Ubuntu
software-center package

/usr/sbin/update-software-center is very slow on armel

Bug #446498 reported by Loïc Minier
24
This bug affects 4 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
software-center (Ubuntu)
Expired
Medium
Unassigned
Nominated for Lucid by Dooitze de Jong

Bug Description

Binary package hint: software-center

Hi

The software-center update took 1mn20s just for the /usr/sbin/update-software-center command on my fastest armel machine (Dove 800 Bogomips, 512MB of RAM).

We should profile this program and look at improving performance on armel.

Cheers,

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: armel
Date: Thu Oct 8 18:58:32 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Package: software-center 0.5.0
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-204.11-dove
SourcePackage: software-center
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-204-dove armv7l
XsessionErrors:
 (gnome-settings-daemon:1788): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (gnome-settings-daemon:1788): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (nautilus:2028): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:2038): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed

See original description
Revision history for this message
Loïc Minier (lool) wrote :
Michael Vogt (mvo)
Changed in software-center (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
importance: Undecided → Medium
Ubuntu QA Website (ubuntuqa)
tags: added: iso-testing
Dooitze de Jong (dooitze)
description: updated
Revision history for this message
Roman (thezub) wrote :

Not just in arm, it's pretty slow in general. Try running it on a legacy machine. Not that the old Add/Remove Software was that much better, we need something that's just small and light, yet still functional and usable.

Revision history for this message
knarf (launchpad-ubuntu-f) wrote :

Installing a new package in a terminal is also slowed down tremendously by this memory and processor hogging bit of python prototype code. An example might help so here it goes. I just installed the new Opera beta by downloading the package and pointing dpkg -i at it. Dpkg went to work...

$ s dpkg -i Downloads/opera_11.00.1111_i386.deb
[sudo] password for frank:
(Reading database ... 395735 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace opera 10.00.4585.gcc4.qt3 (using .../opera_11.00.1111_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement opera ...
Setting up opera (11.00.1111) ...

...and it seemed to stop... did it hang? A quick check:

$ ps aux|grep update
root 31463 73.9 6.8 79676 52856 pts/10 R 13:52 4:22 /usr/bin/python /usr/sbin/update-software-center

Aha, software center again. This took 10 minutes to run. After that, dpkg went on:

Processing triggers for shared-mime-info ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils ...
Processing triggers for python-gmenu ...
Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/desktop.en_US.utf8.cache...
Processing triggers for software-center ...

...and it seemed to stop again! Check again:

$ ps aux|grep update
root 31778 76.0 6.8 79412 52248 pts/10 R 14:02 4:04 /usr/bin/python /usr/sbin/update-software-center --triggered /usr/share/app-install/desktop

Yes, again software-center spoils the party. It took another 10 minutes. Dpkg awoke from this bit of python drudgery:

Processing triggers for menu ...
Processing triggers for python-support ...
Processing triggers for python-central ...

An now, finally, after 21 minutes (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) the package is installed.

Guess what my next action was?

$ s apt-get autoremove --purge software-center
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  cpu-checker* gnome-app-install* libisccfg60* libxcomp3* sessioninstaller* software-center* zeitgeist-core*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 7 to remove and 165 not upgraded.
After this operation, 4,272 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?

YES, PLEASE!

This bug report was prepared on a Thinkpad T23 (1.2 GHz PIII-m with 768 MiB) running up to date Natty - which is starting to resemble Debian by virtue of having the obese Ubuntu-specials purged.

A note to the devs: do not use a prototyping language to implement your basic infrastructure. Python may be a nice prototyping language but it is a memory and cpu hog. Please, use a compiled language or at least a less hoggy interpreted language to create essential pieces of infrastructure like the package management system. This stuff needs to run FAST and reliable.

Revision history for this message
Omer Akram (om26er) wrote :

@lool is this still an issue in Ubuntu 10.10?
everybody else: this bug is specifically for armel. if you face any such problems please report a new bug.

Changed in software-center (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

[Expired for software-center (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

Changed in software-center (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Expired
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