Manjaro seems slow, unresponsive

So, I have manjaro installed on an old laptop i3 dual core with 4GB ram and I’ve noticed that on boot up sometimes becomes unresponsive at the login page, then again once I login things take a couple of minutes till they become responsive again.

This also happens when the laptop enters the hybrid/sleep or idle mode, I keep pressing buttons on the keyboard to wake it up but sometimes becomes unresponsive and only after a while it shows again the login screen.

It just so happen that the other day I needed to run some specific software which is only windows related, so I installed windows along side manjaro and noticed that after almost 16 years of not using windows I can definitely say that it felt way more responsive and faster than manjaro in all aspects and honestly didn’t expect that at all!

It felt that suddenly the laptop wasn’t that old and became usable again, I dunno anything about internal dev of manjaro but the team should definitely have a look on how to improve its overall performance.

Your conclusion that Windoof would be faster than Manjaro is a clear hint that something is wrong in your specific installation as this is not the case for all other users. If you want help:

you want to say, that you was using manjaro from the beginning? but manjaro officially is 10 years old.
how you get this conclusion?
after long 16 years of not using windows, for you just enough sevarel hours, days?
how you install windows along side manjaro? what happened with bootloader? windows don’t allow to boot two systems if installed second…

Great have a :cake: and enjoy your Windows system.

There is definately something with your system - impossible to say what it is.

Without logs or hardware info - it is just your words - and nothing the community team can react on.

Using Nvidia GPU and hibernation is a bad combination - you are likely to look at your GPU driver configuration.

A slow rotational disk may also create issues - bad sectors and such.

1 Like

Wow :slight_smile: its the first time im reading someone praising windows OS response rate compared to Manjaro! :slight_smile:
19 years Hardcore IT Support professional here- - Been using Windows all the time, including the stupid new Windows 11.

Manjaro Linux is way too better, way too faster, way to smooth- compared to Windows OS.
— And thats the truth… believe its a reality.

2 Likes

I am glad that you are happy with windows, so you do not need any help :wink:

