problem taking 45 secs or longer to launch a program (e.g., OpenOffice, qpdfview, gedit, etc.)

EigenFunctions · 04-10-2020, 09:26 AM

Your comment is so untrue:

Quote:

Everything that can be said has already been said in this thread, several times, by various users.
Act upon it.

Please show me where there is anything about loopback devices anywhere in this thread, please. The useless, so called solution, of reinstalling Linux is not helpful. It's like saying if your car has a flat tire, go buy a new car. Furthermore, if that is your only unknowledgeable comment (i.e., reinstall) please don't bother.

As I've said, I'm a user not a system professional and so I'm struggling for a solution. When I see patterns, they seem worth investigating. I think my first mistake was taking the advice(?) to remove snap. I believe there are some remains from that removal that are causing problems. The following results look suspicious but I don't know:

Code:

Command: fuser -a /dev/loopN   where- N=(0..9)
Command: fuser -a -v -n tcp /dev/loopN

/dev/loop0:
                     USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
/dev/loop0/tcp:      *******    7161 F.... firefox
                     *******    7312 F.... chrome-gnome-sh
/dev/loop1:
                     USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
/dev/loop1/tcp:      *******    7161 F.... firefox
                     *******    7312 F.... chrome-gnome-sh
/dev/loop2:
                     USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
/dev/loop2/tcp:      *******    7161 F.... firefox
                     *******    7312 F.... chrome-gnome-sh
/dev/loop3:
                     USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
/dev/loop3/tcp:      *******    7161 F.... firefox
                     *******    7312 F.... chrome-gnome-sh
/dev/loop4:
                     USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
/dev/loop4/tcp:      *******    7161 F.... firefox
                     *******    7312 F.... chrome-gnome-sh
/dev/loop5:
                     USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
/dev/loop5/tcp:      *******    7161 F.... firefox
                     *******    7312 F.... chrome-gnome-sh
/dev/loop6:
                     USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
/dev/loop6/tcp:      *******    7161 F.... firefox
                     *******    7312 F.... chrome-gnome-sh
/dev/loop7:
                     USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
/dev/loop7/tcp:      *******    7161 F.... firefox
                     *******    7312 F.... chrome-gnome-sh
Specified filename /dev/loop8 does not exist.
/dev/loop8:
                     USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
/dev/loop8/tcp:      *******    7161 F.... firefox
                     *******    7312 F.... chrome-gnome-sh
Specified filename /dev/loop9 does not exist.
/dev/loop9:
                     USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
/dev/loop9/tcp:      *******    7161 F.... firefox
                     *******    7312 F.... chrome-gnome-sh

Is this significant?

JWilliamCupp · 04-10-2020, 06:50 PM

Hey EigenFunctions, this is a very late response, but I noticed you mentioned backups. What are you using for those? A local script? or a commercial service?

For many years I used Dropbox but somewhere around February / March of 2019 Dropbox made an update that makes it pretty much useless for Linux. At least, that was my experience. Starting new apps took way too long ... nearly a minute. If you still have this problem and do use Dropbox, try putting Dropbox on pause and see if it clears up the issue.

It did for me.

- Bill

EigenFunctions · 04-10-2020, 08:08 PM

Bill,

Thanks for the reply but I use FreeFileSync (V10.9). I know there's a newer version but I just haven't taken the time to update. I like it because it was easy to setup. I do a small backup every evening and a bigger backup once a week.

I believe what you point out is probably the kind of issue I'm facing. I just need to find the right tools to diagnose where it's coming from.

Thanks for the comment, I appreciate it.

ondoho · 04-11-2020, 02:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EigenFunctions

The useless, so called solution, of reinstalling Linux is not helpful. It's like saying if your car has a flat tire, go buy a new car. Furthermore, if that is your only unknowledgeable comment (i.e., reinstall) please don't bother.

But I do bother.
First of all your analogy is less than perfect because you did not pay anything for Ubuntu. But lets say money == effort for argument's sake.
Then, we are not talking one flat tire here but four, plus broken lights alround, a leaking oil pan and extensive body damage because Ubuntu told you that using the steering wheel is optional.
In cars, when the cost of fixing the damage is larger than the value of the car, we speak of total damage. That's what we have here.

Quote:

Is this significant?

It only shows that two applications use these loopback devices which is indicative of them being installed as snaps.
Two rather heavy resource hogs.
It has been said many times that this is most likely the reason for your performance bottleneck and you still haven't been able to fix it over half a year later.
What else but a reinstall - and be more careful in the future - do you want us to recommend?
You are expecting people to do a lot of work for you, but you don't read & act on everything that's been asked and recommended, and you aren't very proactive yourself.

@Everybody: please help OP by all means, but before you do make sure you read all 60+ posts so far, going back to July 2019.
I wasn't being unreasonable when I said that everything has been said already.

EigenFunctions · 04-11-2020, 12:52 PM

Your comments continue to be unhelpful.

The purpose of this thread is to help. If you are going to try to dissuade people from helping, please don't. If you provide something that was suggested and ignored, other than reinstall Ubuntu, please provide an example of something that I didn't do and I'll respond.
Your characterization of the issue is dead wrong. The vast majority of Ubuntu works fine. The problem I have slows me down considerably, but I continue to find workarounds that help (albeit from other forums). My analogy of the flat tire fits perfectly. Your comments about money are, well, odd.
I am not the only one with problems similar to this. In fact, the latest clue (loopback devices), is a good example.
The initial cause of the problem was the suggestion to uninstall snap. After that, problems started to occur. I just installed Ubuntu on a different machine and, oddly enough, snap comes pre-installed. This time, I will listen to the experts at Ubuntu and save myself time.
You are correct about being more careful. Advice from some people will be taken with a grain of salt.

Unreasonable- yes, telling people NOT to help, without examples, is unreasonable. Furthermore it diminishes the effectiveness of this valuable forum.