AppCafe/pc-softwaremanager incredibly slow

[smj]

I have searched TRAC and looked through this forum, but if this problem is here I didn't recognize the description.

Got 9.1-RC1 installed on a bare drive in a box that had been running 9.1-BETA1 until the last HDD died. Logged in as root, made some changes in rc.conf (hostname, statd/lockd, enable sshd, etc), and fired up AppCafe to install about 18 packages. Got dual display with Xinerama working. Then quit AppCafe and everything else and rebooted for the hostname change to take effect, etc.

Logged back in as root. Now, AppCafe runs incredibly s l o w l y. To the point where I click on something, go away for five minutes, come back and it might not have repainted the screen yet. pc-softwaremanager is shown using a constant 5-10% CPU, no extraordinary disk activity going on. If I move an "Install Software?" pop-up dialog box it may take minutes to repaint the main app screen.

Anybody recognize this as a symptom of a known issue? I install/configure systems as root, then use them with a regular user account, anticipating a "Why did you do this as root?" question...

Thanks - Enjoyed 9.1-BETA1 and looking forward to -RC1 and -STABLE.


NB: Edits in blue.

[smj]

Follow-up: AppCafe seems to work normally for a non-root user in the "operator" group - screen updates are snappy, package installation appears to proceed normally and complete successfully.

But if I logout, login as root, and try to run AppCafe I'm subject to these delays. Very curious.

Edit: Same thing if I use "su -" to become root, then run pc-softwaremanager from the command line. Get a loop of the following several times a minute:

Reading PBI List
Updating PBI: "Apache OpenOffice"
...
Updating PBI: "Xplanet"
Updating PBI: "Zsh"

And if I am patient enough to try to download/install a package, the "Install Software?" dialog never does get drawn in.

[jjthomas]

I am having the same problem. My CPU goes up to 102% as soon as I start AppCafe while logged in a root. System Monitor and top highest use is libgtop_serve at 5%. If I switch to a non-root user everything is fine.

Why does running AppCafe as root slow the system down to a crawl, and why does not it not show up on top or system monitor?

-JJ

[kmoore134]

Found the issue here, will be fixed for RC3. FWIW, the AppCafe shouldn't
be run as root normally, almost all PBIs are installed with your user
account, and if one happens to need root, it will prompt you at install
time.