Firebird -> Firefox

[Collins Richey]

On Wed, 11 Feb 2004 11:49:47 -0500 (EST)
Net Llama! <netllama at linux-sxs.org> wrote:

> On Wed, 11 Feb 2004, Collins Richey wrote:
> > On Wed, 11 Feb 2004 10:26:56 -0500 (EST)
> > Net Llama! <netllama at linux-sxs.org> wrote:
> > > > > I think the key is KDE.  Perhaps stop using that, and
> > > > > everything else will run faster.
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > That goes without saying!  I'm not a permanent kde user, but I
> > > > try it out whenever a new version is released, just to see what
> > > > a lot of people are experiencing.
> > > >
> > > > When I'm not running kde, right now I'm using PAWM which is a
> > > > very low overhead, single desktop WM.
> > >
> > > And you still get the same slow startup times?
> > >
> >
> > Yes,
> >
> > No difference between firebird and firefox, either initial loading
> > or reloads.  Also, firefox appers to be unable to print from the
> > Mapquest site; there is a problem handling fonts.
> 
> Perhaps your problem is disk IO?  Have you used hdparm at all to
> improve disk throughput?  What kind of HDs are you using?
> 

Interesting thought.  This is a fairly new Maxtor 4R080J0.

hdparm -i reports :

/dev/hda:

 Model=Maxtor 4R080J0, FwRev=RAMB1TU0, SerialNo=R21C3YPE
 Config={ Fixed }
 RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=57
 BuffType=DualPortCache, BuffSize=2048kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=16
 CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=160086528
 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
 PIO modes:  pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4 
 DMA modes:  mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 
 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 *udma6 
 AdvancedPM=yes: disabled (255) WriteCache=enabled
 Drive conforms to: (null): 

 * signifies the current active mode

hdparm -Tt reports :
/dev/hda:
 Timing buffer-cache reads:   1276 MB in  2.00 seconds = 636.51 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  136 MB in  3.02 seconds =  45.01 MB/sec

This is more than double the buffer-cache speed and 4-5 MB/sec greater
than the buffered read speed I get on my other machine with older disks.

The disk comes up with

/dev/hda:
 multcount    = 16 (on)
 IO_support   =  0 (32-bit)   <== note below
 unmaskirq    =  0 (off)     <== note below
 using_dma    =  1 (on)
 keepsettings =  0 (off)
 readonly     =  0 (off)
 readahead    = 256 (on)
 geometry     = 65535/16/63, sectors = 160086528, start = 0

Interestingly enough, turning on 32-bit mode has no effect on speeds. 
My other machine has unmaskirq turned on, but reading the man entry, I
don't think I want to tinker with that.


-- 
Collins - Denver Area -
Gentoo stable kernel 2.6.2-rc1