Page 1 of 3

Recent update causing slow login

PostPosted: Oct 9th, '14, 10:02
by pchristy
This is happening on two Mageia 4 64-bit machines - one Intel, the other AMD, so it can't be a coincidence!

Both machines were updated yesterday (8th Oct) with quite a long list of updates. Since then, the boot time to the login screen has increased noticeably, but more importantly, the time from login to being functional has increased dramatically! You can go and make a cup of tea, come back, and it STILL hasn't finished logging you in. The screen goes black for a long period during the login process. Also, once logged in, the machine feels very slow and clunky.

One of the updates is clearly at fault - both machines were working fine until updated - but which one, and how to fix it?

--
Pete

Re: Recent update causing slow login

PostPosted: Oct 9th, '14, 11:49
by jkerr82508
It is probably the dbus update. It seems that rebooting several times may eventually solve the problem.
https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14249
https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14250
https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14251

If multiple reboots don't fix it, you could try downgrading dbus:
Code: Select all
urpmi --downgrade dbus-1.6.18-1.3.mga4 lib64dbus1_3-1.6.18-1.3.mga4 dbus-x11-1.6.18-1.3.mga4

If you do have to resort to the downgrade, please report in bugzilla whether or not it solved the problem.

Jim

Re: Recent update causing slow login

PostPosted: Oct 9th, '14, 13:47
by pchristy
Curioser and curioser! The Intel machine is my wife's. I very rarely use it, other than for maintenance. If I log into it, it is its usual slick self. If I log in as my wife, it is dog slow!

She carried out the update.

In other words, it appears to be whoever carried out the update that gets hit with the (VERY!) slow login. Everyone else is unaffected!

I thought I would float this one past you before I downgrade dbus......

--
Pete

Re: Recent update causing slow login

PostPosted: Oct 9th, '14, 16:04
by pchristy
Well, that didn't last long! After a couple of reboots, my login also became very slow. So slow as to make the machine virtually unusable.

Gave up and downgraded dbus. Normal service now restored!

--
Pete

Re: Recent update causing slow login

PostPosted: Oct 9th, '14, 22:13
by jkerr82508
To prevent those dbus packages from being updated pending resolution of the problem, add the following lines to /etc/urpmi/skip.list
Code: Select all
/dbus/
/lib64dbus1_3/
/dbus-x11/
IIRC updates for those packages will then be listed in MageiaUpdate, but will be deselected by default.

Jim

Re: Recent update causing slow login

PostPosted: Oct 10th, '14, 15:13
by tandrews16
Seeing the same problem here on two 32-bit machines, one AMD and the other Intel. The AMD machine uses the server kernel, and the Intel machine is using the desktop kernel. Another symptom is that when it finally comes up audio is disabled.

I have discovered that booting into safe mode, then "continuing" with [control-D] temporarily "fixes" the problem. That lasts for about three boots and it's back again.

Re: Recent update causing slow login

PostPosted: Oct 10th, '14, 16:03
by jkerr82508
If you are using a 32 bit version of Mageia, and wish to downgrade dbus, the command is:
Code: Select all
urpmi --downgrade dbus-1.6.18-1.3.mga4 libdbus1_3-1.6.18-1.3.mga4 dbus-x11-1.6.18-1.3.mga4

and the packages to add to skip.list are:
Code: Select all
/dbus/
/libdbus1_3/
/dbus-x11/

Jim

Re: Recent update causing slow login

PostPosted: Oct 10th, '14, 18:14
by tandrews16
Thanks. Will try them this evening after work.

Re: Recent update causing slow login

PostPosted: Oct 14th, '14, 13:46
by claire
Ran into this issue myself today on my mums laptop. Downgrading dbus resolved it. The only difference with this machine is it updated dbus and kernel at once. I think it may be down to this.

Re: Recent update causing slow login

PostPosted: Oct 14th, '14, 13:56
by claire
Confirmed after reinstalling the dbus update that the computer boots normally, so there should be no need to block dbus from updating again once downgraded.

