Ask your questions here.
Post a reply

Refracta-snapshot slow down

Tue Aug 06, 2013 6:02 am

I have 3 isos in my snapshot directory now.
When I try and create a new ISO now Refracta-snapshot is very slow...
The 'squashing files' period does not complete.

Should I be deleting some old files by now.
What else could be causing this slow down?

Re: Refracta-snapshot slow down

Tue Aug 06, 2013 1:31 pm

If you edited the config file to use xz compression, it'll take a lot longer for mksquashfs to run. Other than that, check that you have enough hard drive space, enough memory, and check running processes to see if something else is hogging the cpu.
Code:
df -h
free -m
top

Re: Refracta-snapshot slow down

Tue Aug 06, 2013 5:57 pm

'mksquashfs...-compxz' and 'zenity... squashing file system' are running at 100% cpu usage.
No other tasks hogging resources.

disk space used 5%
ram at 75%

OK-only a dual core but what I do not understand is the first three isos I made of +/-650MB where quite quick to produce even using xz compression.
Now been running about 1 hour and still not finished... :shock:

Now trying refractasnapshot -gui without xz compression....

Re: Refracta-snapshot slow down

Wed Aug 07, 2013 2:20 am

RAM at 75% of what? I've got 2G with an old athlon X2, and if I use 75% of my ram, I notice that things will slow down. Run ps_mem.py for a clear display of how much memory is being used by different programs.
http://www.pixelbeat.org/scripts/ps_mem.py

Re: Refracta-snapshot slow down

Wed Aug 07, 2013 2:54 pm

I have 4GB RAM.
Last run of Refractasnapshot I left running all night...
I ended up with an ISO of 18MB instead of 650MB.
I have tried reinstalling refractasnapshot, however I notice that when I do;
sudo apt-get purge refractasnapshot
there are still files under /usr/lib/refractasnapshot that are not removed.
Should I try and remove these too?

EDIT:i just noticed I am running refractasnapshot 9.0.9 from ibiblio.
I see that the version @ github is 9.0.9-2...maybe I will give this version a try.

Re: Refracta-snapshot slow down

Sun Aug 11, 2013 3:28 pm

In the past, when we've gotten small iso files, it was because there was not enough space on the partition that held the work directory.

If you remove the package with apt-get, aptitude or dpkg -r, and there are files left, you can delete them manually, but you shouldn't need to do that - they'll be replaced if you install a newer version. Also, if you've changed the config file, dpkg will ask if you want to replace it with the maintainer's version. It will also allow you to compare the two to see the differences. This is a good idea, because newer versions sometimes have new variables in the config file.

9.0.9 vs. 9.0.9-2 shouldn't make a difference unless you're using the cli script, which had a serious bug in it.

Have you had any better luck wtih this?

Re: Refracta-snapshot slow down

Sun Aug 11, 2013 5:19 pm

I think refractasnapshot is OK now.
I really do not know what happened but I re-installed the refractasnapshot and now I have made several snapshots with success.
I think it runs more consistently under command line...
I also prefer the command line progress bar.
When I had issues, the zenity 'progress' bar was driving me nuts :shock:
I also observe that it really is necessary to have all apps closed to avoid weird behaviour.

Keep up the great work! 8-)
Post a reply