Re: [ubuntu-studio-devel] Possible explanation of my problems with Ubuntu Studio 18.10 and video may require more than 768MB in some cases
Ubuntu 17.xx and 18.xx have been unusable for me on an Athlon II x2 280, but run perfectly on my Intel i3. The symptoms I was experiencing were cursor lagging so far behind the mouse that it was a challenge even to shut the system down, let alone use it. Interestingly, LinuxMint 19 based on Ubuntu 18.04 works fine on both of my computers. On Fri, Dec 7, 2018 at 2:54 PM Erich Eickmeyer wrote: > On Friday, December 7, 2018 2:42:07 PM PST Mike Squires wrote: > > On 12/5/18 5:56 PM, Ralf Mardorf wrote: > > > Hi, > > > > > > the described performance issues could also happen, if a disc drive is > > > broken. Sometimes strange things also happen, if the CMOS > > > battery is getting low. > > > > I ran the "unixbench" benchmark as a quick-and-dirty test of the system's > > overall performance under Ubuntu Studio 16.04. The "System Score" was > > 562.5 for a single CPU, 2289 for all 8. The specific test numbers were > > what I'd expect from a system with 8 2 GHz Xeon cores (File copy 4096 was > > 568018 KBps single CPU, 975956 KBps with all 8). I did notice that the > > percent of time in wait states was always well below 1%, usually 0.2% or > > less. > > > > I will be shortly upgrading memory to 20GB and CPUs to 3 GHz quad core. > I > > will have to reorganize the drive array in order to be able to set up a > > test system, that may happen after New Year's. > > > > 16.04 is working well for me, but I'd like to figure out why 18.xx and my > > hardware don't want to coexist. > > > > Hi Mike, > > I have a theory on this one since I saw that you're using an AMD graphics > card. Between 16.04 and 18.04, the open source AMD driver was changed from > the > "radeon" to the "amdgraphics" driver. With my machine, which has AMD > graphics, I had some intermittent slowness especially with 18.10. I ended > up > fixing it by adding this to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX line in > /etc/default/grub: > > radeon.cik_support=0 radeon.si_support=0 amdgpu.dc=1 amdgpu.cik_support=1 > amdgpu.si_support=1 amdgpu.dpm=0 > > The key was the "amdgpu.dpm" line, which, with the 0, disables the dynamic > power management module. The dynamic power management was causing my > graphics > to crash if I so much as coughed. > > I hope this helps. At least it's worth a shot. > > Erich > -- > ubuntu-studio-devel mailing list > ubuntu-studio-devel@lists.ubuntu.com > Modify settings or unsubscribe at: > https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-studio-devel > -- ubuntu-studio-devel mailing list ubuntu-studio-devel@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-studio-devel
Re: [ubuntu-studio-devel] Possible explanation of my problems with Ubuntu Studio 18.10 and video may require more than 768MB in some cases
On Friday, December 7, 2018 2:42:07 PM PST Mike Squires wrote: > On 12/5/18 5:56 PM, Ralf Mardorf wrote: > > Hi, > > > > the described performance issues could also happen, if a disc drive is > > broken. Sometimes strange things also happen, if the CMOS > > battery is getting low. > > I ran the "unixbench" benchmark as a quick-and-dirty test of the system's > overall performance under Ubuntu Studio 16.04. The "System Score" was > 562.5 for a single CPU, 2289 for all 8. The specific test numbers were > what I'd expect from a system with 8 2 GHz Xeon cores (File copy 4096 was > 568018 KBps single CPU, 975956 KBps with all 8). I did notice that the > percent of time in wait states was always well below 1%, usually 0.2% or > less. > > I will be shortly upgrading memory to 20GB and CPUs to 3 GHz quad core. I > will have to reorganize the drive array in order to be able to set up a > test system, that may happen after New Year's. > > 16.04 is working well for me, but I'd like to figure out why 18.xx and my > hardware don't want to coexist. > Hi Mike, I have a theory on this one since I saw that you're using an AMD graphics card. Between 16.04 and 18.04, the open source AMD driver was changed from the "radeon" to the "amdgraphics" driver. With my machine, which has AMD graphics, I had some intermittent slowness especially with 18.10. I ended up fixing it by adding this to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX line in /etc/default/grub: radeon.cik_support=0 radeon.si_support=0 amdgpu.dc=1 amdgpu.cik_support=1 amdgpu.si_support=1 amdgpu.dpm=0 The key was the "amdgpu.dpm" line, which, with the 0, disables the dynamic power management module. The dynamic power management was causing my graphics to crash if I so much as coughed. I hope this helps. At least it's worth a shot. Erich signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part. -- ubuntu-studio-devel mailing list ubuntu-studio-devel@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-studio-devel
Re: [ubuntu-studio-devel] Possible explanation of my problems with Ubuntu Studio 18.10 and video may require more than 768MB in some cases
