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Stretch performance

Linux Kernel, Network, and Services configuration.
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DebbyIan
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Stretch performance

#1 Post by DebbyIan »

Is it just me or does Stretch's performance suck?
I barely use the GUI but am still seeing a difference, a lag in responsiveness and overall sluggishness.

sgian
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Re: Stretch performance

#2 Post by sgian »

It does seem to take longer to log in to my GUI profile, but my fps in minecraft is higher in Stretch than in Jessie. Like almost double the fps, maybe more but I left it capped it at 120 fps.

One thing I noticed though, is that the processor microcode gets blacklisted by default for stability, even when you manually install it. So if you installed processor microcode, or any firmware to try speeding things up, check the /etc/modprobe.d directory to see if it got blacklisted by the system.

DebbyIan
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Re: Stretch performance

#3 Post by DebbyIan »

Good point. CPU microcode has always been blacklisted by default.

Code: Select all

# The microcode module attempts to apply a microcode update when
# it autoloads.  This is not always safe, so we block it by default.
blacklist microcode

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VentGrey
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Re: Stretch performance

#4 Post by VentGrey »

I wouldn't recommend commenting that line out if you don't want to deal with boot-breakage (rarely).
https://packages.debian.org/jessie/amd6 ... e/filelist
you should leave it like defaults, or if you know how to deal with a broken or infinite-loop boot then go ahead. :mrgreen:
I would exchange everything I know in exchange for half of what I don't.

DebbyIan
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Re: Stretch performance

#5 Post by DebbyIan »

I'm having a hard time liking the performance drawdowns of the new distro. Dare I say it but bloatware seems to have set in. Xorg and systemd spring to mind. I personally would prefer to have a number of smaller, well written apps doing a dedicated tasks well, over integrating newer and newer features into some behemoth application.

I know Ubuntu is still even worse.

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None1975
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Re: Stretch performance

#6 Post by None1975 »

DebbyIan wrote: I personally would prefer to have a number of smaller, well written apps doing a dedicated tasks well, over integrating newer and newer features into some behemoth application.
Yes, you a right. It is Unix philosophy. Make each program do one thing well. To do a new job, build afresh rather than complicate old programs by adding new "features". Sadly, nowadays newprograms, is far away from that principles...
OS: Debian 12.4 Bookworm / DE: Enlightenment
Debian Wiki | DontBreakDebian, My config files on github

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Head_on_a_Stick
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Re: Stretch performance

#7 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

DebbyIan wrote:am still seeing a difference, a lag in responsiveness and overall sluggishness.
Either post some objective comparative benchmarks or STFU, your post is little more than meaningless FUD.

EDIT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias
deadbang

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pylkko
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Re: Stretch performance

#8 Post by pylkko »

When Stretch came out I saw a lot of performance benchmarks posted online. Almost all of them showed consistent performance gains. This, of course, does not mean that it is impossible that in some situations and some hardware the situation is worse on 9.1, however, I would be very suspicious about such claims if absolutely no verifiable data are offered.

DebbyIan
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Re: Stretch performance

#9 Post by DebbyIan »

^^ Generally speaking many performance improvements are due to the recent advancements in the kernel. Going from 4.4 to 4.9 say. There is better utilisation of hardware for example.
Having said this however, the component performance of hardware is still a limited quantity. It's possible that improvements in some areas cause drawdowns in others. To be fair the Debian userspace utilities are pesky and probably don't count to much. However there is still a system configuration to address.

A litmus test might be to install Stretch on a 10-15 year old system. Will it run well, even with a conservative stripped down kernel? Doubt it. Herein lies the issue.

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Re: Stretch performance

#10 Post by arochester »

^^^
A litmus test might be to install Stretch on a 10-15 year old system. Will it run well, even with a conservative stripped down kernel? Doubt it. Herein lies the issue.
My desktop is 11 years old. Works fine with Stretch.

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RU55EL
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Re: Stretch performance

#11 Post by RU55EL »

I installed Debian stretch on my old WinXP machine recently. Works perfectly, much faster than WinXP, but that is not saying much. It was funny, I hadn't used the computer in about 5 years so I was surprised when I couldn't boot from USB. I had to install from a compact disc.

The reason that I have the machine is for scanning slides, film and photographs with my old HP S20 photosmart scanner. I have only been able to get it to work with WinXP, but after I scan the media, I use Debian on the same machine to do everything else with the scans.

I've been very impressed with Stretch, it has worked perfectly on all six computers that I've installed it on, three of them being from 8 to 12 years old.

DebbyIan
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Re: Stretch performance

#12 Post by DebbyIan »

Curious what is the user experience like? Sounds ok..?

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RU55EL
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Re: Stretch performance

#13 Post by RU55EL »

The only older machine that I've had Debian Wheezy, then Jessie, then Stretch is a Dell D530 notebook computer. No real noticeable performance difference between the Debian versions. (I'm currently, running Slackware on the machine out of curiosity.)

My newer machines,Intel NUCs from about 2014, and higher performing desktops from about 2009 operate a little snappier with Stretch as opposed to Jessie. Of course, these are subjective evaluations, without benchmarks.

DebbyIan
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Re: Stretch performance

#14 Post by DebbyIan »

Worth mentioning that I have resorted back to sysv in lieu of systemd. Glad that sysv is still supported.

http://without-systemd.org/wiki/index.p ... an_Stretch

Also worth considering:

https://github.com/arachsys/init

duffy
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Re: Stretch performance

#15 Post by duffy »

I was running Jessie and installed Stretch when 9.1 became available. I tried 9.0, but had many installation issues and couldn't get it to run.

I tried the Gnome and Cinnamon desktops on my dual core Intel Pentium D x86-64, but they over powered my processor. I re-installed Debian 9.1 for the i386 since I have only one GB ram, and don't intend to add more. I also loaded LXDE and XFCE desktops to reduce the processor load. I'm running the 4.9.0-3-686-pae kernel without having the lags and stoppages I was having with Gnome and Cinnamon for x86-64.

I like Debian 9.1 with LXDE. It is my goto distribution and desktop.

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Re: Stretch performance

#16 Post by Bulkley »

We should never confuse an OS with the programs we choose to operate on them or the hardware we choose to install to. Programs that are sourced outside of the proper Debian repository are notoriously risky. No matter how much testing we do there will always be programs that interfere with each other, for example Network-Manager and Wicd. The big desktops are so resource heavy that they can bog down an older machine. If you watch this forum for a long time you will see lots of problems associated with proprietary hardware such as video and printers; the use of proprietary drivers may or may not make things better. The days of users only installing Linux on a PC are over. The assortment of hardware that an OS is expected to cope with is expanding.

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