System:
  Kernel: 5.4.242-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.1
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.4-x86_64
    root=UUID=0b26cbc0-8e1b-41b4-99e5-a63590294872 rw quiet apparmor=1
    security=apparmor resume=UUID=b1c07d83-1dee-4649-b555-634521c4346b
    udev.log_priority=3
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.18.1 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.36 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm
    v: 4.18.0 vt: 7 dm: LightDM v: 1.32.0 Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: HP product: HP 250 G6 Notebook PC
    v: Type1ProductConfigId serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: HP model: 8328 v: 23.45 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: Insyde
    v: F.31 date: 11/01/2017
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT1 charge: 25.5 Wh (88.2%) condition: 28.9/31.1 Wh (93.1%)
    volts: 11.9 min: 10.9 model: Hewlett-Packard PABAS0241231 type: Li-ion
    serial: <filter> status: discharging
Memory:
  System RAM: available: 3.76 GiB used: 1.74 GiB (46.4%)
  RAM Report: permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required.
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Core i3-6006U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Skylake
    gen: core 6 level: v3 note: check built: 2015 process: Intel 14nm family: 6
    model-id: 0x4E (78) stepping: 3 microcode: 0xF0
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 2 tpc: 2 threads: 4 smt: enabled cache:
    L1: 128 KiB desc: d-2x32 KiB; i-2x32 KiB L2: 512 KiB desc: 2x256 KiB
    L3: 3 MiB desc: 1x3 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 799 high: 800 min/max: 400/2000 scaling:
    driver: intel_pstate governor: powersave cores: 1: 799 2: 799 3: 800 4: 800
    bogomips: 16006
  Flags: 3dnowprefetch abm acpi adx aes aperfmperf apic arat
    arch_capabilities arch_perfmon art avx avx2 bmi1 bmi2 bts clflush
    clflushopt cmov constant_tsc cpuid cpuid_fault cx16 cx8 de ds_cpl dtes64
    dtherm dts epb ept ept_ad erms est f16c flexpriority flush_l1d fma fpu
    fsgsbase fxsr ht hwp hwp_act_window hwp_epp hwp_notify ibpb ibrs intel_pt
    invpcid invpcid_single lahf_lm lm mca mce md_clear mmx monitor movbe mpx
    msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl nx pae pat pbe pcid pclmulqdq pdcm pdpe1gb pebs
    pge pln pni popcnt pse pse36 pti pts rdrand rdseed rdtscp rep_good sdbg
    sep smap smep ss ssbd sse sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 stibp syscall tm tm2
    tpr_shadow tsc tsc_adjust tsc_deadline_timer vme vmx vnmi vpid x2apic
    xgetbv1 xsave xsavec xsaveopt xsaves xtopology xtpr
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: Vulnerable
  Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  Type: mmio_stale_data mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Type: retbleed mitigation: IBRS
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via
    prctl and seccomp
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer
    sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: IBRS, IBPB: conditional, STIBP: conditional,
    RSB filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected
  Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Skylake GT2 [HD Graphics 520] vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-9 process: Intel 14n built: 2015-16 ports:
    active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1,HDMI-A-1,HDMI-A-2 bus-ID: 00:02.0
    chip-ID: 8086:1916 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Realtek HP Webcam driver: uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 1-5:4 chip-ID: 0bda:58ed
    class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.8 compositor: xfwm v: 4.18.0 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,vesa dri: iris gpu: i915
    display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1366x768 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 361x203mm (14.21x7.99")
    s-diag: 414mm (16.31")
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: ChiMei InnoLux 0x15c6 built: 2013 res: 1366x768
    hz: 60 dpi: 101 gamma: 1.2 size: 344x193mm (13.54x7.6") diag: 394mm (15.5")
    ratio: 16:9 modes: 1366x768
  API: OpenGL Message: Unable to show GL data. Required tool glxinfo missing.
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel alternate: snd_soc_skl bus-ID: 00:1f.3
    chip-ID: 8086:9d70 class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k5.4.242-1-MANJARO status: kernel-api
    tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: JACK v: 1.9.22 status: off tools: N/A
  Server-2: PipeWire v: 0.3.70 status: off tools: pw-cli
  Server-3: PulseAudio v: 16.1 status: active with: 1: pulseaudio-alsa
    type: plugin 2: pulseaudio-jack type: module tools: pacat,pactl,pavucontrol
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: r8169 v: kernel modules: r8168 pcie:
    speed: Unknown speed lanes: 63 port: 3000 bus-ID: 01:00.0
    chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
  IF: eno1 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3168NGW [Stone Peak] driver: iwlwifi