On 12/5/18 5:56 PM, Ralf Mardorf wrote: Hi, the described performance issues could also happen, if a disc drive is broken. Sometimes strange things also happen, if the CMOS battery is getting low. I ran the "unixbench" benchmark as a quick-and-dirty test of the system's overall performance under Ubuntu Studio 16.04. The "System Score" was 562.5 for a single CPU, 2289 for all 8. The specific test numbers were what I'd expect from a system with 8 2 GHz Xeon cores (File copy 4096 was 568018 KBps single CPU, 975956 KBps with all 8). I did notice that the percent of time in wait states was always well below 1%, usually 0.2% or less. I will be shortly upgrading memory to 20GB and CPUs to 3 GHz quad core. I will have to reorganize the drive array in order to be able to set up a test system, that may happen after New Year's. 16.04 is working well for me, but I'd like to figure out why 18.xx and my hardware don't want to coexist. Thanks, Mike Squries were ; -- Michael L. Squires, Ph.D., M.P.A. 546 North Park Ridge Road Bloomington, IN 47408 Home phone: 812-333-6564 Cell phone: 812-369-5232 www.siralan.org or www.smithgreensound.com UN*X at home since 1985 -- ubuntu-studio-devel mailing list ubuntu-studio-devel@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-studio-devel
Re: [ubuntu-studio-devel] Possible explanation of my problems with Ubuntu Studio 18.10 and video may require more than 768MB in some cases
A recent round of fixes for another Spectre varient that got backported into linux 1.19 and reverted in 1.20, then revised, and finally a new version written caused major CPU slowdowns but was not reported to balloon memory use. The revised code fixed most of the performance issues by limiting the change to security-sensitive code rather than all code. Much about this on phoronix.com On 12/5/2018 at 11:26 PM, "Ralf Mardorf" wrote: > >On Wed, 5 Dec 2018 14:27:15 -0500, Mike Squires wrote: >>I wonder if it might have something to do with the security >updates >>for the various problems like Spectre. > >You could disable those mitigations, but they unlikely cause that >kind >or performance issue. > >Read this thread, IOW this request and _all_ follow-ups: >https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-users/2018- >November/295911.html > >Especially care about >https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-users/2018- >November/295924.html. > >-- >ubuntu-studio-devel mailing list >ubuntu-studio-devel@lists.ubuntu.com >Modify settings or unsubscribe at: >https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-studio-devel -- ubuntu-studio-devel mailing list ubuntu-studio-devel@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-studio-devel
Re: [ubuntu-studio-devel] Possible explanation of my problems with Ubuntu Studio 18.10 and video may require more than 768MB in some cases
On Wed, 5 Dec 2018 14:27:15 -0500, Mike Squires wrote: >I wonder if it might have something to do with the security updates >for the various problems like Spectre. You could disable those mitigations, but they unlikely cause that kind or performance issue. Read this thread, IOW this request and _all_ follow-ups: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-users/2018-November/295911.html Especially care about https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-users/2018-November/295924.html. -- ubuntu-studio-devel mailing list ubuntu-studio-devel@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-studio-devel
Re: [ubuntu-studio-devel] Possible explanation of my problems with Ubuntu Studio 18.10 and video may require more than 768MB in some cases
On Wed, 5 Dec 2018 14:27:15 -0500, Mike Squires wrote: >My guess is that there is something about the low-latency kernel that >causes my dual Xeon quad core to slow down dramatically. You are dual booting between two releases of Ubuntu, one is running ok, the other does cause performance issues? You could boot into the old kernel and at the same time into the new root directory, IOW you could use the old kernel with the new install, it just requires a "fishy" bootloader entry. Doing so isn't entirely safe, but usually works. -- ubuntu-studio-devel mailing list ubuntu-studio-devel@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-studio-devel
Re: [ubuntu-studio-devel] Possible explanation of my problems with Ubuntu Studio 18.10 and video may require more than 768MB in some cases
Hi,
the described performance issues could also happen, if a disc drive is
broken. Sometimes strange things also happen, if the CMOS
battery is getting low.
Usually, but not necessarily running
sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda
^^^
gives a pointer. Replace "sda" with the drive you want to check. If the
drive should be a SSD, it might not be part of systemctl's data base, so
it's better to use a vendor's tool instead of systemctl. Btw. I don't
have experiences with broken SSDs, just with broken HDDs and at least
HHDs could cause such issues.
Very old mobos usually point to a battery that gets low, when turning
on the computer, let alone that very old mobos usually work, even with
an empty CMOS battery, it just requires to set the date and time again.
New mobos tend to provide the correct date and time even with a too low
battery and don't mention that the battery already is too low, they just
start to behave strange and AFAIK there's no way to check the battery,
other than replacing it by a new one. Even using a multimeter and a
resistor to simulate load, might still indicate that the battery isn't
too low.
My guess is, that a disk drive is broken, but if I were you, I would
replace the battery and check the disk drive and just in case I would
run memtest, too. Note, running memtest could lead to false positives,
if the RAM is ok, as well as passing all tests, even with a broken RAM.
Memtest not necessarily is trustworthy, but it still could help
troubleshooting.
Consider to check all connections, especially SATA connectors without a
lock. Sometimes disconnecting everything (SATA cables, power cables,
PCI, RAM ...) and connecting it again, even without cleaning helps.
