[gentoo-user] Re: Hungry firefox

[James <wireless@tampabay.rr.com>]

Peter Humphrey <peter <at> prh.myzen.co.uk> writes:

> 
> Hello list,
> 
> Has anyone else here noticed firefox consuming 15% or so of CPU time, even 
> while it's not supposed to be doing anything? This is version 31.5.3, with 
> just AdBlock Plus and YesScript added. I have remerged it and saw no 
> difference.
> 
> [ebuild   R    ] www-client/firefox-31.5.3::gentoo  

 Installed versions:  31.5.3(01:48:14 AM 03/28/2015)(bindist dbus gstreamer
jit minimal



Well yes and no. Not according to htop. Seamonkey is the resource hog;
or using the most resources (40-60 %). Firefox is 1-4%. I keep both
open with dozens of tabs. The sad thing is my (8)( core amd 8350
with 32 Gig of ram is barely using (1) core, unless I compile a 
big multi-thread package. What I do have is almost a full second of 
keyboard response latency. I can close both and the system is snappy
on response. I open either one (FF or SM) and the 3 dozen or so tabs
and it's back to keyboard lag; even though the resource utilization is
scant (1-1.5 cores/8 and 5300/32093MB).


Since the kernel dev folks have change so much over the last few years.
I figure I need to take a long hard look at what is enabled in the kernel,
and how resources are awakened or idle'd via some kernel-profiling. It's
most likely some advanced power conservation feature(s) that need tweaking,
is my best guess.

I have a system with plenty of extra, expensive ram and idle cores should;
it not be sluggish, uniless a big hog of a single threaded process
is not being properly managed.

Even when my browsers are not (actively) being use but open, I get
the horrible sluggishness now; and I'm running lxde.......not kde.

Sometimes I can hardly type it's so bad.  I have always had lots of 
tabs open for years and not experienced this sort of lag. Minimal resource
utilization, but horrible lag.

I've installed and ran' sys-power/powertop and it has some interesting
information; but theres still no conclusion as to what is causing
this inherent systematic latency. I do suspect FF and SM and Thunderbird
are part of the problem, but overal resource utilzation is well below 20%
(ram and cores) all the time, except when compiling.


hth,

James