Unix pc sluggishness when switching windows (long)

[Augustine Cano]

In article <1991Feb9.011213.8868 at blilly.UUCP> bruce at balilly.UUCP (Bruce Lilly) writes:
>Previous messages by: afc at shibaya.lonestar.org, gst at gnosys.svle.ma.us,
afc at shibaya.lonestar.org:
>>>
>>> [ how the wmgr memory leak makes wmgr bigger, and killing it makes
>>>   it smaller again ]
>>
>>This is not a leak, it's a FLOOD!  I just hit the <SHIFT><RESUME> button
>>24 times and that was enough to bump the memory size by 1.
>
>Now hold on just a minute. While the above sounds plausible, I'm not 100%
>convinced.  I have 2 machines. The one I'm posting from has been up about
>a month, switching windows is rapid, no phone manager running. Here's the
>output from ps -elf: (oh yes: 3.5MB, Ethernet, combo card)
			       ^^^^^
Here's the key: 1.5 Mb additional memory.  It will take wmgr much longer
to get big enough to slow down swapping appreciably.

>...
>  1 S   root   157     1  3  27 20 220169: 35   54f14  Jan 11   w3 52:11 wmgr
>...
>
>Note the large numbers for size of wmgr.
>My other machine has been up about the same amount of time, wmgr numbers are much
>smaller, window switching is painfully slow, AND ph is running there (and
>is pretty big also). Configuration is 2MB, Ethernet. Here's output from ps -elf there:

More stuff in favor of the other machine.  Much less RAM, and an additional
(BIG) program running.  Also, the smaller wmgr seems to indicate that you
use it less on this machine, right?

>...
>  1 S   root   260     1  7  27 20 1e0 81: 12   5b004  Jan 13   w6 15:40 ph
>  1 S   root   234     1  7  27 20  a5 60:  0   5af14  Jan 13   w3 16:52 wmgr
>...
>
>I just walked into the other room, killed ph, checked window switching
>(much, much better), restarted ph, rechecked window switching speed (still
>good). More ps -elf output:

Well, yes...  You have one less big program running, so the memory is
available for use by wmgr with less swapping.
The "still good" speed, was it before ph was used for anything?  If so,
the non-resident part was probably completely swapped out.  Just wait 'til
ph starts popping up windows and has to be swapped out...

>...
>  1 S   root   234     1  7  27 20  a5 61: 56   5af14  Jan 13   w3 17:06 wmgr
>...
>  1 S   root  8848     1  7  27 20 19a 79: 19   5afb4 20:01:01 sys  0:00 ph
>...
>
>  ph size is still the largest, wmgr size went up, BUT window switching is
>  faster.  I still can't say exactly what the slow window switching is
>  caused by, but the above simple experiment seems to suggest that it's
>  not solely due to the size of the wmgr process. It might be some
>  interaction with the phone manager (which has an annoying tendency to
>  pop open a window everytime the phone rings), then again it might not
>  be. I just don't know.

I suspect it is affected by all programs running, since they all compete for
the memory.  In any case wmgr has no business growing like it does.  This
is my wmgr entry, after running for 6 days 12 hours 18 minutes.  It has
been getting bigger and bigger.

  1 S   root   143     1  3  27 20  df 58:  0   5af64  Feb  4   w4  9:45 wmgr

Someone else said something about this slowdown happening when a printer
is connected to the parallel port but not turned on.  I haven't tested
this yet.  Has anyone else had this experience?

>--
>	Bruce Lilly		blilly!balilly!bruce at sonyd1.Broadcast.Sony.COM


-- 
Augustine Cano		INTERNET: afc at shibaya.lonestar.org
			UUCP:     ...!{ernest,egsner}!shibaya!afc