my machine is suddenly extremely slow

[Frédéric Bron]

Using Fedora 18, KDE 4.10.2 on x86_64 laptop with kernel 3.8.11-200
and nvidia proprietary drivers.

I have two hard disk. One SSD with / and swap and one hybrid with /home.
Recently, I remarked extremely long times (>60 s) to open some
programs like firefox or dolphin, the latter being the most critical.
I suspect disk access to slow down the machine as this happens when
the processor is nearly idle.
What can I check? Can I check the hard disks, how? Could it be something else?

Thanks for help,

Frédéric

[Roberto Ragusa]

On 05/13/2013 11:55 PM, Frédéric Bron wrote:
> Using Fedora 18, KDE 4.10.2 on x86_64 laptop with kernel 3.8.11-200
> and nvidia proprietary drivers.
>
> I have two hard disk. One SSD with / and swap and one hybrid with /home.
> Recently, I remarked extremely long times (>60 s) to open some
> programs like firefox or dolphin, the latter being the most critical.
> I suspect disk access to slow down the machine as this happens when
> the processor is nearly idle.
> What can I check? Can I check the hard disks, how? Could it be something else?

hdparm -t /dev/sda
hdparm -t /dev/sdb

as a first step (root user needed).

[Frédéric Bron]

> hdparm -t /dev/sda
> hdparm -t /dev/sdb

OK, thanks, I have done a reference in good conditions (see below). I
will be able to compare when the PC slows done.
Frédéric

/dev/sda: Timing buffered disk reads: 1430 MB in  3.00 seconds = 476.63 MB/sec
/dev/sda: Timing buffered disk reads: 1406 MB in  3.00 seconds = 468.60 MB/sec
/dev/sda: Timing buffered disk reads: 1432 MB in  3.00 seconds = 476.72 MB/sec
/dev/sda: Timing buffered disk reads: 1406 MB in  3.00 seconds = 468.26 MB/sec
/dev/sda: Timing buffered disk reads: 1428 MB in  3.00 seconds = 475.63 MB/sec
/dev/sdb: Timing buffered disk reads: 306 MB in  3.01 seconds = 101.82 MB/sec
/dev/sdb: Timing buffered disk reads: 306 MB in  3.00 seconds = 102.00 MB/sec
/dev/sdb: Timing buffered disk reads: 306 MB in  3.00 seconds = 101.90 MB/sec
/dev/sdb: Timing buffered disk reads: 308 MB in  3.01 seconds = 102.19 MB/sec
/dev/sdb: Timing buffered disk reads: 308 MB in  3.02 seconds = 102.14 MB/sec

[Frédéric Bron]

> Using Fedora 18, KDE 4.10.2 on x86_64 laptop with kernel 3.8.11-200
> and nvidia proprietary drivers.
>
> I have two hard disk. One SSD with / and swap and one hybrid with /home.
> Recently, I remarked extremely long times (>60 s) to open some
> programs like firefox or dolphin, the latter being the most critical.
> I suspect disk access to slow down the machine as this happens when
> the processor is nearly idle.
> What can I check? Can I check the hard disks, how? Could it be something else?

I experience this very very slow behaviour again today each time I
need to access the disk. However, I ran hdparm as suggested by Roberto
and found no difference in hard disk speed compared to normal
behaviour. But I have launched libreoffice from command line becase it
was to slow to open dolphin and I found some errors in the terminal
(see below). Could this be of any help to diagnose the problem?

I now run kernel 3.9.4-200

Regards,

Frédéric

$ LibreOffice(10924)/kdecore (K*TimeZone*): KSystemTimeZones:
ktimezoned initialize() D-Bus call failed:  "Did not receive a reply.
Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply,
the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout
expired, or the network connection was broken."

LibreOffice(10924): couldn't create slave: "Impossible de créer le
module d'entrée / sortie : (translation: unable to create the
input/output module)
klauncher a retourné : Protocole «  » inconnu. (translation: unkown "
" protocole)
"
LibreOffice(10924): couldn't create slave: "Impossible de créer le
module d'entrée / sortie :
klauncher a retourné : Protocole «  » inconnu.
"
LibreOffice(10924): couldn't create slave: "Impossible de créer le
module d'entrée / sortie :
klauncher a retourné : Protocole «  » inconnu.
"
LibreOffice(10924): couldn't create slave: "Impossible de créer le
module d'entrée / sortie :
klauncher a retourné : Protocole «  » inconnu.
"
QPainter::begin: Paint device returned engine == 0, type: 3
QPainter::save: Painter not active
QPainter::save: Painter not active
QPainter::setRenderHint: Painter must be active to set rendering hints
QPainter::setPen: Painter not active
QPainter::setPen: Painter not active
QPainter::restore: Unbalanced save/restore
QPainter::restore: Unbalanced save/restore
QPainter::begin: Paint device returned engine == 0, type: 3
QPainter::save: Painter not active
QPainter::save: Painter not active
QPainter::setRenderHint: Painter must be active to set rendering hints
QPainter::setPen: Painter not active
QPainter::setPen: Painter not active
QPainter::restore: Unbalanced save/restore
QPainter::restore: Unbalanced save/restore
QPainter::begin: Paint device returned engine == 0, type: 3
QPainter::save: Painter not active
QPainter::save: Painter not active
QPainter::setRenderHint: Painter must be active to set rendering hints
QPainter::setPen: Painter not active
QPainter::setPen: Painter not active
QPainter::restore: Unbalanced save/restore
QPainter::restore: Unbalanced save/restore
QPainter::begin: Paint device returned engine == 0, type: 3
QPainter::save: Painter not active
QPainter::save: Painter not active
QPainter::setRenderHint: Painter must be active to set rendering hints
QPainter::setPen: Painter not active
QPainter::setPen: Painter not active
QPainter::restore: Unbalanced save/restore
QPainter::restore: Unbalanced save/restore

