amarok and my CPU!!


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Thread: amarok and my CPU!!

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
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    amarok and my CPU!!

    Hi,

    I am a great fan of Amarok as I really like the way it catalogues my music from lots of recursive folders into 1 easily searchable collection.

    However, I am becoming a little tired of the side effects it has on my system.

    Admittadly, I probably don't have it running in the best environment - I have a catalogue of 10,000 MP3s on a FAT32 disc running in FC6.

    My main problem is that when I use Amarok, my very fast and stable system turns into a VERY VERY slow and highly unstable system. After Amaroke changes track, it will hog my CPU at 100% for at least 30-40 seconds. Also, whilst Amarok is playing, lots of other processes that otherwise run fine will start using 100% CPU and freezing. This includes Firefox, openoffice etc.... Any application that is open whilst amarok is playing is subject to random 100% CPU usage and freezing.

    If I don't run Amarok, nothing like this happens.

    Is anybody else experiencing this? Should I move my MP3s to an ext3 partition (which I will be enevitably doing, however this hanging is not a result of IOWait)? Or do I just have more MP3s than Amarok can handle?

    I would like to keep using Amarok but it just makes my system so goddamn unstable!!!

    Any ideas???
    If it doesn't fit, force it; if it breaks, it needed replacing anyway.

  2. #2
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    P.S.

    Its P4 3ghz W/2gb RAM running the xine engine and "watch collection for changes" is disabled...
    If it doesn't fit, force it; if it breaks, it needed replacing anyway.

  3. #3
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    Did you go to the Amarok page...... I googgled and found several answers.
    And for a fleeting second...I was not sure if I was a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or, a butterfly dreaming I was a man....Lao-tzu

  4. #4
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    Which distro, and which version of Amarok, on Suse 9.3 amarok when left open for a long period of time causes cpu overload, so far, under 10.2 it doesn't, 10.2 is using amarok 1.4
    Feel free to PM me for help

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    Please come back and tell us if your problem is solved, it may help others, and stop us from wondering what happened.

  5. #5
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    Hmm. sometimes firefox or thunderbird randomly steal the cpu out from under me and I could never figure out why. Thinking back I do believe I was running amarok at the time. Though it happens really rarely. I used to have more songs cataloged than you without any hiccups. I am going to guess that it probably has something to do with fragmentation on the fat32 drive. Try defragging then run amarok again and see if there is any change
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  6. #6
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    What database option are you using? the SQLite is a horrible option for that many files, MySQL is much more efficient.
    Do you have all the songs loaded into a single playlist and use random? I had a problem with Amarok using a large play list where it would pause the whole system when switching tracks. Making small playlists (>100) solved that issue for me (even though it wasn't my first choice)

  7. #7
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    Yeah that makes sense. A buddy of mine uses MySQL to store his playlists and library. He says it is smoking fast
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  8. #8
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    another mysql++
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  9. #9
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    A hint of a solution: Since i am using a multimedia kernel, Amarok and most sound related programs run better. I was having trouble with program like Rosegarden and Ardour. That was due to some kernel that now run at a lower frequency in order to save 1 to 3 watt but these kernel dont do good for multimedia that needs low latency sound server (faster frequency). In the case of Amarok i do have about 40 gig of music in 2 different ext3 partition and all is running smooooth.

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  10. #10
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    Think I'll try setting it up in MySQL and post the results - its using SQLite at the moment.

    Started using Juk a bit, but really like Amarok's lyric lookup and stuff
    If it doesn't fit, force it; if it breaks, it needed replacing anyway.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
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    1

    Same problem!

    I have the same problem running Amarok on Ubuntu (Edgy), with my music stored on an ext3 formatted drive. Just doing nothing at all, Amarok sits there at 40-50% cpu, so I'm suspicious of the auto library update (not that I've tried switching it off , but surely it's using inotify and not polling?

    I'm also using SQLite, so I'll try changing to MySQL and report back.

  12. #12
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    I have almost 10,000 mp3's on a network Samba share and had a heck of a time with getting it running smooth. Switching to a MySQL backend and small playlists (less then 1000) and take off that "watch folders for changes" made a world of difference.

    Try that and see if it helps, otherwise it's something else...I haven't noticed any difference in using a different engine.

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