Linux Debian support - degrading/slowing performance

Author

degrading/slowing performance

Donald

2006-06-13, 1:14 am

I just recently did a clean install of Kubuntu.
When I boot everything seems normal and runs as expected.
This lasts for approximatly 1-2 hours after which time the computer
appears to hang.
Upon further inspection it becomes apparent that it is not actually
locked up but going very slowly. I can get to a console (ctl-alt-f1)
and type in commands.
user: <user> -- wait 2 minutes
password: <pass> -- wait 2 minutes
$ top -- wait 2 minutes
<no proceses are shown as taking much processor>
<no proceses are shown as taking much memory>
commands such as ls, man, ipchains, etc all seem to take a long
time to run the first time and run faster afterwards.

Things have just slowed down so much that the computer becomes
unusable. I am not sure what else to do to debug the issue and
I am hoping someone can help me out with some suggestions.

System details:
OS: Kubuntu Linux
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz
Memory: 512MB
HD: 4 GB
System: IBM Netvista
tuner card: PVR-150
video card: Nvidia FX 5200

Please help me deebug this issue. Thanks!

-Donald
--------------------------------------------
search string: kuls4242

J.O. Aho

2006-06-13, 1:14 am

Donald wrote:
> I just recently did a clean install of Kubuntu.
> When I boot everything seems normal and runs as expected.
> This lasts for approximatly 1-2 hours after which time the computer
> appears to hang.
> Upon further inspection it becomes apparent that it is not actually
> locked up but going very slowly. I can get to a console (ctl-alt-f1)
> and type in commands.
> user: <user> -- wait 2 minutes
> password: <pass> -- wait 2 minutes
> $ top -- wait 2 minutes
> <no proceses are shown as taking much processor>
> <no proceses are shown as taking much memory>
> commands such as ls, man, ipchains, etc all seem to take a long
> time to run the first time and run faster afterwards.
>
> Things have just slowed down so much that the computer becomes
> unusable. I am not sure what else to do to debug the issue and
> I am hoping someone can help me out with some suggestions.
>
> System details:
> OS: Kubuntu Linux
> CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz
> Memory: 512MB
> HD: 4 GB
> System: IBM Netvista
> tuner card: PVR-150
> video card: Nvidia FX 5200
>
> Please help me deebug this issue. Thanks!
>
> -Donald
> --------------------------------------------
> search string: kuls4242

if you run top (in console), what kind of data do you get?
Feels a bit like there is a process that leaks memory or got into a bad loop,
you can see indications if some of them would have happen.

Not sure if you use the closed source nvidia driver, but some versions of it
do have problems.

//Aho

Walter Mautner

2006-06-13, 1:14 am

Donald wrote:

> I just recently did a clean install of Kubuntu.
> When I boot everything seems normal and runs as expected.
> This lasts for approximatly 1-2 hours after which time the computer
> appears to hang.
> Upon further inspection it becomes apparent that it is not actually
> locked up but going very slowly. I can get to a console (ctl-alt-f1)
> and type in commands.
> user: <user> -- wait 2 minutes
> password: <pass> -- wait 2 minutes
> $ top -- wait 2 minutes
> <no proceses are shown as taking much processor>

You should start top in a gui window while your box still behaves normally,
then work, and take a glance at the top window (mainly memory usage) as
well as the time when your harddrive light indicates continuous activity
(probably) from swapping. Watch / sort for %MEM and VIRT.
--
vista policy violation: Microsoft optical mouse detected penguin patterns
on mousepad. Partition scan in progress to remove offending
incompatible products. Reactivate MS software.
Linux 2.6.16-mm1,Xorg7.0 [LinuxCounter#295241,ICQ#4918962]

Seth H Holmes

2006-06-13, 1:13 pm

["Followup-To:" header set to alt.os.linux.ubuntu.]
On 2006-06-13, Donald <noone@nowhere.net> wrote:
> I just recently did a clean install of Kubuntu.
> When I boot everything seems normal and runs as expected.
> This lasts for approximatly 1-2 hours after which time the computer
> appears to hang.

Either a giant memory leak or overheating. If it's a memory leak or some
other runaway process, you might be able to find it by using "top".

If it's overheating, which I have happeon with a laptop I own, you may just
need a better cooling fan or more fans within the case. I have something
like 6 fans in my case to keep the machine from overheating.

