Enigma Slowdown?

[Nixy82]

Hi

Why does Enigma slow down after a while? I mean with channel zapping and into the channel list

I'm running 2.0.1a with minimal plug-ins and only downloading 2 EPGs a day via CrossEPG (Sky UK OpenTv and Rytec bbc-interactive)

I've got a 256MB activated swap on USB

When I restart enigma it's all back to normal again

Is it a memory leak or something?

 

[a911]

Hi

Why does Enigma slow down after a while? I mean with channel zapping and into the channel list

I'm running 2.0.1a with minimal plug-ins and only downloading 2 EPGs a day via CrossEPG (Sky UK OpenTv and Rytec bbc-interactive)

I've got a 256MB activated swap on USB

When I restart enigma it's all back to normal again

Is it a memory leak or something?

Good question , any body knows why?

 

[darian23]

for many reasons:
skin,
epg,
slow usb stick,
installed plugins,

when slowing down try the below:
enter top command in telnet and check cpu usage
enter free command in telnet and check memory usage
change skin and test if still slowing down
remove usb stick and test it without it
use BH speed up to disable features you don't use

maybe silly solution but my duo died yesterday during testing and have not recovered it yet And have not noticed that e2 slowing down with most plugins/addons disabled, channel list for one sat position only, default skin and usb stick mounted as USB

 

[paolino]

maybe silly solution but my duo died yesterday during testing and have not recovered it yet And have not noticed that e2 slowing down with most plugins/addons disabled, channel list for one sat position only, default skin and usb stick mounted as USB

I'm really sorry for you , hope you'll solve a problem very soon.

@Nixy82: Could be also a problem of overheating, I'm not sure at 100%, but processor should have internal overheating protection (lowers CPU speed with higher temperature). Check fan functions.
USB swap is really bad option, use HDD swap.

 

[darian23]

USB swap is really bad option, use HDD swap.

is it? and keep your hard drive spinning around all the time when box is on?

 

[chulbul]

what a good time to put HDD in standby from menu ? I have chosen 30 seconds

 

[darian23]

it's up to you I think.
I've set it up for 1 min and hdd wakes up when recording, playing back files already recorded or using timeshift/file explorer.

 

[paolino]

is it? and keep your hard drive spinning around all the time when box is on?

I think, that is better to keep him spinning (600.000 cycles of spin up/down of life guaranteed) and the speed of swap of HDD is really faster (I chose HDD for speed). It depends also on a size 3,5" heats more then 2,5" (I'm using 2,5"). USB swap wins over 3,5" because of heat.
There are always vantages and disatvantages.

And thats why I bought Vu+, to have always possibilities to choose .

 

[Nixy82]

Are we saying then regarding swap file that it's better in a vu system to

1) put it on he hard disk
2) keep the hard disk always on

?

 

[Nixy82]

I'm really sorry for you , hope you'll solve a problem very soon.

@Nixy82: Could be also a problem of overheating, I'm not sure at 100%, but processor should have internal overheating protection (lowers CPU speed with higher temperature). Check fan functions.
USB swap is really bad option, use HDD swap.

I've not altered the fan settings from default, but I wouldn't think of that if restarting enigma was all that was required to speed it up.

I'm running the default skin, which is rather nice I think, I'll let you know if I see it again and post the results

 

[paolino]

Are we saying then regarding swap file that it's better in a vu system to

1) put it on he hard disk
2) keep the hard disk always on

?

Depends on Vu+ box and things written above, you should try. My boxes are like this: Duo with swap 256 MB on 2,5" HDD (when swap is not necessary, HDD will sleep) Solo2 without swap. You should check your memory (RAM) usage. Maybe it will not be necessary.

 

[paolino]

I'm running 2.0.1a with minimal plug-ins and only downloading 2 EPGs a day via CrossEPG (Sky UK OpenTv and Rytec bbc-interactive)

I forgot, I tried to use CrossEPG on USB flash before on my Solo2. Boot time of box was triple compared to fresh image (or EPG on HDD).

 

[Nixy82]

Depends on Vu+ box and things written above, you should try. My boxes are like this: Duo with swap 256 MB on 2,5" HDD (when swap is not necessary, HDD will sleep) Solo2 without swap. You should check your memory (RAM) usage. Maybe it will not be necessary.