I'll post some info on the bug report too. If you are affected by this though and struggling to log in then at the grub menu press F3 for kernel options and add the number 3 to the kernel line, then press enter to boot.

Re: Recent update causing slow login

PostPosted: Oct 14th, '14, 15:11
by pchristy
Claire, downgrading and upgrading on my machines didn't cure the problem. Everytime I upgrade, it slows to a crawl - downgrade and its back to normal. Nor do multiple reboots help. Initially using another login on my wife's machine worked normally, but not for long!

Different things seem to work for different installations, and its difficult to see a pattern. I've pointed out on bugzilla that both the machines affected here are using Nvidia graphics with the (Mageia) proprietary driver in case that makes a difference.

--
Pete

Re: Recent update causing slow login

PostPosted: Oct 14th, '14, 17:59
by tandrews16
One machine here using a nVidia graphics card, the other one not. Also in my case, both machines received the new kernel in one update session, with dbus coming a day or two later.

Re: Recent update causing slow login

PostPosted: Oct 14th, '14, 20:09
by doktor5000
Interesting, but how are the machines affected? Slow, not slow ... ?

Re: Recent update causing slow login

PostPosted: Oct 14th, '14, 21:42
by jiml8
In the interest of providing any information that might be useful, I upgraded my system without incident. I now have the 3.14 kernel and the latest dbus. No problems. My system is a Phenom-II 955 system with 32 GB RAM, 2 SATA and 5 SCSI drives, Nvidia GT740 graphics with driver 337.25.

Re: Recent update causing slow login

PostPosted: Oct 15th, '14, 01:20
by tandrews16
doktor5000 wrote:Interesting, but how are the machines affected? Slow, not slow ... ?


Both machines exhibit the same symptoms. They are slow to boot and log in, and once logged in there is no audio and custom power saver settings are ignored. I didn't notice either machine being slower than normal in operation. Downgrading dbus eliminated the problem.

Both machines are desktops. One uses an AMD Sempron 3100+ processor on a motherboard built by Asus for Fujitsu, and is maxed out at 2 GB RAM. That one uses an nVidia AGP Geforce 6200 video card and onboard audio. Mageia installed the server kernel.

The other machine is a Dell Dimension E310 with a P4 processor, onboard video, onboard audio, also maxed out with 2GB RAM. Mageia installed the desktop kernel there.

Re: Recent update causing slow login

PostPosted: Oct 15th, '14, 03:32
by jbarntt56
The only way I can get my PC to boot and be usable is to boot to safe mode. When I do that I cannot run the urpmi command. The shell returns a "command not found" msg. Also, I cannot edit the skip.list file to prevent this from happening again.

I'm at a loss as to what I can do. Any help would be much appreciated.

TIA

Joel

Re: Recent update causing slow login

PostPosted: Oct 15th, '14, 04:09
by jbarntt56
Okay, figured out what to do. Reboot into regular mode, boots fine after safe mode. su to root and run urpmi command, then use vi to edit skip.list

Will it be posted here when it safe to get rid of the ignore dbus updates in the skip.list file?

Thanks.

Joel

Re: Recent update causing slow login

PostPosted: Oct 15th, '14, 09:51
by bots4ever
jiml8 wrote:In the interest of providing any information that might be useful, I upgraded my system without incident. I now have the 3.14 kernel and the latest dbus. No problems. My system is a Phenom-II 955 system with 32 GB RAM, 2 SATA and 5 SCSI drives, Nvidia GT740 graphics with driver 337.25.


Hi,

I've made a lengthy explanation of what I did from this bug thread (more specifically on comment 29):
https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14249

Could it be that your machine does not exhibit the symptoms that some users are experiencing? You said that you have the latest kernel 3.14, in which mine is 3.14.18-desktop-3.mga4 to be exact, if you have done your upgrade via MCC > "Update your system" it should have updated the corresponding dbus and it's other dependencies in that one upgrade instance and didn't exhibit the issues after 2 to 5 consecutive reboots then probably your machine could be one of the exceptions to this bug.

