From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Nov 1 00:07:54 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E5C5D16A412 for ; Wed, 1 Nov 2006 00:07:53 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mexas@bristol.ac.uk) Received: from dirg.bris.ac.uk (dirg.bris.ac.uk [137.222.10.102]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 63E7443D46 for ; Wed, 1 Nov 2006 00:07:53 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from mexas@bristol.ac.uk) Received: from isis.bris.ac.uk ([137.222.10.63]) by dirg.bris.ac.uk with esmtp (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1Gf3e1-0000ND-35 for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Wed, 01 Nov 2006 00:07:52 +0000 Received: from mech-aslap33.men.bris.ac.uk ([137.222.184.33]) by isis.bris.ac.uk with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1Gf3c4-0002kI-Vi for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Wed, 01 Nov 2006 00:05:49 +0000 Received: from mech-aslap33.men.bris.ac.uk (localhost.men.bris.ac.uk [127.0.0.1]) by mech-aslap33.men.bris.ac.uk (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id kA104RgO060383 for ; Wed, 1 Nov 2006 00:04:27 GMT (envelope-from mexas@bristol.ac.uk) Received: (from shterenl@localhost) by mech-aslap33.men.bris.ac.uk (8.13.4/8.13.4/Submit) id kA104RC6060382 for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Wed, 1 Nov 2006 00:04:27 GMT (envelope-from mexas@bristol.ac.uk) X-Authentication-Warning: mech-aslap33.men.bris.ac.uk: shterenl set sender to mexas@bristol.ac.uk using -f Date: Wed, 1 Nov 2006 00:04:27 +0000 From: Anton Shterenlikht To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20061101000426.GA60303@mech-aslap33.men.bris.ac.uk> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.1i X-Spam-Score: -1.2 X-Spam-Level: - Subject: lpt0 printer slows system response significantly X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 01 Nov 2006 00:07:54 -0000 Hello I have a printer attached to a parallel port on an old Compaq Armada 1700 laptop. When I print large (> 100k) documents the system responds very slow (1-3sec) to keyboard strokes or mouse moves. I wonder if I can lower the priority of printing. The details: $dmesg [skip] FreeBSD 6.0-RELEASE #1: Thu Sep 14 10:40:41 BST 2006 Timecounter "i8254" frequency 1193182 Hz quality 0 CPU: Pentium II/Pentium II Xeon/Celeron (233.34-MHz 686-class CPU) Origin = "GenuineIntel" Id = 0x652 Stepping = 2 Features=0x183f9ff real memory = 167772160 (160 MB) avail memory = 158879744 (151 MB) [skip] lpt0: on ppbus0 lpt0: Interrupt-driven port ppi0: on ppbus0 Two typical outputs from top taken during printing: last pid: 12387; load averages: 0.75, 0.44, 0.23 up 2+01:16:32 10:48:06 89 processes: 2 running, 63 sleeping, 23 waiting, 1 lock Mem: 81M Active, 24M Inact, 37M Wired, 6940K Cache, 25M Buf, 3868K Free Swap: 128M Total, 108K Used, 128M Free PID USERNAME THR PRI NICE SIZE RES STATE TIME WCPU COMMAND 18 root 1 -60 -179 0K 8K *Giant 15:09 77.05% irq7: lpt0 11 root 1 171 52 0K 8K RUN 48.0H 11.13% idle 12269 daemon 1 -8 0 10996K 8908K pipewr 0:27 6.15% gs 485 root 1 96 0 18064K 16668K select 6:30 0.00% Xorg 28 root 1 -32 -151 0K 8K WAIT 5:05 0.00% swi4: clock sio and last pid: 12388; load averages: 0.75, 0.44, 0.23 up 2+01:16:34 10:48:08 89 processes: 3 running, 62 sleeping, 24 waiting Mem: 81M Active, 24M Inact, 37M Wired, 6940K Cache, 25M Buf, 3868K Free Swap: 128M Total, 108K Used, 128M Free PID USERNAME THR PRI NICE SIZE RES STATE TIME WCPU COMMAND 18 root 1 -60 -179 0K 8K WAIT 15:10 77.34% irq7: ppc0 11 root 1 171 52 0K 8K RUN 48.0H 10.89% idle 12269 daemon 1 99 0 10996K 8908K RUN 0:28 5.57% gs 40 root 1 171 52 0K 8K pgzero 0:35 0.15% pagezero 12270 daemon 1 -8 0 1184K 580K piperd 0:01 0.05% cat 485 root 1 96 0 18064K 16668K select 6:30 0.00% Xorg 28 root 1 -32 -151 0K 8K WAIT 5:05 0.00% swi4: clock sio In the user manual I found about vm.swap_idle_enables kernel variable. Is that something I should try? thanks anton