Gentoo performance ....

Message

int2str · Post by **int2str** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 6:05 pm

Dear Gentooers,

I've been using Gentoo for a while now, and am totally convinced that portage is the best application management tool of all distributions I've used so far. In addition, the ability to install applications from scratch (bypassing portage) and applying custom patches if needed without breaking things have kept me convinced that Gentoo is the most versatile distro out there, and the right choice for me.

But what about performance?

I've never been really happy with the performance of my system. Asides from a pretty lengthy boot process (~1 min to KDE), application startup is just a tad delayed. Not much, but definitely enough to make my system seem unresponsive compared to my wife's machine running Yoper.

Also, for a while now I've noticed that KDE/X gets unresponsive when a compile is in progress which hasn't happened previously.

My system is a Compaq Presario 2100Z notebook. Some specs:
- AMD Athlon 2400+ (1800Mhz)
- 512MB Ram
- Radeon IGP 320 (64MB shared memory)

Here's what I've done so far to improve things:
- Changed notebook harddrive (!!!!) for 7200 rpm model
- From scratch (Stage 1) re-install with 2.6 headers, NPTL, GCC 3.4
- Optimized init scripts (see fly with gentoo thread)
- Ramdrive for /tmp
- Prelinked
- KDE_IS_PRELINKED

Other things affecting performance:
- DMA is compiled and enabled (hdparm -tT = ~800mb/s / ~30mb/s)
- hdparm -c3 -d1 -u1 +++
- mm-sources (2.6.9-rc3-mm1) with cfq disk sheduler
- X.org latest
- Radeon IGP 3D acceleration working (glxgears @ ~470fps)
- Kernel preemtible + 4k stacks

Now my question is, what can I do from here?
Are there any _big_ things I can do?

I can't believe that my machine is so slow and it really is starting to annoy me. It can't be that a 1.8Ghz machine feels unresponsive...

Thanks for your suggestions and comments!

Cheers,
Andre

n3mo · Post by **n3mo** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 6:12 pm

KDE prelinked so slow, I think that you had something wrong, sometimes ago some people forget to edit the /etc/hosts, try to look at that, you laptop is fast and this is really strage.

I tried mm-sources but I don't like it, for a really fast (but you may lost some files) you could try reiser4, really, really fast.

Here the link for the liveCD that support it.

mhodak · Post by **mhodak** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 6:20 pm

For 2.6 kernels, you should not use preempt, it is known to decrease performance. Try without it and see if it makes any difference.
I would also suggest ck-kernel if you are looking for responsivness.

BTW, what are your CFLAGS?

pzgren · Post by **pzgren** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 6:53 pm

int2str wrote: Here's what I've done so far to improve things:
- Changed notebook harddrive (!!!!) for 7200 rpm model
- From scratch (Stage 1) re-install with 2.6 headers, NPTL, GCC 3.4
- Optimized init scripts (see fly with gentoo thread)
- Ramdrive for /tmp
- Prelinked
- KDE_IS_PRELINKED

Other things affecting performance:
- DMA is compiled and enabled (hdparm -tT = ~800mb/s / ~30mb/s)
- hdparm -c3 -d1 -u1 +++
- mm-sources (2.6.9-rc3-mm1) with cfq disk sheduler
- X.org latest
- Radeon IGP 3D acceleration working (glxgears @ ~470fps)
- Kernel preemtible + 4k stacks

First, the yoper kernel is patched with the nice ck patch from Con Kolivas.
http://members.optusnet.com.au/ckolivas/kernel/

This makes a good improvement for desktop users! Also my hdparm throughput is unbeatable with this patch.

Then you are using an development kernel from Andrew M., which has untested code/drivers, is unstable, is heavy in development, can be slower at everything, cause of untested options/code...

You should try the basic of your system: an stable kernel, maybe with Cons ck patch 2.6.8.1-ck9. Then you should not enable preempt with 2.6. Why? Read LKM or C.K. website.

Prelinking is only good for big(ger) apps with many libs, not for everything, to reduce the start-time.

Also little things like mount your disk FS with "noatime", choosing the right FS for your wishes, compiling with an better 3.4.2 GCC, but not with hell CFLAGS, that the mem comsumption and the binary grows bigger and bigger with unused CPU code and running only services, which are really needed, are a good choice. And booting with the AS shed should be faster as with the nice CFQ.