There was also a reply from Claire Robinson in the bug thread in which she attempted to downgrade the dbus and upgraded them back again by booting to runlevel 3 to perform the upgrade. I'd like to test how she specifically did it since my laptop is affected but if anyone can share the specific steps she did (not very proficient doing linux stuff yet so kindly guide me) i'd be willing to try it on my machine and see what happens. If that works then I can accept it, and hopefully the affected users as well, as a solution until the next dbus and its dependency update.

In connection to my statement above, the thead I referred to basically did involve me downgrading the dbus and upgrading the dbus again via mcc (after waiting for ~15 minutes to get a work-able KDE desktop) in which Thomas was asking for some files. I partially did the same step Claire did except that I performed the upgrade by waiting for the entire KDE thing to load after logging in and still going through MCC > "Update your system".

By the way, hats of to the hardworking Mageia Devs. It seems they're busy squishing Mageia 5 bugs and thus the reason I responded on this thread instead of responding on the bug thread since I do not have specific logs or files that I can provide as a basis for this response.

Re: Recent update causing slow login

PostPosted: Oct 15th, '14, 10:54
by xboxboy
Wow!

I spent hours on Sunday with this: I realised it took forever to get KDE up properly, but I was more worried about how I seemed to be unable to do anything with root.

In fact, I had the laptop in front of me, checking this very forum while the Mageia 4 install media was in my desktop: I was about to reinstall! ( I thought I'd done something and borked it )

So as Claire said, I booted using F3 and adding 3 to the kernel line: Then logged in at the CLI, then ran startx. Everything seemed fine. I rebooted and it's all sweet again.

Wow. That's the first update bug that's hit me in years. Such a simple remedy.

Thank you all for posting and following through with it. You saved me a re-installed and messing around :)

Re: Recent update causing slow login

PostPosted: Oct 19th, '14, 09:28
by xboxboy
Well, I got about 5 or 6 normal restarts before the bug hit again. Depending on how far away an official fix is I may just keeping loggin in at run level 3, and then starting x.

Re: Recent update causing slow login

PostPosted: Oct 19th, '14, 15:45
by tandrews16
xboxboy, I'd recommend downgrading dbus using the instructions posted above until this is resolved. That's what I did on my two 32-bit installs that were affected, and I've now had many restarts without incident.

Re: Recent update causing slow login

PostPosted: Oct 20th, '14, 12:00
by xboxboy
Thanks guys, I have just downgraded dbus and added the exemptions. And it seems it's fine.

Re: Recent update causing slow login

PostPosted: Oct 20th, '14, 22:01
by unklar
I'm glad to have found this thread ...
I already doubted my sanity.

@jkerr82508
Thank you,
the fix to work. :D

Re: Recent update causing slow login

PostPosted: Oct 21st, '14, 00:06
by xboxboy
Well, I get to work today and now my work box has been hit by it. It's interesting how you X number of starts before it strikes.

Re: Recent update causing slow login

PostPosted: Oct 22nd, '14, 11:28
by jkerr82508
Packages are becoming available in the testing repo's, which should rectify this problem.

If you wish to test these packages execute the following two commands:
Code: Select all
urpmi.update "Core Updates Testing"
and, on a 64 bit system:
Code: Select all
urpmi --media "Core Updates Testing" dbus-1.6.18-1.6.mga4 lib64dbus1_3-1.6.18-1.6.mga4 dbus-x11-1.6.18-1.6.mga4
on a 32 bit system:
Code: Select all
urpmi --media "Core Updates Testing" dbus-1.6.18-1.6.mga4 libdbus1_3-1.6.18-1.6.mga4 dbus-x11-1.6.18-1.6.mga4

You do NOT need to activate the testing repo's.

If you decide to test these packages, please report in one of the bug reports whether or not they resolve the problem.
https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14251
https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14249

If these packages do resolve the problem, you can then remove the three lines that you added to /etc/urpmi/skip.list.

Jim