Regards,
Ralf
--
pacman -Q linux{,-rt{-cornflower,,-securityink,-pussytoes}}|cut -d\ -f2
4.19.6.arch1-1
4.19.5_rt4-0
4.19.1_rt3-0
4.19_rt1-0
4.18.16_rt9-1
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Re: [ubuntu-studio-devel] Possible explanation of my problems with Ubuntu Studio 18.10 and video may require more than 768MB in some cases
On Wed, 5 Dec 2018, Mike Squires wrote: First, it seems that I need at least 768MB and very likely 1GB of memory on the video board to avoid the problems I had with the 256MB All-In-Wonder Radeon board I used previously. Displays are two HD displays; I couldn't display some windows, such as "Terminal Emulator", over the right-hand two-thirds of the second monitor. With a 1GB card, no problem. Ok. That does sound odd. I haven't had that problem with only an i5 using default video (intel on chip) with dual monitors. However, the system was incredibly slow. After login all functions were very slow; for example, burning a DVD ran at less than 1X where the same hardware runs at more than 7x using 16.04. The system was unable to keep the buffers filled, with 16.04 that is not a problem. Yikes! have you tried ctl-alt-F1 from the login screen and do SW upgrade from there? is it any faster? A clue, I think, is that the "wa" (processes in wait state) percentage in "top" stood at more than 30% all of the time; currently running 16.04 on the same hardware it is 0.0 to 0.2%. OK. Running the version of XUBUNTU which is the base for 18.04 didn't show this issue (running from the DVD). Hmm, then maybe try installing the generic linux kernel alongside and run that to see what happens. You may wish to chmod -x /etc/grub.d/09_lowlatency first though so that you don't default to lowlatency. Of course I would really like to know if adding lowlatency kernel to Xubuntu kills that too. It may be something else we do that Xubuntu has found and fixed that we haven't that has caused that... or one of the tweaks we have added besides the extra kernel. My guess is that there is something about the low-latency kernel that causes my dual Xeon quad core to slow down dramatically. I wonder if it That _should_ be faster than my i5 for sure. The fact that you are running an ice1712 audio card suggests that you do audio work where the lowlatency may be important. I should ask anyway, how you use the machine. If you are doing recording with external monitoring and can run with a higher latency the generic kernel may work fine for you. I have purposely stayed with the intel video because I know that the drivers are "open" and just work with most kernels (or get fixed pretty quick). I understand though that the xeon chips just don't have that option. (last I looked) I have next to no experience dealing with other video types. BTW have you tried 18.04? The differences from generic to lowlatency is very small (one switch that can actually be turned on in generic at boot time I am told). -- Len Ovens www.ovenwerks.net -- ubuntu-studio-devel mailing list ubuntu-studio-devel@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-studio-devel
[ubuntu-studio-devel] Possible explanation of my problems with Ubuntu Studio 18.10 and video may require more than 768MB in some cases
First, it seems that I need at least 768MB and very likely 1GB of memory on the video board to avoid the problems I had with the 256MB All-In-Wonder Radeon board I used previously. Displays are two HD displays; I couldn't display some windows, such as "Terminal Emulator", over the right-hand two-thirds of the second monitor. With a 1GB card, no problem. I also have a hypothesis as to why I has having problems with installing 18.10 on my primary desktop. I thought that there was a problem with the login window never appearing; it turned out that the window would eventually appear. However, the system was incredibly slow. After login all functions were very slow; for example, burning a DVD ran at less than 1X where the same hardware runs at more than 7x using 16.04. The system was unable to keep the buffers filled, with 16.04 that is not a problem. Updating the system was very slow; updates which stream past on the same system installing 16.04 took many times longer to complete. A clue, I think, is that the "wa" (processes in wait state) percentage in "top" stood at more than 30% all of the time; currently running 16.04 on the same hardware it is 0.0 to 0.2%. Running the version of XUBUNTU which is the base for 18.04 didn't show this issue (running from the DVD). My guess is that there is something about the low-latency kernel that causes my dual Xeon quad core to slow down dramatically. I wonder if it might have something to do with the security updates for the various problems like Spectre. I didn't think of this until I had removed 18.10 and reinstalled 16.04 so I was unable to test the performance of the standard kernel. Hardware is a Supermicro X7DAE (no SCSI) 4GB RAM, a Radeon 5550 series card, 3Ware 9750 SATA/SAS controller with two 2TB SATA drives in RAID1 for boot and a 4TB single drive, and an M-Audio (Envy24) Delta sound card. I'll be reconfiguring my system so that the boot devices are in a hot-swappable Supermicro drive cage so I can test while leaving the base system alone. I'm not sure what to do next, other than to install and test 18.10 using the standard kernel. Thanks, Mike Squires -- Michael L. Squires, Ph.D., M.P.A. 546 North Park Ridge Road Bloomington, IN 47408 Home phone: 812-333-6564 Cell phone: 812-369-5232 www.siralan.org or www.smithgreensound.com UN*X at home since 1985 ..!ncoast!siralan!mikes -- ubuntu-studio-devel mailing list ubuntu-studio-devel@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-studio-devel