A simple test for this would be to run it with the case off. First check to
see if your fans are even moving. You may have one or more locked up. This
includes the power supply fan. If everything seems to be working okay, run
the computer with the cover off and put a box fan or something next to it
to help circulate the air.

--
Seth H Holmes

Donald

2006-06-18, 1:12 am

In article <slrne8tklo.89p.sholmes@dweezil.route-fu.net>,
sholmes@nottellingyouthiseither.com says...
> ["Followup-To:" header set to alt.os.linux.ubuntu.]
> On 2006-06-13, Donald <noone@nowhere.net> wrote:
>
> Either a giant memory leak or overheating. If it's a memory leak or some
> other runaway process, you might be able to find it by using "top".
>
> If it's overheating, which I have happeon with a laptop I own, you may just
> need a better cooling fan or more fans within the case. I have something
> like 6 fans in my case to keep the machine from overheating.
>
> A simple test for this would be to run it with the case off. First check to
> see if your fans are even moving. You may have one or more locked up. This
> includes the power supply fan. If everything seems to be working okay, run
> the computer with the cover off and put a box fan or something next to it
> to help circulate the air.
>
>
>
Well it has been a long week and I have not had much chance to look at
this yet but last night when working on it with the case open as you
suggested I noticed that the fan on the CPU and the case fan were not
running. The power supply fan was running. So perhaps you are right
about the heat issue (I would have expected more severe errors for
heat rather than a slow down...)

When the machine boots the fans run. When I work in the BIOS the fans
continue to run. However at some point during the boot process they
just stop. I turned off the advanced power management features in the
BIOS but it made no difference. (I am using an IBM netvista)

* How can I control this fan speed in Linux? (specifically Ubuntu)

Thanks again for your help.

-Donald
==========================
Search String: kuls4242

Philipp Strathausen

2006-06-18, 1:12 pm

Donald <noone@nowhere.net> schrubte:
> I just recently did a clean install of Kubuntu.
> When I boot everything seems normal and runs as expected.
> This lasts for approximatly 1-2 hours after which time the computer
> appears to hang.

I've once had a similar problem, until I figured out, it was a wrong entry
for the swap partition in /etc/fstab So Linux couldn't use it, guess it's
been using a swap file instead... I adjusted the entry and everything works
since then, no crashes.

But this wasn't a clean install at all.

Philipp

iforone

2006-06-19, 1:13 pm

Donald wrote:
> Well it has been a long week and I have not had much chance to look at
> this yet but last night when working on it with the case open as you
> suggested I noticed that the fan on the CPU and the case fan were not
> running. The power supply fan was running. So perhaps you are right
> about the heat issue (I would have expected more severe errors for
> heat rather than a slow down...)
>
> When the machine boots the fans run. When I work in the BIOS the fans
> continue to run. However at some point during the boot process they
> just stop. I turned off the advanced power management features in the
> BIOS but it made no difference. (I am using an IBM netvista)
>
> * How can I control this fan speed in Linux? (specifically Ubuntu)
>
> Thanks again for your help.

I'm not sure about how to do this - but you most _definitely need to_
get your fans going, especially the CPU one - and the case fan can kind
of (temporarily) be superceded using/running with the cover off, with a
standalone big fan blowing cool air over the components...but not the
CPU HS fan.

Of Particular Note - the *4GB* only Drive ??(unless that's a typo - I
would expect a 40GB drive on those system specs);
> System details:
> OS: Kubuntu Linux
> CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz
> Memory: 512MB
> HD: 4 GB <--- Wha!!!?!?!?!
> System: IBM Netvista
> tuner card: PVR-150
> video card: Nvidia FX 5200

How much free HD space do you have ?
How is your HD space partitioned ?

Donald

2006-06-23, 1:14 am

In article <1150738381.842290.15400@r2g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
floydstestemail@yahoo.com says...
> Donald wrote:
<snip>
>
> I'm not sure about how to do this - but you most _definitely need to_
> get your fans going, especially the CPU one - and the case fan can kind
> of (temporarily) be superceded using/running with the cover off, with a
> standalone big fan blowing cool air over the components...but not the
> CPU HS fan
I have determined that this is not the problem. I was confused by the
dynamic fan management. If I started doing some mpeg decode then this
fan will start running. I was not expecting it to stop all together
when the CPU was idle but apparently it does.

