   22524   2388   1116 R   0.7  0.0   0:00.03
> > > > > top
> > > > > 
> > > > >     7 root       0 -20       0      0      0 S   0.3  0.0   0:10.41
> > > > >   
> > > > >   kworker/u:0H
> > > > > 
> > > > > and onward ...
> > > > > This is an awful lot of tasks, I have never seen so many!
> > > > 
> > > > That is a lot, I am currently running KDE, firefox and a citrix remote
> > > > desktop thing. (oh, and skype and kopete and a few other items)
> > > > KDE is installed with semantic-desktop, but the nepomuk stuff is
> > > > disabled
> > > > in system-settings.
> > > > I have 200 tasks (yes, nice round figure)
> > > > 
> > > > > Anyone have any ideas?  Thanks much.
> > > > 
> > > > For the amount of tasks, check that you are not starting too many
> > > > unneeded
> > > > services. For the load-average of 1, shouldn't be too much of an
> > > > issue,
> > > > had
> > > > similar in the past with a lot of stuff running and slow disks.
> > > > 
> > > > For the freezing, I would suggest checking all the powersave options,
> > > > especially the ones for the harddrives.
> > > > Is there anything in the logs when this happens? Eg. check the logs
> > > > right
> > > > after the system becomes responsible again, maybe there is a hint
> > > > there
> > > > what is causing this.
> > > 
> > > Unless systemd is setting some powersave options, I certainly never set
> > > anything like that, this is a desktop  machine, not even a laptop.  Next
> > > time this happens I will check the logs.  Does systemd set some
> > > powersave options by default?
> > 
> > I do not know that for sure, best wait for more knowledgable systemd users
> > to answer that. If it doesn't, then systemd itself is causing more
> > freezes (as per your experience) then openrc.
> > 
> > I would guess it does or at least with the default configuration. What you
> > describe makes me think the disks are switched to powersave sooner with
> > systemd.
> > Can you provide the output of the following command:
> > #  hdparm -B /dev/sda
> > to get the APM settings of the disk. (If you have multiple disks, please
> > run it for the others as well.
> > 
> > Question for others as well, how do you get the current setting for the
> > spindown timeout set with "  hdparm -S <value> <device> "?
> > I couldn't find it.
> > 
> > I am happy with openrc and have no intention on switching to systemd as I
> > haven't heard of a single feature that would actually make my life easier.
> 
> I don't have hdparm on the system, is it only for  older disks?  If
> memory serves, it did not work at all when I tried it as my disks are
> all /dev/sda, etc, but that may be wrong.

It also works on new SATA drives and SSDs:

# smartctl -a /dev/sda
smartctl 6.1 2013-03-16 r3800 [x86_64-linux-3.12.20-gentoo] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-13, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model:     INTEL SSDMCEAC120B3
Serial Number:    CVLI3223002B120E
LU WWN Device Id: 5 5cd2e4 00028738f
Firmware Version: LLLi
User Capacity:    120,034,123,776 bytes [120 GB]
Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical
Rotation Rate:    Solid State Device
Device is:        Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]
ATA Version is:   ACS-2 (minor revision not indicated)
SATA Version is:  SATA 3.0, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Fri Jun  6 12:46:59 2014 CEST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

# hdparm /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
 multcount     = 16 (on)
 IO_support    =  1 (32-bit)
 readonly      =  0 (off)
 readahead     = 256 (on)
 geometry      = 14593/255/63, sectors = 234441648, start = 0

# hdparm -B /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
 APM_level      = 254

There might also be other ways to configure the powermanagement settings, I 
haven't looked into those yet.

--
Joost

Re: [gentoo-user] problems with performance when booted using systemd

[Walter Dnes]

On Fri, Jun 06, 2014 at 05:19:58AM -0400, covici@ccs.covici.com wrote

> I am using uvesafb, because when I tried the kernel driver, nvidia
> closed source driver was not happy when X was started.

  Have you tried the nouveau open-source drivers for Nvidia cards?  You
don't have to rebuild/upgrade the video driver every time you upgrade
your kernel.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>
I don't run "desktop environments"; I run useful applications

Re: [gentoo-user] problems with performance when booted using systemd

[covici]

Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org> wrote:

> On Fri, Jun 06, 2014 at 05:19:58AM -0400, covici@ccs.covici.com wrote
> 
> > I am using uvesafb, because when I tried the kernel driver, nvidia
> > closed source driver was not happy when X was started.
> 
>   Have you tried the nouveau open-source drivers for Nvidia cards?  You
> don't have to rebuild/upgrade the video driver every time you upgrade
> your kernel.
I did try those, but if X was started, nvidia crapped out.  Also, I was
getting a lot less screen real estate with those drivers than with
uvesafb.

-- 
Your life is like a penny.  You're going to lose it.  The question is:
How do
you spend it?

         John Covici
         covici@ccs.covici.com