Mathematica 7 slow under 9.04

[Michael Knap]

Thank you for your information. I haven't yet tried to regress to the 2.6.27 kernel, though. I am looking for a documented way to do this or thinking about trying the pre-release repo for jaunty... it has a 2.6.28-12 kernel available. It likely doesn't address what is happening here, but you never know.

[hpsch]

I am going to try Mathematica 7.0.1 now and see if it helps.

Because you noticed a difference with kernel 2.6.27, it can really be a problem with the kernel. I noticed, that the newer kernels (>=2.6.28 ) cause a lot more wakups from time to time than the older ones (tested with powertop). I found a few reports about that and it seems to be a regression in the newer kernels. Maybe thats somehow connected.
But anyway, i am going to try 7.0.1 and report back here.

Maybe i am going to try the last 2.6.30er rc too and look if something changed.

@correaa:
Because of the colors, you can delete (or better move away) the libQt* files from /usr/local/Wolfram/Mathematica/7.0/SystemFiles/Libraries/Linux (or Linux-x86-64) and use the system libraries instead.
Of course libqt4 and related packages (sudo apt-get install libqt4-svg should be doing the trick) have to be installed.

[kimyoungil]

Seems to work. I've switched back from kernel 2.6.28.11 to kernel 2.6.27.11 now, and the first impression is good. (still not very fast, but now it's usable on AMD 64 3500+)



edit: hmm, processor activity was due to tracker, while typing processor-activity is now aroung 10%. (was 100%) so now it works fine. No lag.

Thnx bro.

[Michael Knap]

How did 7.0.1 turn out on newer kernels? Are there other differences? Noticable?

[hpsch]

Didn't notice any differences. Its still slow.

[Michael Knap]

Wow! What a quick reply! Thank you; did you try the later kernels too (2.6.30rc, I think you mentioned)?

[hpsch]

No not yet sorry. I hope i get the time to try it in the next few days.

[ArchDefector]

I experienced the same problem with 2.6.29 kernels on Arch Linux: Mathematica 7.0.1 was unusable due to the constant cpu load of above 80%, even when doing nothing.

Apparently this problem only occurs when using the GUI (i.e. Mathematica). When I use the console interface (math) instead, everything is fine and there is no cpu load at all when idling.

Today I finally tried an 2.6.27 kernel and the problem disappeared. So it seems that Mathematica has a problem with kernels newer than 2.6.27 and that this problem is not Ubuntu specific.

[Michael Knap]

Well, at least we seem to be getting to the bottom of this:

This appears to be a linux_kernel-mathematica_gui problem. And from other browsing, perhaps it is related to excessive wake-up.

Thanks everybody; I for one, would love to see this worked out pretty soon.

[Buendia]

Well, at least we seem to be getting to the bottom of this:

This appears to be a linux_kernel-mathematica_gui problem. And from other browsing, perhaps it is related to excessive wake-up.

Thanks everybody; I for one, would love to see this worked out pretty soon.

This is not a linux issue, it's a mathematica issue and it should be reported to wolfram research.