Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2007 10:25:16 -0500 From: "Edward Ruggeri" <ruggeri@uchicago.edu> To: free-bsd-questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Problem Launching Applications in Gnome Message-ID: <op.to06geg37qi7tm@james-rfz25yf2.hsd1.il.comcast.net> In-Reply-To: <op.tovwmarq7qi7tm@james-rfz25yf2.hsd1.il.comcast.net> References: <20070307205726.AKZ27933@m4500-02.uchicago.edu> <A7D4CA80-54BA-4DB7-9413-7122DF9727F7@mac.com> <op.tovwmarq7qi7tm@james-rfz25yf2.hsd1.il.comcast.net>
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On Thu, 08 Mar 2007 13:04:48 -0600, Edward Ruggeri <ruggeri@uchicago.edu> wrote: > On Thu, 08 Mar 2007 12:54:55 -0600, Chuck Swiger <cswiger@mac.com> wrote: > >> On Mar 7, 2007, at 6:57 PM, ruggeri@uchicago.edu wrote: >>> The main application I run is Vim, which I run through Gnome- >>> Terminal. I frequently have several copies running >>> simultaneously. In general response to Gnome-Terminal >>> commands is very fast, but sometimes when I try to open a >>> file with Vim it takes up to 20-30 seconds to load. The >>> files are not particularly large (max 300 lines). >>> >>> During this time, if I try to launch another application in >>> Gnome (e.g., Opera or another Gnome-Terminal), it will not >>> come up. It is as if everything is frozen until finally Vi >>> loads and opens the file, at which point anything else I have >>> tried to open works fine. >> >> Is it possible that you're low on RAM, and the system has to swap in a >> bunch of stuff to let you task-switch to Opera or GT? Is it only the >> combination of GT & Vim, or do you sometimes encounter this long delay >> when switching between applications doing other things? >> >>> I have of course looked at top when this problem occurs. CPU >>> usage is about 2%, and there is no significant memory usage >>> either. >> >> It would be helpful to know what state the GT & vim processes were in, >> too. > > RAM usage remains very low throughout. In addition, I have 2GB of RAM > on this system, so while that was also my first suspicion, I don't think > that's it. > > When vim exhibits this behavior (which it doesn't always do), it will > sit in sbwait and will finally load as it comes out of sbwait. If I try > to open another GT during vim's stalling, it will also be stuck in > sbwait, generally coming out of it at the same time as vim. > > Thanks very much for your thoughts! > > -- Ned Ruggeri Sorry to post again in response to my own email, but I have some new information. In addition to the processes being stuck in sbwait, it also appears that when loading they start on the second core but switch to the first when getting out of the sbwait state. Also, this problem definitely seems to be exhibited in other applications. Sometimes I have to wait 15 seconds for Gnome-Terminal to load even with no applications running. I'm suspicious this might be related to Gnome's Screensaver, since GT opens slowly generally after coming out of screensaver. Any thoughts? It's a real drag, because freeBSD is so fast for me outside this problem, but it's making it impossible to use... Thanks guys! Sincerely, -- Ned Ruggeri
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