10

I have a fast computer (great processor, good SSD) but Software Centre takes a good 30 seconds to load up. This isn't a whinge, I think there could be something wrong. Synaptic takes a second to load.

I ran strace software-center to see if it was thrashing the disk (it's an SSD - I can't hear it) and it's statting and attempting to open a whole shed-load of files. Here's an excerpt:

open("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/FlexGet-1.0r1465-py2.6.egg/StringIOmodule.so", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/FlexGet-1.0r1465-py2.6.egg/StringIO.py", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/FlexGet-1.0r1465-py2.6.egg/StringIO.pyc", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/progressbar-2.3_dev-py2.6.egg/StringIO", 0x7fff19d3af30) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/progressbar-2.3_dev-py2.6.egg/StringIO.so", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/progressbar-2.3_dev-py2.6.egg/StringIOmodule.so", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/progressbar-2.3_dev-py2.6.egg/StringIO.py", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/progressbar-2.3_dev-py2.6.egg/StringIO.pyc", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/pynzb-0.1.0-py2.6.egg/StringIO", 0x7fff19d3af30) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/pynzb-0.1.0-py2.6.egg/StringIO.so", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/pynzb-0.1.0-py2.6.egg/StringIOmodule.so", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/pynzb-0.1.0-py2.6.egg/StringIO.py", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/pynzb-0.1.0-py2.6.egg/StringIO.pyc", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/PyRSS2Gen-1.0.0-py2.6.egg/StringIO", 0x7fff19d3af30) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/PyRSS2Gen-1.0.0-py2.6.egg/StringIO.so", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/PyRSS2Gen-1.0.0-py2.6.egg/StringIOmodule.so", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/PyRSS2Gen-1.0.0-py2.6.egg/StringIO.py", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/PyRSS2Gen-1.0.0-py2.6.egg/StringIO.pyc", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/html5lib-0.90-py2.6.egg/StringIO", 0x7fff19d3af30) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/html5lib-0.90-py2.6.egg/StringIO.so", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/html5lib-0.90-py2.6.egg/StringIOmodule.so", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/html5lib-0.90-py2.6.egg/StringIO.py", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/html5lib-0.90-py2.6.egg/StringIO.pyc", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/PyYAML-3.09-py2.6-linux-x86_64.egg/StringIO", 0x7fff19d3af30) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/PyYAML-3.09-py2.6-linux-x86_64.egg/StringIO.so", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/PyYAML-3.09-py2.6-linux-x86_64.egg/StringIOmodule.so", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/PyYAML-3.09-py2.6-linux-x86_64.egg/StringIO.py", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/PyYAML-3.09-py2.6-linux-x86_64.egg/StringIO.pyc", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/transmissionrpc-0.6-py2.6.egg/StringIO", 0x7fff19d3af30) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/transmissionrpc-0.6-py2.6.egg/StringIO.so", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/transmissionrpc-0.6-py2.6.egg/StringIOmodule.so", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/transmissionrpc-0.6-py2.6.egg/StringIO.py", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/transmissionrpc-0.6-py2.6.egg/StringIO.pyc", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)

This might be a red herring. Later on it pauses at this:

poll([{fd=3, events=POLLIN}], 1, 25000) = 1 ([{fd=3, revents=POLLIN}])
recvmsg(3, {msg_name(0)=NULL, msg_iov(1)=[{"l\2\1\1\v\0\0\0\3\0\0\0=\0\0\0\6\1s\0\7\0\0\0:1.3497\0"..., 2048}], msg_controllen=0, msg_flags=MSG_CMSG_CLOEXEC}, MSG_CMSG_CLOEXEC) = 91
recvmsg(3, 0x7fff8c57cc00, MSG_CMSG_CLOEXEC) = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
sendmsg(3, {msg_name(0)=NULL, msg_iov(2)=[{"l\1\0\1\0\0\0\0\3\0\0\0{\0\0\0\1\1o\0\32\0\0\0/com/ubu"..., 144}, {"", 0}], msg_controllen=0, msg_flags=0}, MSG_NOSIGNAL) = 144
poll([{fd=3, events=POLLIN}], 1, 25000

And then it does it again... These two pauses account for most of the load time.

And then it really flips out with thousands of poll/read/temporarily unavailable lines.

So what on earth is going on here? Why is Software Centre scanning what looks to be any possible python package looking for StringIO? Bug?

Then why is it stalling at what looks like a web-request to something.ubuntu.com (can't see the full message)? Why is it talking to ubuntu.com anyway?

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  • +1, it is the same on all computers I installed Ubuntu on, so we have to wait for a fix
    – Praweł
    Nov 5, 2010 at 14:45
  • @Oli What version of Ubuntu is this? I've been using Lucid for a while now and have never run into this.
    – Mussnoon
    Nov 5, 2010 at 15:36
  • I can confirm: it's extremly slow! I use Synaptic infact. Nov 5, 2010 at 17:29
  • @Mussnoon: Maverick. And it's only been this slow since Maverick. I think it might have something to do with the added For Purchase or single-sign-on parts of the new version... Either way, having it stall like that is pretty awful.
    – Oli
    Nov 5, 2010 at 18:06
  • 3
    This should probably be reported as a bug. Nov 5, 2010 at 18:44

2 Answers 2

5

It appears to be fetching a fully up-to-date view of available packages (like what apt-get update does), which can take a while depending on how far out of date the cache is, how quickly the software repositories respond, and the speed of your network connection.

As mentioned in the comments, this lack of interactivity while refreshing seems like a bug.

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  • I'd accept that as an answer if Aptitude, Synaptic or even just an apt-get update doing the same took anywhere near the same time. Including me typing my password time bash -c "sudo apt-get update" returns 0m2.446s. A hot run (straight after with no password entry) took 0m0.572s. The SC consistently takes >30s so if this is what is causing the delay, the bug is much more than just an interactivity issue.
    – Oli
    Nov 5, 2010 at 23:18
  • Hm, weird. It took about 30s the first time I ran it, then it only took a few moments. "30 seconds" is always a red flag to me that something is timing out on DNS. Regardless, opening a bug would make the most sense.
    – Kees Cook
    Nov 5, 2010 at 23:21
  • Do you know if there's something I can wrap it in that examines just its network traffic?
    – Oli
    Nov 6, 2010 at 0:19
  • And I thought I was exaggerating but it turns out I'm more patient than I give myself credit. Just ran software centre with time. 1m.55.410s. Ouch.
    – Oli
    Nov 6, 2010 at 0:23
  • Usually I just start a VM and try to reproduce it there while running tcpdump or wireshark. But it'd be nice to have a way to do this. I've asked: askubuntu.com/q/11709/721
    – Kees Cook
    Nov 6, 2010 at 6:59
0

I meet the same problem . When I first open software-center , it is opened fast. Then I close it, but I find the process of software-center are not killed . The second time I open it , it will take long time to open. The method is that I kill software-center process manually after I close software-center .

I use ubuntu11.04 amd64 arch in thinkpad w500 .

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