Need advice on performance troubleshooting

[fred smith]

On Sun, Oct 24, 2010 at 02:38:23AM +0100, Marko Vojinovic wrote:
> 
> Hi folks! :-)
> 
> I am experiencing a gradual performance drop problem --- having a machine 
> running 24/7, after some time (say, two weeks) the system becomes increasingly 
> slow, in terms of desktop response. It takes several seconds (cca 15-20) to 
> open an "open file" dialog in a text editor, or a new terminal window or such. 

there was a lengthy thread in a redhat list earlier this month about someone
with several servers, SOME of which had similar-sounding problems. I refer
you to one in which the OP describes how he solved it, in case it may be
helpful to you:

https://www.redhat.com/archives/redhat-list/2010-October/msg00055.html

Good luck!

> The window takes 2-4 seconds to gain focus after I click on it. If I move the 
> mouse over a typical toolbar, it takes a second or two for the particular 
> button to get highlighted, and the highlighting "rectangle" follows the mouse 
> like 2-3 buttons behind. Clicking on a new message in KMail takes 1-3 seconds 
> to actually display it. Most GUI stuff becomes increasingly (and annoyingly) 
> slow.
> 
> There is enough processor power, according to top and other diagnostic tools. 
> Besides, compiz happens to remain completely responsive --- cube, this, that, 
> all effects are fast and snappy. Mplayer runs flawlessly. But the rest of the 
> GUI starts to drag. The text selection in an editor follows the mouse with 1-3 
> seconds delay. And such stuff...
> 
> On a freshly (re)booted system everything is fast and snappy for a couple of 
> days, and then it gradually starts to get slower and slower. This coincides 
> with increased usage of swap, which tends to rise from 0 to 1.2 GB in two 
> weeks period. I suspect that swapping is partially the culprit for performance 
> degradation, but I am unable to determine what app is using all that swap, and 
> for what.
> 
> I would appreciate any pointers where to start looking for this swap drainage. 
> Also, if I try to run the system without swap (disabling it manually right 
> after boot), it starts to choke after some time, and I need to reboot it.
> 
> The hardware has 2GB RAM, 4 GB swap, core 2 duo @ 1.5 GHz.
> 
> I use the machine for usual desktop activities. Typically I have several apps 
> running non-stop: firefox (3-4 tabs), kmail, ktorrent, kile, couple of konsole 
> instances, two skype instances, cairo-dock, xmms and okular. The desktop is 
> 64bit F12, KDE, running compiz/emerald. I have several usual plasmoids on the 
> desktop, nothing too fancy (clock, graphs for cpu, temperature, battery, 
> network and RAM usage).
> 
> Occasionally I start other stuff (krusader, quake3, Wolfram's Mathematica, 
> other infrequent things like photo editing stuff etc.) but I shut them down 
> after usage. I notice the slowdown even if I don't use any of that.
> 
> The symptoms appear like something is leaking memory --- slowly (noticable 
> only after two weeks of continuous running), but cumulatively. This triggers 
> gradual swap usage, which then gradually decreases performance and 
> responsiveness of the whole desktop.
> 
> I tried shutting down all desktop apps, and this releases some swap (but not 
> all?!), but the system remains in a bad shape, which is visible if I (re)start 
> any app again.
> 
> Things like mplayer run flawlessly, but it takes cca 15-20 seconds to start the 
> Konsole from which I can invoke mplayer.
> 
> Once I left the system running unattended for a month (I wasn't at home), and 
> I accessed it only via ssh a couple of times (without problems). When I got 
> back, the desktop was so slow and unresponsive that I couldn't even wait for 
> it to do a regular shutdown/restart, and instead I pulled the plug and 
> rebooted it fresh.
> 
> When I try to shut down a multi-tab app (firefox, kile, konsole), it takes so 
> much time to close itself that I get a dialog saying that the app is not 
> responding (and offering to terminate it). If I just wait, eventually both the 
> dialog and the app close themselves. It can take them from 5 seconds to half a 
> minute do close, depending on the shape of the rest of the desktop.
> 
> I'm at a loss where and how to look for memory and performance drain. My 
> current uptime is
> 
> $ uptime
>  02:04:55 up 14 days,  4:54,  6 users,  load average: 0.62, 0.55, 0.39
> 
> and I can feel the slowdown quite easily. I'd be happy to hear any advice on 
> how to troubleshoot this, before I get pissed off and reboot the system again. 
> I'll also gladly provide any additional info.
> 
> Thanks, :-)
> Marko
> 
> 
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-- 
---- Fred Smith -- fredex at fcshome.stoneham.ma.us -----------------------------
   "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged 
   sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; 
              it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."  
---------------------------- Hebrews 4:12 (niv) ------------------------------