Bugs CPU usage and GTK-theme in linux
 

Hi, first of all I want to say: what a nice program. Much better than most alternatives because it's way more detailed. But there's a real annoying bug that spoils the fun. As soon as I start a download my CPU usage becomes very heavy. I'm on Ubuntu 6.10 linux. I have installed the newest Sun java: 1.5.0-10, Frostwire works fine with the same java installed.

Also the GTK theme doesn't take over my system look. When I start Phex in a terminal it says:
/usr/share/themes/Human/gtk-2.0/gtkrc:70: Engine "ubuntulooks" is unsupported, ignoring
/usr/share/themes/Human/gtk-2.0/gtkrc:240: Priority specification is unsupported, ignoring
This also happens when I use the default gnome theme, clearlooks.

Can this be solved, or do I have to install an older version of either java or Phex?

Ok thanks. No I don't run them simultaniously, I ran Frostwire only to test, I like Phex more.

Here are my pc specs:
Pentium III 500 mhz with 512MB-RAM

It shouldn't be a problem running Phex at all, but there is really something strange going on. When I do nothing everything works fine. But the moment I start a search the performance is already somewhat low: the GUI reacts slow and Phex slows down my system a bit. But the moment I start a single download with only few connections it gets much worse, the CPU starts ratteling whole the time and the whole system slows down to a crawl.

I doubt if I can go back to a previous java version because I can't find the older version on Suns website so I don't know how to get it, do you?

But first I'll try the previous version of Phex and let you know if the problem persists...

Well I've tried the previous version of Phex with java 1.5.0-10 but unfortunately the problem still persists. So I guess Phex can't get along with java 1.5 in linux so I 'm gonna test it with java 1.4. I've found the 1.4 version in the meantime and I will now install it and test Phex again with it...

The Ram should suffice, but we are working on tracking down a really nasty memory leak at the moment, which might well be one source of your problem.

Phex should work well with Java 1.5; in fact, the upcoming 3.0 will require at least java 1.5.

The somewhat higher memory useage of downloads might be due to the more complex download behaviour of Phex (it downloads rarest parts first, but can be configured to use employ other strategies like beginning of file first, or beginning and end).

As far as I know, Gregor is working on the Downloads at the moment, but I can't say how far he already got. If you can read Java code, the following subversion branch might give you some insight:

- http://www.phex.org/wiki/index.php/S...ownload_Rework

- https://svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/...rework-branch/

OK, thanks for the replies.

I've now tried both version 2.8.8.97 and 2.8.10.98 of Phex with Java 1.5 and 1.4 but unfortunately the problem persists.

I've also noticed that when I don't download it can be fine for a while but eventually the resources used by Phex although can become big and it even got to the point several times when it used 100% CPU.

I understand that Phex is an advanced program so it uses somewhat more resources, but this has to be a bug because the use of resources is so big I unfortunately can't use it because the system slows down too much so there's barely something left to do anything else.

I hope it gets solved in the near future because like i said before, I like the program...

GregorK, are you already around?
Is this bug already known to you?

The memory problem is known and we're working on it.

If you want to contribute something, feel free to jump in on the bug-report:

https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?fun...group_id=27021

Ok, good luck solving the problem.

Just saw a new stable is out, 3.0. Guess it's already solved then? I will try it and report if the problem persists.

Yuck, 3.0 should solve that memory problem.
We had some old code which got accessed by new code more often than before and spilled some of its info into your Ram from time to time...
The old code is rewritten, now :)

I guess with theme you mean the look and feel you configure Phex to use, or? The GTK look and feel is something Sun Java provides, there is not much we can do about it. The best supported look and feel in Phex is PlasticXP.

To try to solve your CPU problem, try to reduce the max download connections global to 1. Ok, this will slow down your downloads very much, but it might help to find where the problem is. If you now have lower CPU, raise the value every few minutes and check if this is what makes your CPU suffer.