My new system got very slow and laggy

Support
1

Hej there!
I installed Manjaro GNOME some weeks ago on my Thinkpad X230. Suddenly, it became incredibly slow and laggy, sometimes takes 1 second for letters to appear when I type, volumebuttons also take their time, RAM is 6,5/8 GB plus some GB in SWAP file, it affects every bit of software. updating and rebooting doesn’t change anything. I have gone through some different setups with this machine, but now it is the slowest it ever was! Would appreciate some help :slight_smile:

~ >>> inxi -Fza                                                                                                                                
System:    Kernel: 5.7.15-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.1.0 
           parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.7-x86_64 root=UUID=45cc9148-4826-498d-a298-0d2a04986429 rw quiet apparmor=1 
           security=apparmor udev.log_priority=3 
           Desktop: GNOME 3.36.5 tk: GTK 3.24.23 wm: gnome-shell dm: GDM 3.36.3 Distro: Manjaro Linux 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 2325ZKJ v: ThinkPad X230 serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 10 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: LENOVO model: 2325ZKJ serial: <filter> UEFI [Legacy]: LENOVO v: G2ETB7WW (2.77 ) date: 09/24/2019 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 42.4 Wh condition: 42.6/62.6 Wh (68%) volts: 12.3/10.8 model: SANYO 45N1172 type: Li-ion 
           serial: <filter> status: Charging 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i5-3320M bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Ivy Bridge family: 6 model-id: 3A (58) 
           stepping: 9 microcode: 21 L2 cache: 3072 KiB 
           flags: avx lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 20759 
           Speed: 1197 MHz min/max: 1200/3300 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1198 2: 1197 3: 1197 4: 1198 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: Split huge pages 
           Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable 
           Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable 
           Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
           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: Full generic retpoline, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW, STIBP: conditional, RSB filling 
           Type: srbds status: Vulnerable: No microcode 
           Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics vendor: Lenovo driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 
           chip ID: 8086:0166 
           Device-2: Acer ThinkPad Integrated Camera type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus ID: 1-1.6:5 chip ID: 5986:02d2 
           Display: x11 server: X.org 1.20.8 compositor: gnome-shell driver: intel unloaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,vesa 
           resolution: <xdpyinfo missing> 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 4000 (IVB GT2) v: 4.2 Mesa 20.1.7 compat-v: 3.0 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 7 Series/C216 Family High Definition Audio vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:1e20 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.7.15-1-MANJARO 
Network:   Device-1: Intel 82579LM Gigabit Network vendor: Lenovo driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k port: 6080 bus ID: 00:19.0 
           chip ID: 8086:1502 
           IF: enp0s25 state: down mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 [Taylor Peak] driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: efa0 bus ID: 03:00.0 
           chip ID: 8086:0085 
           IF: wlp3s0 state: up mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 931.52 GiB used: 78.92 GiB (8.5%) 
           SMART Message: Required tool smartctl not installed. Check --recommends 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Crucial model: CT500MX500SSD1 size: 465.76 GiB block size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B 
           speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> rev: 023 scheme: MBR 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Samsung model: SSD 860 EVO mSATA 500GB size: 465.76 GiB block size: physical: 512 B 
           logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> rev: 2B6Q scheme: GPT 
Partition: ID-1: / raw size: 340.90 GiB size: 334.54 GiB (98.14%) used: 44.79 GiB (13.4%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda3 
Swap:      Kernel: swappiness: 10 (default 60) cache pressure: 100 (default) 
           ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 12.00 GiB used: 2.86 GiB (23.9%) priority: -2 file: /swapfile 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 47.0 C mobo: 0.0 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 2970 
Info:      Processes: 275 Uptime: 11d 7h 50m Memory: 7.46 GiB used: 6.57 GiB (88.0%) Init: systemd v: 246 Compilers: 
           gcc: 10.2.0 Packages: pacman: 1275 lib: 358 flatpak: 0 Shell: Zsh v: 5.8 running in: guake inxi: 3.1.05
2

Check the output from top/htop - see what’s using your CPU cycles.

