Re: Kernel 2.4.17 gets really slow when handling large files

[Timothy Covell]

On Friday 11 January 2002 15:56, [e-mail] wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 11, 2002 at 11:04:59AM +0100, Christiaan Kok wrote:
> > Dear people,
> >
> > I have a problem with kernel 2.4.17 and as far as I have testen all the
> > 2.4.X kernels before it. When handling large files, like moving or
> > viewing movies (700 Mb) (with mplayer) my system suddenly slows down a
> > lot. This can only be repaired by a reboot. hdparm -Tt /dev/hdX values
> > drop from around 25 MB/s to around 8 MB/s but DMA is still on (at least
> > that is what hdaprm reports). In is a such a state it is imposible to
> > burn cds for instance but networkspeed is unharmed.
>
> How slow?  Does it always happen when playing large files with mplayer
> or only some of the time?
>
> I've run into a similar sounding problem.
>
> Running mplayer, sometimes, perhaps 1 to 50 runs, the system becomes
> nearly unresponsive.  I can switch virtual desktops in X, via WM,
> promptly.  Through redraws of the switched-to desktop are slow.
>
> xmms playing music continues to play fine.
>
> rxvt's have about a 4 second response time.
>
> Generally, I can manage rebooting the laptop.
>
> Originally I blamed low-latency patches, and have switch back to
> 2.4.17 with preempt-patch.

I'm assuming that you have checked to make sure that your system
hasn't run out of memory and is swapping heavily.   If mplayer had
a memory leak this could be the expected behaviour.  [when in X,
I usually keep xosview or some similar meter open so that I can
see cpu, memory, and swap usage.]

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