[Zoltan Hoppar]

I think you should try install atop. This tiny little program will
tell you witch app makes the bottleneck.

2013/6/2 Frédéric Bron :
> > Using Fedora 18, KDE 4.10.2 on x86_64 laptop with kernel 3.8.11-200
> > and nvidia proprietary drivers.
> >
> > I have two hard disk. One SSD with / and swap and one hybrid with /home.
> > Recently, I remarked extremely long times (>60 s) to open some
> > programs like firefox or dolphin, the latter being the most critical.
> > I suspect disk access to slow down the machine as this happens when
> > the processor is nearly idle.
> > What can I check? Can I check the hard disks, how? Could it be something else?
>
> I experience this very very slow behaviour again today each time I
> need to access the disk. However, I ran hdparm as suggested by Roberto
> and found no difference in hard disk speed compared to normal
> behaviour. But I have launched libreoffice from command line becase it
> was to slow to open dolphin and I found some errors in the terminal
> (see below). Could this be of any help to diagnose the problem?
>
> I now run kernel 3.9.4-200
>
> Regards,
>
> Frédéric
>
> $ LibreOffice(10924)/kdecore (K*TimeZone*): KSystemTimeZones:
> ktimezoned initialize() D-Bus call failed:  "Did not receive a reply.
> Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply,
> the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout
> expired, or the network connection was broken."
>
> LibreOffice(10924): couldn't create slave: "Impossible de créer le
> module d'entrée / sortie : (translation: unable to create the
> input/output module)
> klauncher a retourné : Protocole «  » inconnu. (translation: unkown "
> " protocole)
> "
> LibreOffice(10924): couldn't create slave: "Impossible de créer le
> module d'entrée / sortie :
> klauncher a retourné : Protocole «  » inconnu.
> "
> LibreOffice(10924): couldn't create slave: "Impossible de créer le
> module d'entrée / sortie :
> klauncher a retourné : Protocole «  » inconnu.
> "
> LibreOffice(10924): couldn't create slave: "Impossible de créer le
> module d'entrée / sortie :
> klauncher a retourné : Protocole «  » inconnu.
> "
> QPainter::begin: Paint device returned engine == 0, type: 3
> QPainter::save: Painter not active
> QPainter::save: Painter not active
> QPainter::setRenderHint: Painter must be active to set rendering hints
> QPainter::setPen: Painter not active
> QPainter::setPen: Painter not active
> QPainter::restore: Unbalanced save/restore
> QPainter::restore: Unbalanced save/restore
> QPainter::begin: Paint device returned engine == 0, type: 3
> QPainter::save: Painter not active
> QPainter::save: Painter not active
> QPainter::setRenderHint: Painter must be active to set rendering hints
> QPainter::setPen: Painter not active
> QPainter::setPen: Painter not active
> QPainter::restore: Unbalanced save/restore
> QPainter::restore: Unbalanced save/restore
> QPainter::begin: Paint device returned engine == 0, type: 3
> QPainter::save: Painter not active
> QPainter::save: Painter not active
> QPainter::setRenderHint: Painter must be active to set rendering hints
> QPainter::setPen: Painter not active
> QPainter::setPen: Painter not active
> QPainter::restore: Unbalanced save/restore
> QPainter::restore: Unbalanced save/restore
> QPainter::begin: Paint device returned engine == 0, type: 3
> QPainter::save: Painter not active
> QPainter::save: Painter not active
> QPainter::setRenderHint: Painter must be active to set rendering hints
> QPainter::setPen: Painter not active
> QPainter::setPen: Painter not active
> QPainter::restore: Unbalanced save/restore
> QPainter::restore: Unbalanced save/restore
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[Frédéric Bron]

> I think you should try install atop. This tiny little program will
> tell you witch app makes the bottleneck.

Thanks, didn't know that one. I used top and could just see kwin an d
X using significant CPU.
Frédéric