9 RC1 amd64 bad desktop performance under load

T

tankist02

If I do rsync of large files from a nearby computer my desktop responsiveness drops significantly. Opening an image, clicking context menu, etc takes a dozen seconds to complete. It feels as if high network and/or disk activity hogs the whole system.

This is a decent machine: Intel Q9550 4-core, 8GB of RAM. DE is Gnome 2.32 with standard configuration. Kernel is stock with 2 options added:

Code: 
options         VESA
options         SC_PIXEL_MODE

The same exercise on this machine with Linux (different distros) doesn't have that effect.

Where can I look to fix it? Would be happy to post additional info if needed.
 
It might be due to those options. I'm using a Xeon E3-1260L with 32GB memory, no X11 at all, and scrolling in the vidmode-d terminal makes audio stutter even without any disk IO at all.
 
Those options are for syscons, should not matter while running X.

Narrow it down by trying the rsync in a text console without X running. If it's fast that way, then the problem is X, probably a driver setting.
 
Have you recompiled the base system and removed all the debug flags and options in the kernel config? I noticed FreeBSD 9-BETA3 had all of them enabled in the GENERIC kernel which caused my system to be slower.
 
You may be interested in the --bwlimit=2000 parameter to rsync, it will take awhile longer but everything else should run as if rsync is not hardly active, (although untested on your specific hardware and machine...)
 
I don't have WITNESS and other debug options in the kernel - I run RC1.

It doesn't look as if graphical performance drops, it's feels as if disc (or memory?) access decreased dramatically.

For a quick check I ran bonnie in console, no X.

First, alone:

Code: 
File './Bonnie.77847', size: 104857600
Writing with putc()...done
Rewriting...done
Writing intelligently...done
Reading with getc()...done
Reading intelligently...done
Seeker 1...Seeker 2...Seeker 3...start 'em...done...done...done...
              -------Sequential Output-------- ---Sequential Input-- --Random--
              -Per Char- --Block--- -Rewrite-- -Per Char- --Block--- --Seeks---
Machine    MB K/sec %CPU K/sec %CPU K/sec %CPU K/sec %CPU K/sec %CPU  /sec %CPU
          100 52822 17.2 46648  4.0 407531 33.0 299119 100.2 3502171 97.7 258782.4 255.1


And then while doing rsync of large files:

Code: 
File './Bonnie.77882', size: 104857600
Writing with putc()...done
Rewriting...done
Writing intelligently...done
Reading with getc()...done
Reading intelligently...done
Seeker 1...Seeker 2...Seeker 3...start 'em...done...done...done...
              -------Sequential Output-------- ---Sequential Input-- --Random--
              -Per Char- --Block--- -Rewrite-- -Per Char- --Block--- --Seeks---
Machine    MB K/sec %CPU K/sec %CPU K/sec %CPU K/sec %CPU K/sec %CPU  /sec %CPU
          100 31086 10.9 38242  3.7 1200665 105.9 296232 95.2 3367756 100.0 250626.6 257.8

Should I check vmstat or similar?
 
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