Slow performance during install [SOLVED]

pmatos · Last edited by pmatos on Wed Apr 25, 2007 8:38 am; edited 1 time in total

Hi all,

I'm installing Gentoo for the first time in a Table PC (HP Compaq TC4200) through a USB Key and something really wierd is happening. The boot works but is _extremely_ slow hanging for ages in coldplugging (using 2006.0).
Then after it was done (about 45 min. to boot), I get a stage 3 and unpack it. It has been unpacking for almost an hour. I used xvjpf and it uncompresses some files and stops, then uncompresses some more and stops, then some more and stops. This is definitely not what I'm used to. Can it be due to usb key install (I used docache as boot param, so it should not be). Is there a way to make this faster?

Cheers,

Paulo Matos

moocha · Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2007 6:38 am Post subject:

USB 1.1? If yes, it means slow.
No DMA on the target hard drive? Check via hdparm -i /dev/hda. If yes, it means slow.
_________________
Military Commissions Act of 2006: http://tinyurl.com/jrcto

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-- attributed to Benjamin Franklin

pmatos · Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2007 7:06 am Post subject:

pmatos · Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2007 7:14 am Post subject:

moocha · Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2007 7:31 am Post subject:

Hang on - docache? How much RAM does that system have? If almost all of it is taken by the source media cache, of course it'll be slow as hell

.
_________________
Military Commissions Act of 2006: http://tinyurl.com/jrcto

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-- attributed to Benjamin Franklin

pmatos · Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2007 7:37 am Post subject:

moocha · Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2007 7:41 am Post subject:

Oh, 2G, it's unlikely to be that.
Don't yell at me for asking, but I have to ask: Are you sure you're decompressing to the file system on the target drive and not to RAM? I've seen attempted installs where the user forgot to mount /mnt/gentoo and was operating on the RAM disk... A quick df -h should tell you.
If it's not that, take a peek at what top says. While uncompressing you should see bzip2 skyrocketing to 99% CPU - if it doesn't, we'll at least know what to rule out.
_________________
Military Commissions Act of 2006: http://tinyurl.com/jrcto

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-- attributed to Benjamin Franklin

pmatos · Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2007 7:48 am Post subject:

moocha · Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2007 8:01 am Post subject:

kacpid is a kernel process, you can't kill it. I'm afraid the only way out is to reboot, this time using the noacpi kernel command line flag.
_________________
Military Commissions Act of 2006: http://tinyurl.com/jrcto

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-- attributed to Benjamin Franklin

pmatos · Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2007 8:38 am Post subject:

moocha · Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2007 8:43 am Post subject:

Glad to hear it's working properly now. Have fun!
_________________
Military Commissions Act of 2006: http://tinyurl.com/jrcto

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-- attributed to Benjamin Franklin