Hi, that's exactly the setup I've just enabled, except I've set the disk to be always on

 

[Nixy82]

I forgot, I tried to use CrossEPG on USB flash before on my Solo2. Boot time of box was triple compared to fresh image (or EPG on HDD).

I thought epg data on the USB was supposed to optimal (hence my thinking putting the picons/swap on the USB was best too)

 

[paolino]

Hi, that's exactly the setup I've just enabled, except I've set the disk to be always on

My Duo HDD is set to 10 minutes to sleep. And thinks about the picons and EPG are different. Swap acts like a RAM, should have fast access and HDD is faster than USB flash. Picons and EPG are read only when they are necessary, so they can be on USB (BH doesn't support picons on HDD).
I eliminated USB flash not becuase the system was slower, but because I hate to wait 3 minutes or more for reboot (box is reading all stuff on USB flash during boot).

 

[darian23]

My Duo HDD is set to 10 minutes to sleep. And thinks about the picons and EPG are different. Swap acts like a RAM, should have fast access and HDD is faster than USB flash. Picons and EPG are read only when they are necessary, so they can be on USB (BH doesn't support picons on HDD).
I eliminated USB flash not becuase the system was slower, but because I hate to wait 3 minutes or more for reboot (box is reading all stuff on USB flash during boot).

your swap is useless then if you keep it on hdd which goes to sleep. Box has no access to swap when it's needed - hdd is sleeping and time to wake it up will cause green screen. Swap must be available for the box all the time because it is extension for RAM (seeing as whole RAM by your box) that's the reason it's better to keep it on device accessible all the time. Your duo may not need swap but we have boxes in here which really need it and it's very useful for people using solo for example.
I'd suggest to use usb swap instead of hdd unless you use permanent timeshift and hdd spinning all the time what means there is no disturbances to use it when it's needed

 

[paolino]

your swap is useless then if you keep it on hdd which goes to sleep. Box has no access to swap when it's needed - hdd is sleeping and time to wake it up will cause green screen. Swap must be available for the box all the time because it is extension for RAM (seeing as whole RAM by your box) that's the reason it's better to keep it on device accessible all the time. Your duo may not need swap but we have boxes in here which really need it and it's very useful for people using solo for example.
I'd suggest to use usb swap instead of hdd unless you use permanent timeshift and hdd spinning all the time what means there is no disturbances to use it when it's needed

I have to check better what is HDD doing (sleep or not), my settings are in this way for about 6 month and I've never got a green screen (because of HDD ).
Maybe setting a swap to HDD it never goes to sleep (it's so quiet, that I can't here if it's rotating or not). I'll try to force sleep mode.

 

[Nixy82]

Hi

I created a small script which I use the BH Cron manager to run 60mins after CrossEPG has done it's daily download and that has made an improvement.

Here it is in-case anyone is interested

It would be very useful if the api command 'Blackholecmd' was extended to provide info on any running recordings or scheduled recordings to start in the next x mins

I put it in /usr/script/restart_check.sh

#!/bin/sh
#
# restart enigma2 once a day at 6.15
#
# reboots only if the box isn't doing anything like:
# - recording
# - watching
#
# see :
# http://www.rdi-board.com/threads/131607-Script-restart-dream-standby
#
 
restart_box()
{
 
echo "Restarting Engima2..."
 
/usr/bin/Blackholecmd  restartenigma2
 
 
echo "Sleeping for 2mins..."
sleep 120
 
echo "Setting back to Standby.."
 
/usr/bin/Blackholecmd  standby
}
 
echo " Are we Recording?"
RECORDING=false
 
# check for any active timer events
wget -q http://127.0.0.1/web/timerlist -O - | fgrep '<e2state>2<' && RECORDING=true
 
if $RECORDING
then
  echo "!! We're recording, aborting !!"
  exit
else
  echo "++ Passed Recording check ++"
fi
 
echo "Are we in standby mode?"
STANDBY=false
 
# Make sure box is in standby mode
wget -q http://127.0.0.1/web/powerstate -O - | fgrep -i true && STANDBY=true
 
if $STANDBY
then
  echo "++ Passed Standby check ++"
else
  echo "!! Not in standby mode, aborting !!"
  exit
fi
 
restart_box