momentary freeze ups

[Todd And Margo Chester]

On 04/13/2012 12:29 PM, killermoehre wrote:
> Am 13.04.2012 21:20, schrieb Todd And Margo Chester:
>> Hi All,
>
> Hi you two.
>
>> I have two computers running Xfce 4.8.  One is running Scientific
>> Linux 6.2 (RHEL 6.2 clone) 64 bit and the other is running
>> Fedora Core 16, 64 bit.
>>
>> Occasionally, in any program, the computers will freeze up from
>> anywhere between five seconds and 20 seconds.  Then recover as if
>> nothing happened.
>
> Define »any«. Just GUI, or CLI, too?

They both boot into Xfce.  The freeze ups occur in Xfce.  Say,
you go on to Firefox, click a link and nothing happens for five
seconds.  Mouse works.  Say you are typing into Libre Office,
half a sentence will hide and then appear after 10 seconds.

>
>> "top" shows hardly any CPU activity.  "free -m" shows three times
>> the empty space as used.
>>
>> Is there some kind of file indexing going on?  On the Gnome side,
>> I know they have something called "tracker", but I don't see it
>> in Xfce.
>
> No. Xfce is lightweight.

And very, very much appreciated.  I "bristle" when I have to work
in OS'es/GUI's that think the OS/GUI should be an "amusement park".

>
>> 32 bit FC 16 Live CD does not "seem" to show the freeze ups, but
>> it is hard to get a good test as most of the native programs are
>> not usable.  Prior to wiping and installing 64 bit, both these
>> machines were running 32 bit (CentOS 4.x and CentOS 5.x) with
>> no freeze ups.
>>
>> Any idea how to troubleshoot this?
>
> Does this happen since the very beginning?

Since the 64 bit upgrade (wipe and reinstall)

> Did you alter something in
> the last time?

No.

> What says pstree?

Sweet utility.  Did not know it existed.  I have been using
gnome-system-monitor, which give the same thing.  Could not
find anything out of the ordinary.  Just that both systems
seem to be vastly under utilized.

> How do you start your session?

Gdm.

> What
> daemons are running in the background?

What ever came with the Live CD that I installed from

> Is your RAM busy?
"free -m" shows about 384 meg used of 4 gig

> Is your hard drive working?

Yes.  Both the front panel LED and lots of rattling
noise from the hard drive itself.  This is why I asked
about tracker.

> When was the last system update?

A few days ago

> When was the last reboot?

Both get turned off every night

>What says your autostart?

I do not understand

> Do you save your session?

Only until I get it the way I like, then I don't.  Have
not saved a session for several months

>
>> Many thanks,
>> -T
>
> Regards