3

How do you know as you obviously did not update for a while as you are still on
kernel 5.7.15 (which is EOL by the way)? But main reason for your problem is that you are running in using the swapfile which always slows down the system dramatically, you need to reduce you memory consumption, how to do is mentioned by @anothermindbomb already.

4

I’m definitely curious about the issue you are facing. I also have a Thinkpad x230 and have not experienced any performance issues. Just at the moment I don’t have enough parameters to simulate what you are experiencing.

You will notice in my setup that I am using an older kernel (4.19.143-1 because there are problems with the Intel e1000e LAN driver an the 5.4.6.2-1 LTS Kernel.

This is my setup:

System:
  Kernel: 4.19.143-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.0
  parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.19-x86_64
  root=UUID=85ccbb8b-086b-4c3b-a6c8-a45951356c8e rw apparmor=1 security=apparmor
  usbcore.autosuspend=-1
  Desktop: GNOME 3.36.5 tk: GTK 3.24.23 wm: gnome-shell dm: GDM 3.36.3
  Distro: Manjaro Linux
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 2325XXX v: ThinkPad X230 serial: <filter>
  Chassis: type: 10 serial: <filter>
  Mobo: LENOVO model: 2325XXX serial: <filter> UEFI [Legacy]: LENOVO
 
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 33.9 Wh condition: 34.9/57.7 Wh (60%) volts: 12.5/11.1
  model: LGC 45N1025 type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Charging
CPU:
  Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i5-3320M bits: 64 type: MT MCP
  arch: Ivy Bridge family: 6 model-id: 3A (58) stepping: 9 microcode: 21
  L2 cache: 3072 KiB
  flags: avx lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 20751
  Speed: 1755 MHz min/max: 1200/3300 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2389 2: 3235
  3: 2579 4: 1269
  Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: Split huge pages
  Type: l1tf
  mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  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: Full generic retpoline, IBPB: conditional,
  IBRS_FW, STIBP: conditional, RSB filling
  Type: srbds status: Vulnerable: No microcode
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics vendor: Lenovo driver: i915
  v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:0166
  Device-2: Acer ThinkPad Integrated Camera type: USB driver: uvcvideo
  bus ID: 1-1.6:5 chip ID: 5986:02d2
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.8 compositor: gnome-shell driver: intel
  display ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1366x768 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 361x203mm (14.2x8.0")
  s-diag: 414mm (16.3")
  Monitor-1: LVDS1 res: 1366x768 hz: 60 dpi: 124 size: 280x160mm (11.0x6.3")
  diag: 322mm (12.7")
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 4000 (IVB GT2) v: 4.2 Mesa 20.1.7
  compat-v: 3.0 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 7 Series/C216 Family High Definition Audio vendor: Lenovo
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:1e20
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.19.143-1-MANJARO
Network:
  Device-1: Intel 82579LM Gigabit Network vendor: Lenovo driver: e1000e
  v: 3.8.4-NAPI port: 6080 bus ID: 00:19.0 chip ID: 8086:1502
  IF: enp0s25 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 [Taylor Peak] driver: iwlwifi
  v: kernel port: efa0 bus ID: 03:00.0 chip ID: 8086:0085
  IF: wlp3s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 465.76 GiB used: 51.00 GiB (10.9%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Samsung model: SSD 860 EVO 500GB size: 465.76 GiB
  block size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter>
  rev: 1B6Q scheme: MBR
  SMART Message: Unknown smartctl error. Unable to get data.
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw size: 147.46 GiB size: 144.15 GiB (97.75%) used: 51.00 GiB (35.4%)
  fs: ext4 block size: 4096 B dev: /dev/sda4
Swap:
  Alert: No Swap data was found.
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 48.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0
Info:
  Processes: 207 Uptime: 1h 55m Memory: 11.43 GiB used: 1.57 GiB (13.8%)
  Init: systemd v: 246 Compilers: gcc: 10.2.0 Packages: 1478 pacman: 1467
  lib: 415 flatpak: 11 Shell: fish v: 3.1.2 running in: alacritty inxi: 3.1.05