Xubuntu 16.04 slow response, shutdown & boot issues

[jet74-5]

Hello,

I have a fresh install of Xubuntu 16.04 (64-bit) and something seems to be wrong. I really have no idea what might be the problem, and any help is very much appreciated.

The computer is a HP nx6325. It's old, but has been running flawlessly on Xubuntu before (14.04 32-bit)

Symptoms:
-Slow input. The pointer is responsive but keyboard input is slow. So is navigating menus and applications.
-Fan running constantly at full speed. However, the computer does not seem hot at all.
-Shutdown behaves a bit odd. Hard to explain, but it doesn't sound right, like it just cut's power at some point.
-Boot behaves odd. It will not start normally but is just locked at a black screen. At this point I am forced to do a hard power off. After that it boots normally, but then next time it wont boot. The rebooting function always freezes up. Also I get a message every boot that /dev/sda6 is clean. Whatever that means.

Neither cpu nor ram seems to be under heavy load. This is the output of "top":

top - 11:30:36 up 31 min,  2 users,  load average: 0,33, 0,38, 0,41
Tasks: 178 total,   1 running, 177 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
top - 11:31:04 up 31 min,  3 users,  load average: 0,39, 0,39, 0,41
Tasks: 179 total,   1 running, 178 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s):  1,8 us,  1,5 sy,  0,0 ni, 96,5 id,  0,2 wa,  0,0 hi,  0,0 si,  0,0 st
KiB Mem :  2435356 total,  1505764 free,   494128 used,   435464 buff/cache
KiB Swap:  2488316 total,  2488316 free,        0 used.  1886872 avail Mem 

  PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND                                                                    
  807 root      20   0  260792  47760  30772 S   2,6  2,0   1:41.99 Xorg                                                                       
 1631 conan     20   0   52036   3616   3024 R   1,3  0,1   0:18.47 top                                                                        
 1458 conan     20   0  407308  26284  20480 S   1,0  1,1   0:12.11 xfce4-terminal                                                             
 1503 conan     20   0 1027564 308320  91968 S   0,7 12,7  10:30.64 firefox                                                                    
   14 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0,3  0,0   0:02.81 kworker/1:0                                                                
  675 root      20   0  392784  17712  14872 S   0,3  0,7   0:03.14 NetworkManager                                                             
 1326 conan     20   0  206976   5200   4704 S   0,3  0,2   0:00.45 at-spi2-registr                                                            
 1689 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0,3  0,0   0:00.23 kworker/u4:0                                                               
 1705 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0,3  0,0   0:00.31 kworker/0:2                                                                
    1 root      20   0  119792   5800   3848 S   0,0  0,2   0:04.58 systemd                                                                    
    2 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.01 kthreadd                                                                   
    3 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.36 ksoftirqd/0                                                                
    5 root       0 -20       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 kworker/0:0H                                                               
    7 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:05.48 rcu_sched                                                                  
    8 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 rcu_bh                                                                     
    9 root      rt   0       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.01 migration/0                                                                
   10 root      rt   0       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.03 watchdog/0                                                                 
   11 root      rt   0       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.02 watchdog/1                                                                 
   12 root      rt   0       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.01 migration/1                                                                
   13 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.42 ksoftirqd/1                                                                
   15 root       0 -20       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 kworker/1:0H                                                               
   16 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 kdevtmpfs                                                                  
   17 root       0 -20       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 netns                                                                      
   18 root       0 -20       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 perf                                                                       
   19 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 khungtaskd                                                                 
   20 root       0 -20       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 writeback                                                                  
   21 root      25   5       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 ksmd                                                                       
   22 root      39  19       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:03.35 khugepaged                                                                 
   23 root       0 -20       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 crypto                                                                     
   24 root       0 -20       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 kintegrityd                                                                
   25 root       0 -20       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 bioset                                                                     
   26 root       0 -20       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 kblockd                                                                    
   27 root       0 -20       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 ata_sff                                                                    
   28 root       0 -20       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 md                                                                         
   29 root       0 -20       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 devfreq_wq                                                                 
   33 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 kswapd0                                                                    
   34 root       0 -20       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 vmstat                                                                     
   35 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 fsnotify_mark                                                              
   36 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 ecryptfs-kthrea                                                            
   51 root       0 -20       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 kthrotld

[kc1di]

Hi Jet74-5 and Welcome to Ubuntu,

Could you go to a terminal and type the following commands and list the output here. They may tell where the hold up on boot is and give clues to other problems.

systemd-analyze blame

&

systemd-analyze critical-chain

[jet74-5]

Thank you for your reply!

Just to be clear: The black screen freeze is before the grub menu. When I power of with holding the power button I can boot again normally and then boot time seems pretty standard. Also, I might add that I have XP installed as well. This was installed before xubuntu and works normally both during shutdown and boot.

