UI unresponsive in v1.5

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lopoz
Posts: 15
Joined: Sun May 18, 2008 9:55 am

UI unresponsive in v1.5

Post by lopoz »

Hello,

I've been noticing this for quite a while now: the UI becomes unresponsive when I'm downloading.
The dock icon speeds don't update for extended periods of time and clicking the dock icon doesn't bring the application window to the front.
Also, when switching to the app window using exposé, the cursor becomes a spinning beachball (I hate that ball...)

The app hasn't crashed though, since every once in a while it will update. Added new torrents while this is happening is impossible though, since any interaction with the GUI is not possible..

I'm running 10.5.6 on a Summer '07 MBP.

Thanks in advance for any clarification on the issue!

P.S. If any logs can help, I'd be happy to post them.
Last edited by lopoz on Thu Feb 26, 2009 10:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
lopoz
Posts: 15
Joined: Sun May 18, 2008 9:55 am

Re: UI unresponsive in 1.5b5

Post by lopoz »

Right now, I'm downloading 2 torrents and seeding one, at ±2 MB/s down and ±1 MB/s up and everything is going fine..
Just a while ago, I was doing the same, but with one torrent less (1 up and 1 down) and the app was unresponsive.. I can't really reproduce the problem, I guess is what I'm saying.

Maybe other users are experiencing the same and have a better idea of what's going on..
mangaphreak
Posts: 20
Joined: Wed Mar 28, 2007 6:59 pm

Re: UI unresponsive in 1.5b5

Post by mangaphreak »

I must say that I have also experienced some sluggishness over the last few versions and that right now Transmission is 'beachballing' heavily...! :(

First I thought it might have to do with running too many torrents at once, although it's never really more than 5-6 -- which it should be able to handle, right...?! Now I kind of suspect that it gets sluggish when communicationg with (too) many peers at once...!? I don't really know though...

What I do know is that it gets annoying sometimes...what good is it that I have a 30 Mbit connection and am connected to a whole bunch of peers when Transmission seems to be slowing itself down...?! :(

:: M ::
TheBang
Posts: 25
Joined: Thu Oct 25, 2007 2:09 am

Re: UI unresponsive in 1.5b5

Post by TheBang »

When it beach balls for you guys are you downloading new files, or are you only seeding?
mangaphreak
Posts: 20
Joined: Wed Mar 28, 2007 6:59 pm

Re: UI unresponsive in 1.5b5

Post by mangaphreak »

TheBang wrote:When it beach balls for you guys are you downloading new files, or are you only seeding?
In my case it only seems to happen when downloading files and only when I am connected to many peers...

Also I think it's an old problem that has returned with the recent version...!? I used to experience the heavy beachballing in earlier versions and then it kind of went away -- until it seems to have returned with the current version...!? Although I can't really confirm that for sure...

:: M ::
lopoz
Posts: 15
Joined: Sun May 18, 2008 9:55 am

Re: UI unresponsive in 1.5b5

Post by lopoz »

I just added a new torrent, downloading at around 4 MB/s and the GUI is not responding.. Download is still running though, Transmission hasn't crashed..
110rdr33f4
Posts: 9
Joined: Fri Feb 06, 2009 11:51 pm

Re: UI unresponsive in 1.5b5

Post by 110rdr33f4 »

I had the same problem when I tried it last night. No beachball, but I couldn't switch the Inspector window, or select a different torrent in the main window.
TheBang
Posts: 25
Joined: Thu Oct 25, 2007 2:09 am

Re: UI unresponsive in 1.5b5

Post by TheBang »

My guess is that it happens when Transmission is allocating files on the file system for a newly started torrent. I only notice the beachballing near the beginning of when I start a new torrent (particularly torrents with large files). Once it's done allocating all the file space, I don't seem to see any more beachballing.

I particularly had some long beachballing sessions when I added some extremely large torrents that consisted of over a dozen files, each file more than 7 GB. I was force quitting Transmission because it seemed unresponsive, but eventually, I just let it run, and after a couple hours, it was fine.
xShad0w
Posts: 24
Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2008 10:11 pm

Re: UI unresponsive in 1.5b5

Post by xShad0w »

I've been having this too, i noticed it was only happening if Transmission was in the background because then it gets less CPU priority and hangs but if its in the front i runs just fine, so i did a "sudo renice -20 PID" to give transmission the highest priority and it runs just fine in background/doesn't slow down my mac. So that's the problem, 1.50b have been so bad for mac for no apparent reason though, actually I think these hangs started around 1.42, but I haven't really seen any reason why in the changelogs.
mangaphreak
Posts: 20
Joined: Wed Mar 28, 2007 6:59 pm

Re: UI unresponsive in 1.5b5

Post by mangaphreak »

I really can't track down the cause of this...! :(

Right now I am donwloading two torrents, each around 4 GB and one dl'ing from 16, the other from 19 peers -- and Transmission keeps stalling and beachballing all the time...! I can't even bring the app to the foreground, let alone do anything to change that behaviour...

:: M ::
mangaphreak
Posts: 20
Joined: Wed Mar 28, 2007 6:59 pm

Re: UI unresponsive in 1.5b5

Post by mangaphreak »

Okay, I don't know what's causing this kind of behaviour, but it's still unchanged with the current b6 version and it is really annoying...! Not only because of the sluggishness of Transmission itself but also because it occasionally happens to affect other apps, which is just unaccaptable...!

I guess it's time to keep an eye out for an alternative and check out a few other torrent apps now...

:: M ::
Debu
Posts: 105
Joined: Fri Aug 15, 2008 11:03 pm

Re: UI unresponsive in 1.5b5

Post by Debu »

TheBang wrote:My guess is that it happens when Transmission is allocating files on the file system for a newly started torrent. I only notice the beachballing near the beginning of when I start a new torrent (particularly torrents with large files). Once it's done allocating all the file space, I don't seem to see any more beachballing.
I've observed the same thing in the same circumstances. After awhile everything is fine.

You might want to try disabling the "Start transfers when adding" preference option - especially with batch torrents - and start them manually one-by-one after you've finished adding .torrents to the list. IMO there's no point - speed-wise - to having too many downloading at the same time anyway.
lopoz
Posts: 15
Joined: Sun May 18, 2008 9:55 am

Re: UI unresponsive in 1.5b5

Post by lopoz »

I'm still having these problems in v1.5, running one torrent on my home (slow) connection, downloading at around 500 kBps (not just immediately after adding them).
It seems like the problem is less severe now, so I also think it has to do with writing to the disk. (as writing to the disk has to occur less frequently when downloading at 500 kBps compared to 5-10 MBps)

Would it be possible to handle the drawing of the UI separately, like on a separate thread, so that it always remains responsive? I don't even know if it's possible, with my limited knowledge of programming, especially multi-threaded programming..

[edit]
I wanted to add that the rest of my OS is perfectly usable, so it's not like the whole computer is unresponsive, just Transmission..
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