Slow/sluggish response ("system" task at 50%)

[Gene Smith]

Larry Hall (Cygwin) wrote, On 06/22/2009 08:08 PM:
> Gene Smith wrote:
>> Gene Smith wrote:
>>>
>>> I don't think it is a problem with cygwin itself. I was mainly
>>> curious if anyone sees the "system" task running 50% when doing a gcc
>>> build using Make (or similar intensive long term activity). I have
>>> weak XP based laptop with no corporate security that runs cygwin fine
>>> compared to my dual-core corporate desktop machine. I will check it
>>> on the laptop but it is not with me now. Thanks for the reply.
>>>
>>
>> Attached is my cygcheck.out (some private info is redacted).
>>
>> I just did a compare by running the same "make" build using cygwin
>> (rxvt), msys (also rxvt) and cmd. With msys and cmd I see "system"
>> process running occasionally and for a short time at a maximum of 20%
>> cpu. Usually I see the "make" process or just "system idle" and the
>> build completes in about 22 seconds.
>>
>> With cygwin/rxvt, as described previously, I see "system" process at
>> 40-50% (usually 50%) and nothing else using cpu comes to the top. The
>> same build takes about 14 minutes on cygwin.
>>
>> Running in the standard cygwin shell (not rxvt) the time is the same,
>> 14 minutes compared to 22 seconds under msys/rxvt and cmd shells.
>>
>> I removed the 2nd cygwin1.dll in the path that it warns about but it
>> made no difference.
>>
>> Is there anything evident in the cygcheck that accounts for the
>> extreme running of the windows "system" process with cygwin active?
>
> The overridden utilities always makes me nervous, though there's no
> obvious reason to be, since the Cygwin versions are reported as
> overriding the "WinAVR" versions. But I think this is more of a
> cause for concern:
>
>  > Sonic Solutions burning software containing DLA component
>
> I'd try removing that and see if it helps.

And its the first thing on the BLODA list; I didn't notice.

I didn't associate the name Sonic Solutions with anything on my 
computer. But I see it is really part of the Roxio package. I removed 
the DLA (Drive Letter Access) component of Roxio (remotely, at home now) 
but it says I need to reboot to complete the removal...
After reboot, the "DLA component" warning is gone from cygcheck but it 
is still slow doing the build. :(  Oh, well, I never used this DLA thing 
anyhow.

Guess I can try to remove the overrides you mention above. But I agree, 
they do seem innocuous.

>
> There's also 1.7 - <http://cygwin.com/#beta-test>

I will take a look at this. By the way, on the weak laptop I mentioned 
earlier, I get equal speed (and good speed) building a fairly big 
program on msys and cygwin. The "system" process barely registers any 
activity at all.

One other note. Although the cygwin speed is slow, all programs seem to 
work OK.






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