Howdy all.

(Sorry for the previous two posts. Scripting problem with jed which I fixed.)

Strange problem when launching apps from the console and X11. There is a
long delay before the application is displayed. Here are the specs:

Dell Inspiron e1705
(Intel Core 2 T2250, 1GB RAM, nVidia 7900GS, 80GB SATA, other stock features)
Slackware 11.0
Kernel 2.6.20.7 (hand crafted)

System Notes:
Upgraded to KDE 3.5.6 via LinuxPackages, grabbed all the required libraries
listed in the slack-req files, and configured supporting apps such as
udev/hal/dsub, etc...

(Note this problem was occurring before the upgrade as well.)

A little more information on the problem. I typically boot to a straight
console. While at the console launching console apps results in a 2 - 6
second delay before the application is displayed. During this time there is
not hard drive activity. Common apps I use are jed, ircII, slrn and pine.
Also, some system services also exhibit this behavior such as loading dhcpcd and
ndiswrapper. However, smaller programs like ls, less, cat, ps, netstat,
etc... do not show any lag at all.

After the startup lag, the is no performance hit in the application.
Loading, saving and other I/O operations are all smooth sailing.

Now for X11 (running KDE 3.5.6). Typing startx results in a delay, no hard
drive activity and keyboard is not responsive in the same terminal. Around
3-4 seconds pass and X starts to load. Apps within X11 exhibit the same
behavior as the console apps. For example, FireFox will take about 3 seconds
to show. However, this only happens once. Closing FireFox and re-opening it
doesn't yield a lag. Now... If I open a console from X and launch a console
app, the lag is about twice what it is from a straight console and is always
present, even when relaunching the same app in the same console.

Quitting X11 shows the same lag. There is a black screen for about 6
seconds, not hard drive activity, then the console is displayed. It's
almost like the system is waiting for a device to wake up each time...???

I posted this problem over on LinuxQuestions.org. Got a suggestion to try
different I/O Schedulers. Tried all three in the 2.6.20.7 kerenl (CF/Q,
Anti and Dead). Even tried not using an I/O scheduler. In each case the
lag was about the same. No noticeable change resulted.

If required, I can post the kernel .config or anything else that might help
in figuring out why this delay happens. Thought someone might have
experienced this, and resolved it, so I didn't want to post a huge list of
config options.

Any ideas/suggestions?

Thanks all!

-Adam


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My e-mail address is not that colorful.