Anyway:

conan@conan-HP-Compaq-nx6325-EY349ET-AK8:~$ systemd-analyze blame
         11.131s accounts-daemon.service
          9.993s apport.service
          9.782s dev-sda6.device
          8.753s apparmor.service
          7.940s networking.service
          7.729s thermald.service
          7.233s speech-dispatcher.service
          6.970s pppd-dns.service
          6.968s lm-sensors.service
          6.938s systemd-user-sessions.service
          6.915s rsyslog.service
          6.501s NetworkManager-wait-online.service
          6.353s NetworkManager.service
          5.941s ModemManager.service
          5.453s grub-common.service
          5.096s systemd-logind.service
          5.078s avahi-daemon.service
          4.618s irqbalance.service
          3.252s gpu-manager.service
          1.865s lightdm.service
          1.782s systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service
          1.607s systemd-udevd.service
          1.598s systemd-journald.service
          1.261s systemd-modules-load.service
          1.233s resolvconf.service
          1.226s upower.service
          1.133s sys-kernel-debug.mount
          1.120s dev-hugepages.mount
          1.117s dev-mqueue.mount
           978ms plymouth-start.service
           977ms console-setup.service
           850ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
           794ms udisks2.service
           776ms ondemand.service
           713ms systemd-udev-trigger.service
           600ms wpa_supplicant.service
           546ms systemd-backlight@backlight:acpi_video0.service
           541ms dev-disk-by\x2duuid-ef5f5218\x2de86c\x2d4ac3\x2dbed6\x2d105602b
           531ms ufw.service
           498ms systemd-journal-flush.service
           496ms kmod-static-nodes.service
           447ms systemd-update-utmp.service
           422ms systemd-random-seed.service
           416ms systemd-sysctl.service
           415ms systemd-timesyncd.service
           399ms user@1000.service
           320ms plymouth-read-write.service
           257ms hddtemp.service
           256ms polkitd.service
           191ms alsa-restore.service
           155ms systemd-rfkill.service
           153ms systemd-remount-fs.service
           138ms rtkit-daemon.service
           124ms systemd-update-utmp-runlevel.service
            87ms ureadahead-stop.service
            77ms snapd.socket
            75ms rc-local.service
            70ms brltty.service
            51ms plymouth-quit-wait.service
            12ms sys-fs-fuse-connections.mount
lines 38-60/60 (END)

and

conan@conan-HP-Compaq-nx6325-EY349ET-AK8:~$ systemd-analyze critical-chain
The time after the unit is active or started is printed after the "@" character.
The time the unit takes to start is printed after the "+" character.

graphical.target @34.216s
└─multi-user.target @34.211s
  └─getty.target @34.205s
    └─getty@tty1.service @34.190s
      └─rc-local.service @33.729s +75ms
        └─network-online.target @33.696s
          └─NetworkManager-wait-online.service @27.185s +6.501s
            └─NetworkManager.service @20.805s +6.353s
              └─dbus.service @15.820s
                └─basic.target @15.507s
                  └─sockets.target @15.506s
                    └─snapd.socket @15.362s +77ms
                      └─sysinit.target @15.351s
                        └─apparmor.service @6.596s +8.753s
                          └─local-fs.target @6.563s
                            └─run-user-1000.mount @31.611s
                              └─local-fs-pre.target @6.558s
                                └─systemd-remount-fs.service @6.301s +153ms
                                  └─systemd-journald.socket @2.319s
                                    └─-.slice @2.310s
conan@conan-HP-Compaq-nx6325-EY349ET-AK8:~$

/Erik

[jet74-5]

Anyone got a clue?

[jet74-5]

I have also tried to reinstall xenial xerus from scratch. I got the exact same symptoms.

[Morbius1]

Don't have an answer but I have installed Xubuntu 16.04 3 times now - 2 on real hardware and 1 in Virtualbox. The only install that shuts down properly is the one in VirtualBox.

The hard drive makes a weird click sound like it really wants to power off when shutting down but the fans and the screen / monitor are still running and will continue to run unless I hold the power button on the machine for what seems like an eternity.

The silverbacks in this forum always warn not to install the xx.04 when it's released but wait for the xx.04.1 to be released. Always ignored that and never had a problem until now so I guess they were right.

[jet74-5]

Ok, thanks for your reply.

Actually, I have it installed on another machine and there it works flawlessly.

[egeezer]

FWIW, I had a similar problem with Xubuntu 15.10, so instead I tried the experimental Xubuntu Core ISO. That consists of a minimal-install plus a cut-down Xubuntu desktop to which you add whatever software you want. Liked it so much I stuck with it for the 16.04 Beta and also the 16.04 Final, both of which have been stable since installation.


https://unit193.net/xubuntu/core/


It takes a bit of forethought to set up everything you need, but the result has been really great, especially for my slooooow DSL connection – 555MB as opposed to 1.2GB for the full Xubuntu.


Disclaimer: I’m not associated with Unit193, I’m just a big fan of his/her work.

[jet74-5]

Thanks for the tip egeezer. I might try it out. Or downgrade to earlier xubuntu version.

Noticed another thing. It seems that sometimes at boot there's a message "a tpm error (7) occurred attempting to read a pcr value" or something like that. Don't know if it's related...

[jet74-5]

Thanks for the tip egeezer. I might try it out. Or downgrade to earlier xubuntu version.

Noticed another thing. It seems that sometimes at boot there's a message "a tpm error (7) occurred attempting to read a pcr value" or something like that. Don't know if it's related...

This error was solved by enabling tpm in the BIOS. I also updated the BIOS. No improvement when it comes to performance or shutdown though.

Looking at "top" now while actually doing something I can see that CPU usage runs abnormally high. Just writing these words make the firefox entry run up to 40-50%, if I scroll this page it's 60-65. If I hit reload page it goes up above 100. Doesn't really seem normally on a dual-core processor does it? There doesn't seem to be any undue hard drive access or anything like that but I'm not very good at interpreting the numbers...

Posting in the thread made the firefox CPU usage peak at 146%. Memory is at a steady 10-11% though.

It's not just firefox. Running the software manager or libreoffice makes the cpu hit the roof as well. And everything is really sluggish. Scrolling, resizing windows, accessing menus.