    v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 02:00.0
    chip-ID: 8086:24fb class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlo1 state: up mac: <filter>
  IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
    broadcast: <filter>
  IP v6: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
  IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link
  WAN IP: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel Wireless-AC 3168 Bluetooth driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB
    rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 bus-ID: 1-4:3 chip-ID: 8087:0aa7
    class-ID: e001
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: see --recommends
Logical:
  Message: No logical block device data found.
RAID:
  Message: No RAID data found.
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 465.76 GiB used: 75.21 GiB (16.1%)
  SMART Message: Required tool smartctl not installed. Check --recommends
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Toshiba model: MQ01ABF050
    size: 465.76 GiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s
    tech: HDD rpm: 5400 serial: <filter> fw-rev: 4C scheme: GPT
  Optical-1: /dev/sr0 vendor: hp model: DVDRW DA8AESH rev: XH6M
    dev-links: cdrom
  Features: speed: 24 multisession: yes audio: yes dvd: yes
    rw: cd-r,cd-rw,dvd-r state: running
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 330.23 GiB size: 323.98 GiB (98.11%)
    used: 75.19 GiB (23.2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2 label: N/A
    uuid: 0b26cbc0-8e1b-41b4-99e5-a63590294872
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%)
    used: 24.4 MiB (8.1%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 label: N/A
    uuid: B81A-04CF
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 8.28 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2
    dev: /dev/sda5 maj-min: 8:5 label: N/A
    uuid: b1c07d83-1dee-4649-b555-634521c4346b
Unmounted:
  ID-1: /dev/sda3 maj-min: 8:3 size: 16 MiB fs: <superuser required> label: N/A
    uuid: N/A
  ID-2: /dev/sda4 maj-min: 8:4 size: 126.94 GiB fs: ntfs label: N/A
    uuid: 1C4271A4427182F6
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 12 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
    class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 1-1:2 info: SHARKOON GmbH 2.4GHz Wireless rechargeable vertical
    mouse [More&Better] type: mouse driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 1
    rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s (1.4 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 power: 100mA
    chip-ID: 1ea7:0064 class-ID: 0301
  Device-2: 1-4:3 info: Intel Wireless-AC 3168 Bluetooth type: bluetooth
    driver: btusb interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s (1.4 MiB/s) lanes: 1
    mode: 1.1 power: 100mA chip-ID: 8087:0aa7 class-ID: e001
  Device-3: 1-5:4 info: Realtek HP Webcam type: video driver: uvcvideo
    interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0
    power: 500mA chip-ID: 0bda:58ed class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
  Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: super-speed hub ports: 6 rev: 3.0
    speed: 5 Gb/s (596.0 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 3.2 gen-1x1 chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
    class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 35.0 C pch: 31.5 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
  Processes: 197 Uptime: 21m wakeups: 2 Init: systemd v: 252 default: graphical
  tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.2.1 clang: 15.0.7 Packages: pm: pacman
  pkgs: 1129 libs: 289 tools: pamac,yay pm: flatpak pkgs: 0 Shell: Bash
  v: 5.1.16 running-in: xfce4-terminal inxi: 3.3.27
[    0.225898] MDS CPU bug present and SMT on, data leak possible. See https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/hw-vuln/mds.html for more details.
[    0.225898] MMIO Stale Data CPU bug present and SMT on, data leak possible. See https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/hw-vuln/processor_mmio_stale_data.html for more details.
[    0.226020]  #3
[    0.233105] ENERGY_PERF_BIAS: Set to 'normal', was 'performance'
[    0.750716] hpet_acpi_add: no address or irqs in _CRS
[    1.265709] usb: port power management may be unreliable
[    4.817557] cgroup2: Unknown parameter 'memory_recursiveprot'
[   16.092665] wmi_bus wmi_bus-PNP0C14:01: WQBJ data block query control method not found
[   16.873170] intel-vbtn INT33D6:00: failed to read Intel Virtual Button driver
[   17.321021] r8169 0000:01:00.0: can't disable ASPM; OS doesn't have ASPM control
[   17.649763] r8168: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel.
[   18.286992] kvm: disabled by bios
[   18.409863] thermal thermal_zone6: failed to read out thermal zone (-61)
[   18.703395] kauditd_printk_skb: 58 callbacks suppressed
[   24.751235] kauditd_printk_skb: 1 callbacks suppressed
[   29.834166] kauditd_printk_skb: 8 callbacks suppressed
[   38.862786] kauditd_printk_skb: 3 callbacks suppressed
[   68.840580] kauditd_printk_skb: 7 callbacks suppressed