The overloaded KDE for a fast desktop is also a bad choice...and ReiserFS 4 is not really faster for a normal system! Its faster for many streams at once, when you have read the news/info about it...

Greetings,
Marcus

int2str · Post by **int2str** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 8:16 pm

Thanks for the tips so far!
Keep 'em coming please, guys...

Based on the suggestions, I've ...
... switched to ck-sources (for now)
... undone prelink
... disabled kernel preempt

Otherwise, here's some more information about my system:

emerge info:

Code: Select all

Portage 2.0.50-r11 (gcc34-x86-2004.2, gcc-3.4.2, glibc-2.3.4.20040808-r0, 2.6.8.1-ck9)
=================================================================
System uname: 2.6.8.1-ck9 i686 mobile AMD Athlon(tm) XP2400+
Gentoo Base System version 1.4.16
distcc 2.16 i686-pc-linux-gnu (protocols 1 and 2) (default port 3632) [disabled]
Autoconf: sys-devel/autoconf-2.59-r4
Automake: sys-devel/automake-1.8.5-r1
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"
AUTOCLEAN="yes"
CFLAGS="-O2 -march=athlon-xp -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe -ftracer"
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
COMPILER=""
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3.3/share/config:/usr/kde/3.3/env:/usr/kde/3.3/shutdown /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/share/config /var/qmail/control"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d"
CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=athlon-xp -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe -ftracer"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
FEATURES="autoaddcvs ccache sandbox"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp:///ftp-stud.fht-esslingen.de/pub/Mirrors/gentoo/ http://gentoo.binarycompass.org http://gentoo.ccccom.com http://mirror.datapipe.net/gentoo"
MAKEOPTS="-j2"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage"
SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="3dnow X acpi alsa apache2 arts avi berkdb bitmap-fonts cdr crypt dba directfb dvd encode fbcon foomaticdb gd gdbm gif gpm imap imlib jpeg kde libg++ libwww linguas_de madmikmod mmx motif mpeg mysql ncurses nls nptl oggvorbis opengl oss pam pcmcia pcre pdflib perl png python qt quicktime readline samba sdl simplexml slang sockets spell sqlite sse ssl svga tcltk tcpd truetype usb wifi x86 xml2 xmlrpc xmms xprint xv zlib"

From /etc/fstab:

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/dev/hda5               /               reiserfs        noatime,notail          0 0
/dev/hda6               /home           reiserfs        noauto,noatime,notail          0 0

Thanks,
Andre

Deranger · Post by **Deranger** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 9:09 pm

n3mo wrote:you could try reiser4, really, really fast.

I fully agree

Never going back to ext3 (:lol:) after I tried Reiser4! Have your tried LDFLAGS? More info from Flying with Gentoo HOWTO...

pzgren · Post by **pzgren** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 4:58 am

Oktane wrote:
n3mo wrote:you could try reiser4, really, really fast.
I fully agree Never going back to ext3 (:lol:) after I tried Reiser4! Have your tried LDFLAGS? More info from Flying with Gentoo HOWTO...

Can you reiser4 users do a little bench, not the slow bench from namesys which tests many streams at one, with/without disk cached or maybe fresh booted on different FS:

time dd if=/dev/zero of=./testfile bs=1024 count=1024000 (for 1000M)
time rm -f ./testfile

time dd if=/dev/zero of=./testfile bs=1024 count=102400 (for 100M)
time rm -f ./testfile

Greetings,
Marcus

chunderbunny · Post by **chunderbunny** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 2:16 pm

Sure thing:

Code: Select all

jasper@SpectrumZX ~ $ time dd if=/dev/zero of=./testfile bs=1024 count=1024000
1024000+0 records in
1024000+0 records out

real    0m25.241s
user    0m0.319s
sys     0m9.344s
jasper@SpectrumZX ~ $ time rm -f ./testfile 
removed `./testfile'

real    0m0.224s
user    0m0.000s
sys     0m0.168sjasper@SpectrumZX ~ $ time dd if=/dev/zero of=./testfile bs=1024 count=102400
102400+0 records in
102400+0 records out

real    0m0.972s
user    0m0.022s
sys     0m0.851s
jasper@SpectrumZX ~ $ time rm -f ./testfile
removed `./testfile'

real    0m0.041s
user    0m0.001s
sys     0m0.039s

Edit: For reference, here is some more info:

