Mandriva 2008 RC1 (2007/2007.1) [solved]

[scarecrow]

Quandd, check your disk speed with hdparm:

 

# hdparm -t /dev/<insert drive for root partition>

 

With certain hardware configurations/kernels I've seen terribly slow disk speeds. Primary culprits are changes in libata in the 2.6.22 series of kernels and pata drives. Ever since they rolled ide/pata support into libata I've seen some really weird problems on certain hardware. Things seem better in 2.6.23 kernels.

 

This has been an issue when introduced at first ( 2.6.19 I believe ) but since 2.6.21 it's a non-issue.

And hdparm is good only on IDE drives... on SATA ones its next to useless.

[pmpatrick]

This has been an issue when introduced at first ( 2.6.19 I believe ) but since 2.6.21 it's a non-issue. And hdparm is good only on IDE drives... on SATA ones its next to useless.

 

Unfortunately, it's still an issue for me:

 

	# hdparm -t /dev/sdc7

/dev/sdc7:
Timing buffered disk reads:   10 MB in  3.37 seconds =   2.96 MB/sec

 

Other relevant hardware:

 

intel 965 chipset motherboard

core2duo E6600 2.4GHz

2GB of ram

 

DVD drive on the single onboard marvell ide port

 

Seagate 80GB ide hard drive on the Promise controller is the one with the speed problem(tried jumpering both master and cable select with no change in speed).

 

Two seagate sata drives on the onboard sata ports are fine.

 

I'm running FC7 with the most recent kernel update, 2.6.22.4-65.fc7 #1 SMP. All earlier FC7 kernels had the same problem. Identical problem with sidux with a 2.6.22.3 kernel which disappeared when I upgraded to the sidux 2.6.22.6 kernel. Speeds are fine with the mdv2007 and mdv2007.1 kernels.

 

I've also seen similar reports from others, particularly with the 2.6.22 kernels. The 2.6.23 kernels are suppose to have this cleaned up based upon my limited research.

[qandd]

Does gnome-system-monitor show *what* is using all that CPU?

 

No.

 

Quandd, check your disk speed with hdparm:

 

Who is this Quandd you speak of? ;)

Will do when I next boot into Mandriva, although I have started to fear booting into it, it's so painful :(

 

Hehe... then give RHEL/CentOS or Debian stable a try.

 

If it wasn't for the old as Methuselah packages in Debian Etch/Stable, that's where I would be.

[qandd]

Quandd, check your disk speed with hdparm:

 

# hdparm -t /dev/<insert drive for root partition>

 

From Mandriva 2008

 

Timing buffered disk reads: 114 MB in 3.03 seconds = 37.64 MB/sec

 

From Debian

 

Timing buffered disk reads: 120 MB in 3.05 seconds = 39.40 MB/sec

[adamw]

that's not the problem for you, then. um, I'm really a bit stuck, to be honest. how about if you boot to runlevel 3 - *no* X started at all, just poke around at the console a bit...is it still slow then?

 

arctic: if you're having troubles with Firefox you may want to try removing / disabling plugins and extensions one by one till you find the culprit...

[arctic]

The only installed plugin I have is flash... will try without it. I have also checked bugzilla and it seems that I am not the only one who experiences firefox eating up the cpu. (Bug is iirc already assigned). I will keep you informed if I find out something new.

 

PS: Firefox bug is solved by last update.

[qandd]

Well, just for kicks, and for curiosity sake, and the fact that I am a Masochist, I wiped 2008 RC1, and installed 2007.1, disabled beagle, removed beagle, disabled unnecessary services, processes, done all the updates, rebooted, and it's exactly the same as 2007 and 2007.1 has always been for me, exactly the same as 2008 RC1 is, slooooow, and unresponsive, so then just for kicks, and because I had a bit of spare time, I wiped 2007.1, and installed Ubuntu, it is fast and smooth, so I still had a few kicks left in me, a bit more time to blow, so I thought I would install a KDE orientated distro, enter Kubuntu, yep, you guessed it, fast and smooth, a quick look at the old kick meter showed I still had a bit of kick left in me, and time was still on my side, so I thought I would even things out, and try another .rpm based distro, enter PCLinuxOS, yep, fast and smooth.

 

So I don't know what it is, but Mandriva just doesn't like me, on 2 different PC's it does exactly the same thing, as said before I have downloaded the 2007 and 2007.1 PowerPack, 2007 and 2007.1 Free DVD, and the One cds, all more than once, and each time the md5's, the burn, the verification after the burn all say it's good, so to me that rules out bad download/media, same goes for 2008 RC1, but of course that is cooker, so . . . , but . . .,

 

With the old kick meter now showing empty, and time running out, I just can't waste anymore time on this, I have reclaimed my HD space for Debian, and unfortunately said my farewells to Mandriva, Introducing all my Mandriva DVD's, and CD's to the hard sharp reality of the corner of my table (there's definitely a media problem now). I still find it strange how every other distro I have tried runs fine, but Mandriva not so, oh well, time to move forward and not look back.

 

how about if you boot to runlevel 3 - *no* X started at all, just poke around at the console a bit...is it still slow then?

 

adamw, sorry, I never got to try that, even though I understand where you are coming from, the thought of just pokeing around at the console a bit never really inspired me :)

 

Thanks to all who looked in, and gave advice/suggestions.

 

 

[unsolved] pending release and installation of Mandriva 2008

Edited October 8, 2007 by qandd

[adamw]

by poking around at the console I didn't mean try and do anything to fix the problem, I just mean do *something* - anything at all - and see whether it's slow or not. the idea being to see if the problem happens only in X, or not.

[qandd]

Yes, Thats what I thought you meant, but I had had enough at that time, had to leave Mandriva for a while, but it has lured me back though, my first Linux love you know, I am downloading the 2008 PowerPack DVD torrent now, and currently running the 2007.1 ONE KDE cd Live, and if only Mandriva would run this good for me when installed to disk, except for when it has to access the disk, it's excellent, much better, faster than when I install to disk. Anyway, when I install 2008, I'll see how it goes, and see then if I can get it worked out, maybe it will work fine, but if I had to bet on it, I would say it will be as slow as, but time will tell.

[qandd]

So, I installed MDV 2008 PP, and what do you think happened? The damn thing is running perfectly, been running it for a couple of hours, install was straight forward and trouble free, as always, hardware all detected etc, as always, but the big surprise is that it actually runs so damn good, I got a smile a mile wide.

 

I'm going to keep testing it for a couple more days, a week maybe, then if everything is still going fine, I'm going to change both my PC's over to 2008, it feels really good so far No sign of high CPU usage, fast, responsive, just excellent, I'm having trouble tearing myself away so I can go to sleep, I got to be up in 4 hours :o

 

but if I had to bet on it, I would say it will be as slow as

 

I'm glad I'm not the betting kind, I would have done my money :P

[adamw]

hey, that's good news. Glad to hear it :)

[qandd]

Well that's enough for me, I'm sold, I will be converting my PC's over to Mandriva 2008 this weekend, everything is working absolutely brilliantly, I've still got a smile from ear to ear. Excellent !

 

 

SOLVED [by Mandriva 2008]