Transmission causes leopard slow death

[dogma00]

Anyone knowing, if the new OS X update addressed this issue?

[Yada]

DaniB, your inactive RAM is at 2.45 GB, so that's not the problem. From the Apple website: "Inactive memory has not recently been used but will remain in RAM until another application needs the space in RAM. Then, Inactive memory will be cached to disk. Leaving Inactive memory in RAM for as long as possible is to your advantage. If called upon by a process, it is quickly changed to Active memory."

[kidmidnight]

free memory and all that stuff has nothing to do with this bug.

[fbellomi]

I still get the SystemUIServer bug with 1.5.7, transmission 1.61 (8382).
It got stuck 3 times in a row with bandwidth throttle on, I am currently running it without bandwidth throttle and is working fine.

Francesco

[DaniB]

The problem is that my computer get's slow and instable. Maybe this memory issue is unrelated but no other app acts like this. I'm not sure Transmission releases the RAM correctly. But I'm no expert on how OS X handles memory. All I get is a slow and unstable system with Transmission after a couple of hours.

[dogma00]

Too bad, otherwise Transmission is my favorite bittorrent client out there...

[Yada]

Too bad, otherwise Transmission is my favorite bittorrent client out there...

As long as I stay clear of speed limit mode, I can use Transmission without any problems, and I can still use global bandwidth limits. Not ideal in all situations, but it works fine.

[ultraviolet]

Hi, I found this thread yesterday after I started having problems with Transmission hanging and then making my Mac not respond to anything.
I had to reboot about 6 times yesterday, finally gave up and just stopped using Transmission all together. I also got a message about my Time Capsule being disconnected to my server, which had never happened before. And also started to get the "clicking" sound that was mentioned in this thread.

Today, I went and removed Transmission including the folder in the library, and the plist thing (sorry, I don't know what the real name is)
and installed it again and started from scratch. I also forwarded the port on my Time Capsule again, using a different port.
My speed limits are the same as before, 500K down, 900K up and I have two torrents right running right now, one 1.23GB file (which finished DLing) and the other 3GB file which is DLing smoothly...so far so good.
Also was connected to 30 peers on the one torrent which finished DLing and 55 on the other that's still DLing.
I'm using the 1.52 version, btw.

Yesterday was a nightmare but so far, today, things have been running smoothly. Transmission has been running for 3 hours now without hanging and no clicks.
Just wanted to share this in case it might help someone.

[jinx]

I ran parodyr's adjustment to the network settings from a few pages back and am happy as a lark now, everything's fine. Haven't had a hang once, throttled or not, and am now abusing my 50mbit u/d line to the max

[absinthe]

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Re: Transmission causes leopard slow death

Postby parodyr on Sat May 02, 2009 12:55 pm

erbasvizzera wrote:I have the same problem, slow death.
but i can't crate a sysctl.conf on startup, i continue repeat the manual procedure from terminal at restart.
Can anyone explain me how create sysctl.conf file and put it on startup of pc?
Thanks



Create a non-rich text text file (best by using TextMate or TextWrangler) with only following content in the file:

Code: Select all
net.inet.tcp.rfc1323=0
net.inet.tcp.recvspace=32768
net.inet.tcp.sendspace=32768
net.inet.tcp.win_scale_factor=1
net.inet.tcp.sockthreshold=0



After that, save the file as /etc/sysctl.conf

Normally, when you choose "Save As..." in any Mac OS X application, it won't show you the directory "/etc". In order to let it show it, choose "Save As..." and then type "/" in the save dialog. When you enter "/" , it will show you a textfield. Enter "/etc" and push return. The save dialog will then show you the content of "/etc". Now enter the filename "sysctl.conf" and hit "Save".

Thank you for this advice. I"m not a terminal savvy user, so I don't fully understand what is happening here. I understand that a new config(?) file is being created to alter some network behavior, but I don't understand exactly where this file is being placed (in case I ever would want to remove or change it)... Does it go into an invisible file called 'etc' contained with the 'documents' folder, within the user folder? Or is it being installed somewhere else, or in some other manner? Or am I completely not getting it at all?

I'm sure these are simple questions, but I"m not that tech-savvy at this level... Many thanks for any elucidation on these points!

[Yada]

The problem is that my computer get's slow and instable. Maybe this memory issue is unrelated but no other app acts like this. I'm not sure Transmission releases the RAM correctly. But I'm no expert on how OS X handles memory. All I get is a slow and unstable system with Transmission after a couple of hours.

Do you have the speed limiting schedule enabled? If so, try running Transmission for a couple of days, limiting only global speeds and avoiding speed limit mode. This works for me.

[parodyr]

Thank you for this advice. I"m not a terminal savvy user, so I don't fully understand what is happening here. I understand that a new config(?) file is being created to alter some network behavior, but I don't understand exactly where this file is being placed (in case I ever would want to remove or change it)... Does it go into an invisible file called 'etc' contained with the 'documents' folder, within the user folder? Or is it being installed somewhere else, or in some other manner? Or am I completely not getting it at all?

I'm sure these are simple questions, but I"m not that tech-savvy at this level... Many thanks for any elucidation on these points!

This creates a file called "syctl.conf" in the directory (folder) called "/etc" directly on your harddisc's root folder. Normally, this folder (like many others such as "/bin", "/usr", etc) are not visible because you don't really need to see them. If you do as described above, you can (a) see the directory and (b) also write something into it.

You can, in order to see the content of the directory, enter "Go To Folder" (CMD-Shift-G) in Finder and just enter "/etc" (in which case Finder will show you "/private/etc", which is the real location, but it's the same as "/etc", don't worry).

If you want to delete this file at any time in the future, go to the Finder, hit CMD-Shift-G ("Go To Folder") and type "/etc". There, find the file named "sysctl.conf" and put it into the trash.

Note: You need to have admin-rights to make any changes to "/etc".

Hope this helps
BTW: I have updated to 10.5.7 and no problems - even with throttling mode set to on (Max # of connections: 800)

[parodyr]

The problem is that my computer get's slow and instable. Maybe this memory issue is unrelated but no other app acts like this. I'm not sure Transmission releases the RAM correctly. But I'm no expert on how OS X handles memory. All I get is a slow and unstable system with Transmission after a couple of hours.

Actually, the memory issue has no effect (the "InActive Memory"). This happens when you use up the the free memory and the app release it back to the OS. It is not used or pooled back into Free Memory until it's really needed. This is weird behavior of Mac OS X but it's no problem.

I use Transmission with about 60-80 downloads/20-40 seeds. When I use my Aperture with 20k+ pictures, the memory on my iMac is easily used up (active-used). When I finish/quit Aperture, the memory is released into the InActive pool until it is needed by another app - no big deal. The only problem is that sometimes the machine starts swapping a while (actually creating additional swap files; see /private/vm/swapfile*).

Again, the memory has not directly something to do with Transmission's behavior (only indirectly).

[absinthe]

This creates a file called "syctl.conf" in the directory (folder) called "/etc" directly on your harddisc's root folder. Normally, this folder (like many others such as "/bin", "/usr", etc) are not visible because you don't really need to see them. If you do as described above, you can (a) see the directory and (b) also write something into it.

a HA!

Somehow I screwed up and created a 'syctl.conf' file and put it into a newly created /etc folder in my user/Documents folder... Where I imagine it didn't do a thing.

Thank you again for your detailed (and helpful) reply! I'll give this another try...

[absinthe]

Just thought I'd report back...

It's now been two days since I correctly created and placed parodyr's suggested 'syctl.conf' file, and Transmission has been up and running fine ever since.

Thanks again!