Code: Select all

 hdparm -tTi /dev/hda

/dev/hda:

 Model=Maxtor 6Y080P0, FwRev=YAR41BW0, SerialNo=Y2MRRN7E
 Config={ Fixed }
 RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=57
 BuffType=DualPortCache, BuffSize=7936kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=16
 CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=160086528
 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
 PIO modes:  pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4 
 DMA modes:  mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 
 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 *udma6 
 AdvancedPM=yes: disabled (255) WriteCache=enabled
 Drive conforms to: (null): 

 * signifies the current active mode

 Timing cached reads:   1792 MB in  2.00 seconds = 894.79 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  170 MB in  3.01 seconds =  56.51 MB/sec

This is running on an Asus A7N8X-Deluxe, an Athlon XP 2600 with 512MB RAM, an 80GB MAxtor Diamond Max +9 using gentoo-dev-sources-2.6.8.1-r3 patched with the reiser 4 patch.

Trevoke · Post by **Trevoke** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 2:30 pm

cat /proc/cpuinfo

You might be surprised at what your CPU's clocked at... Just read a thread about someone who had a 1.5 Ghz laptop running at 600Mhz.

int2str · Post by **int2str** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 6:42 pm

Trevoke wrote:cat /proc/cpuinfo

Here are the relevant parts:

Code: Select all

model name      : mobile AMD Athlon(tm) XP2400+
stepping        : 0
cpu MHz         : 1788.828
cache size      : 512 KB

Cheers,
Andre

thechris · Post by **thechris** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 4:31 am

yoper is no longer patched with the ck patchset, but rather a sub-patchset (whose author has gentoo ebuilds IIRC). this is because apparently reiser4 support isn't in the ck patchset.

mhodak · Post by **mhodak** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 3:47 pm

thechris wrote:yoper is no longer patched with the ck patchset, but rather a sub-patchset (whose author has gentoo ebuilds IIRC). this is because apparently reiser4 support isn't in the ck patchset.

thechris,
what sub-patchset is that and where can ebuilds be obtained from?

BlackEdder · Post by **BlackEdder** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 5:11 pm

n3mo wrote:KDE prelinked so slow, I think that you had something wrong, sometimes ago some people forget to edit the /etc/hosts, try to look at that, you laptop is fast and this is really strage.

Hwat does your /etc/hosts look like?

TheKat · Post by **TheKat** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 3:14 am

n3mo wrote:KDE prelinked so slow,

I'm confused. How does prelinking KDE slow it down?

Dolemite · Post by **Dolemite** » Thu Oct 14, 2004 12:11 pm

- X.org latest
- Radeon IGP 3D acceleration working (glxgears @ ~470fps)

in2str --

post your xorg.conf because i have a p4 2ghz with 256mb of ram and radeon 7500 m7 32mb on a laptop and even in dual head mode i get 550 fps on glxgears at 1600x1200- you should be able to do better than that with the right entries.

Thanks to those who mentione CK sources- I just downloaded and compiled patched kernel source and my system is noticeably faster when opening apps- gnome is way more responsive no lag when opening menus etc.
Ive been trying to improve my hdparm results with no luck

Code: Select all

 Timing cached reads:   1376 MB in  2.00 seconds = 686.39 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:   46 MB in  3.26 seconds =  14.13 MB/sec

No matter what hdparm setting I change I never get more than 19mb on th disk read, I don't know why since I see people with slower older systems with slower drives getting faster times
This is on a dell c640 Latitude with a travelstar 40gb 4200 2mb cache

When I first installed gentoo everyone warned me against using it. And I have never heard anyone praising it. Anyone using gnome prelinked? OpenOffice?

tuxp3 · Post by **tuxp3** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 12:17 am

as far as kernel sources, is there a way to sorta apply everysingle patch possible? mm love nitro gentoo's patchs ck, etc or would that number of patchs have massive conflicts?

Deranger · Post by **Deranger** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 12:28 am

tuxp3 wrote:as far as kernel sources, is there a way to sorta apply everysingle patch possible? mm love nitro gentoo's patchs ck, etc or would that number of patchs have massive conflicts?

Think two times and ask then

I bet that you cannot even compile it succesfully...

Gentoo performance ....

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