> Of Particular Note - the *4GB* only Drive ??(unless that's a typo - I
> would expect a 40GB drive on those system specs);
<snip>[vbcol=seagreen]
<snip>[vbcol=seagreen]
> How much free HD space do you have ?
> How is your HD space partitioned ?

Yes that was a typo, I have a 40GB hard drive.
/boot - 100 MB
/swap - 512 MB
/ - 8GB
/video - all the rest

Yesterday I started an experiment.
I have two systems.
System A with hard drive A is the Linux system I
am having problems with.

System B with hard drive B is an XP system I am
not having problems with.

I swapped the hard drives of these two and they are both
running stable.

Just putting XP on this machine is not a good solution though
because I really want to use MythTV. My next experiments will be:
1. Use a different distrobution. I will go with MythDora
(a mythtv installation based on Fedora Core 4)

2. Try removing all of the PCI cards and any other hardware
I can. Try to trim down my rc files so as little as
possible is running.

Let me know if anyone has any other ideas or suggestions.
(I had this system run stable for 10 hours a couple of days ago
but it always eventually slows down within a day)

-Donald

J.O. Aho

2006-06-23, 1:14 am

Donald wrote:
> In article <1150738381.842290.15400@r2g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
> floydstestemail@yahoo.com says...
> <snip>
> I have determined that this is not the problem. I was confused by the
> dynamic fan management. If I started doing some mpeg decode then this
> fan will start running. I was not expecting it to stop all together
> when the CPU was idle but apparently it does.
>
>
> <snip>
> <snip>
>
> Yes that was a typo, I have a 40GB hard drive.
> /boot - 100 MB
> /swap - 512 MB
> / - 8GB
> /video - all the rest
>
> Yesterday I started an experiment.
> I have two systems.
> System A with hard drive A is the Linux system I
> am having problems with.
>
> System B with hard drive B is an XP system I am
> not having problems with.
>
> I swapped the hard drives of these two and they are both
> running stable.
>
> Just putting XP on this machine is not a good solution though
> because I really want to use MythTV. My next experiments will be:
> 1. Use a different distrobution. I will go with MythDora
> (a mythtv installation based on Fedora Core 4)
>
> 2. Try removing all of the PCI cards and any other hardware
> I can. Try to trim down my rc files so as little as
> possible is running.
>
> Let me know if anyone has any other ideas or suggestions.
> (I had this system run stable for 10 hours a couple of days ago
> but it always eventually slows down within a day)

Tried a newer version of the kernel?
As I don't use the debian family distros, I don't know if they have had
trouble with some of their patches for the kernel which may cause this problem
on your system.
Does this happen directly if you just let the machine to be inactive for the
first 10 hours and then start to use it?
Have you run memtest86 and burn-it? so that you know if there is some fault there?

//Aho

Walter Mautner

2006-06-23, 7:15 am

Donald wrote:

.......
> Let me know if anyone has any other ideas or suggestions.
> (I had this system run stable for 10 hours a couple of days ago
> but it always eventually slows down within a day)
>
You still didn't answer to any suggestions running "top" in a console window
and watching what happens when the system turns slow.

--
vista policy violation: Microsoft optical mouse detected penguin patterns
on mousepad. Partition scan in progress to remove offending
incompatible products. Reactivate MS software.
Linux 2.6.16-mm1,Xorg7.0 [LinuxCounter#295241,ICQ#4918962]

Donald

2006-06-24, 1:12 pm

In article <4g145sF1ld665U1@individual.net>, user@example.net says...
> Donald wrote:
<snip>[vbcol=seagreen]
>
> Tried a newer version of the kernel?
> As I don't use the debian family distros, I don't know if they have had
> trouble with some of their patches for the kernel which may cause this problem
> on your system.
> Does this happen directly if you just let the machine to be inactive for the
> first 10 hours and then start to use it?
> Have you run memtest86 and burn-it? so that you know if there is some fault there?
>
>
> //Aho

I did not try a different kernel. Instead I tried a different
distribution. I used MythDora which is based on Fedora Core 4.
So far my system has been stable for 32 hours. My stability
problem appears to be solved! (I will leave it running in the
coming weeks to be sure) MythTV is now configured and working.
Right now I have a fantastic PVR!

Thank you everyone for your suggestions and help.

-Donald