kernel: cgroup2: Unknown parameter 'memory_recursiveprot'
kernel: kvm: disabled by bios
kernel: kvm: disabled by bios
bluetoothd[724]: src/plugin.c:plugin_init() Failed to init vcp plugin
bluetoothd[724]: src/plugin.c:plugin_init() Failed to init mcp plugin
bluetoothd[724]: src/plugin.c:plugin_init() Failed to init bap plugin
bluetoothd[724]: src/adapter.c:reset_adv_monitors_complete() Failed to reset Adv Monitors: Unknown Comm>
lightdm[1082]: gkr-pam: unable to locate daemon control file
systemd-coredump[21982]: Failed to send coredump datagram: Connection reset by peer
kernel: watchdog: watchdog0: watchdog did not stop!

Wouldn’t that be an issue for any operating system not just linux or Manjaro?

I will :wink:

That’s your conclusion not mine!

Satisfied?

you say: “It just so happen that the other day I needed to run some specific software which is only windows related, so I installed windows along side manjaro and noticed that after almost 16 years of not using windows I can definitely say that it felt way more responsive and faster than manjaro in all aspects and honestly didn’t expect that at all” - so that’s your conclusion, not mine

not, this is the picture of grub manjaro, that’s mean that you install manjaro after windows.
so, don’t tell me the stories to night :slight_smile:

Absolutely

But you state you installed Windows after Manjaro in which case - if it is the disk causing the unresponsiveness - would indicate that your Windows installation is occupying non worn parts of the disk.

But this is only guessing - there is really no way I can know. smartctl may provide info on your disk’s confition

smartctl --health

I note a couple of things

  • default swappiness is 60

  • 5400RPM rotating disk

  • CPU vulnerabilities

You could try tweaking the system

  1. disable watchdog
  2. enable bfq scheduler for rotational disk
  3. reduce swappiness to a value between 10-25
  4. disable mitigations

Perhaps experimenting with a newer kernel - e.g. 5.15, 6.1, 6.2 or 6.3

your on lazy powersave, switch your cpu-governor to performance or minimum to schedutil (if avaiable)

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Scaling_governor

1 Like
smartctl 7.3 2022-02-28 r5338 [x86_64-linux-5.4.242-1-MANJARO] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-22, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

Couldn’t some of these settings be handled automatically by manjaro (e.g., 2 &3) ? I don’t think a user just using a pc with manjaro installed can even comprehend what are these settings let alone understand how to tweak them.

So far, I have implemented 2 & 3 in addition to

switching governor to perfomance but haven’t noticed any difference.

Wouldn’t this cause security issues?

Is this recommended? I read that for personal computers is fine but doesn’t hurt to double check.

Manjaro is largely a self-service distribution - providing an Arch based system largely working OOB - and has - for what I know - never guaranteed to work with any and all hardware automagically.

That implies that what works for you may not work for me and vice-versa.

My suggestions is what they are - suggestions - not a magic wand.

You will have to experiment - see what works for you.

As for recommendations and security considerations - don’t forget - you are the system administrator - you make the decisions.

Personally I disable mitigations because I have thought it through.

On recent Intel 10.gen the performance impact of mitigations is minimal but older systems may suffer a great deal more - hence the suggestion.

I recommend reading Improving performance - ArchWiki for tips on how to get the most from your hardware.

CPU ‘vulnerabilities’ got a great deal of hype but one has to consider that while those vulnerabilities is technically possible - none of them is seen outside labs - and you have to consider the cost of implementing them - the mitigations - that is.

Thank you for posting your problem.
I have some points that might be helpful:

  1. In you original post you explained that you are experiencing unresponsiveness at login screen but after that you continued mentioning that Windows is more responsive in general. Which is the main issue? These two can have totally different causes.
  2. I suggest we put aside problems for system wake up as power management state changes have a history of being problematic (also in Windows).
  3. I professionally use both Windows and Manjaro on a daily basis and can say there is no performance leap on any side. But there may be situations where a specific hardware performs better on Windows. The reason is that the hardware vendors usually have a Windows first policy when providing high quality device drivers. This is specially more problematic with older hardware. The reason is that fortunately there is better support for Linux today than before as the user base grows.
  4. Your memory is low. With today’s software you will run out of memory pretty fast on any OS.
  5. Update your software and kernel on Manjaro. I see your kernel is a bit old.
  6. When experiencing unresponsiveness see if the hard disk is heavily working (by sensing its sound or HDD light). If that is the case it is highly probable that you physical memory is insufficient and system is heavily swapping.
  7. Finding the specific cause for a problem like yours can become too technical and therefore not feasible. That is why updating software and device drivers is the best way to go. But you may try to if you are enthusiastic. It would be a good learning experience at the least. Monitor your system performance/activity using KSysGuard and KSystemLog tools at different conditions. Play with them and see what information you can get out of them.
  8. Another cause for losing performance is bad cooling. If your CPU gets hot it will throttle down automatically. So make sure its vents are open and clean and its fan is performing well.