[ug-bosug] SXDE : 2 serious reliability issues

[Manish Chakravarty]

On Fri, Mar 21, 2008 at 4:40 PM, Ananth Shrinivas <Ananth.Shrinivas at sun.com>
wrote:

>
> > 2) Desktop becomes very unresponsive
> >
> > I have a decent configuration ( 2 GB RAM, Intel Core 2 Duo T5450, 64
> > bit Dual core ).
> > I have a 160 GB HDD with /export/home on ZFS ( with compression set on )
> >
>
> Dude,
>
> CPU:
> * Your compile / link operations are CPU intensive by themselves.
> * With compression turned ON, every source file being read for
> compilation requires CPU time for uncompression of data/metadata blocks
> * The target files being written to on the disk need CPU for compression
> of data/metadata blocks
>
> Memory:
> * Compilation hogs a lot memory. Especially if you build KDE with
> "--enable-final", the RSS can go upto 300MB easily on many occasions.
> * The intermediate files being written by the compiler go to /tmp -
> which is backed on memory
> * JDS assumes authority to eat all your memory.
> * ZFS ARC consumes memory unless explicitly told not to.
>
> Thats likely the sources of contention for your CPU and Memory. Try
> doing the following.
>
> For better compilation speed:
> * Source files should not be on compressed filesystems
> * Neither should target files.
>  (If you are looking to save space. Tar your packages after the build
> and then untar them on a compressed filesystem.)
> * Limit ARC size
> (http://www.solarisinternals.com/wiki/index.php/ZFS_Evil_Tuning_Guide)
>
> For desktop usability
> * If you are running a dual core laptop, bind your compilation shell
> (and hence all its sub-processes) to a Single CPU. Make the other CPU
> free and usable for your desktop purposes.
> * Jail your build inside a whole root zone or a VirtualBox instance and
> apply Solaris resource controls to it.
>
Wouldnt putting my entire build system ( along with the OS / compilers etc )
on Virtual Box result in even more overheads in the process?

>
> Cheers,
> Ananth
>
>


-- 
Manish Chakravarty
http://manish-chaks.livejournal.com/
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