FOOD FOR THOUGHT RASPBERRY PI 2 - Sllllooowww GUI

SMTC

Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2009
Messages
190
Reaction score
13
Loaded the Incredible PBX on a new Pi 2. The GUI interface is really, really slow to load for all screens. The first load status screen takes over 12 seconds to go from 20%, 40%, 60%….

Afterwards its like 2400 baud of olden days.

Command line Raspbian is fast and TOP command never shows more than a few % CPU. My microsSD is a Sony 70Mbps chip - supposed to be quick.

Is this slowness normal?

Originally was on ETH0 but but now running on WLAN0. Speedtest from CLI is at line rate.

And by the way, the Portknocker doesn't like the WLAN, by default its looking for ETH0. How can I make it look for WLAN0?

J
 

Dave Gray

Guru
Joined
May 22, 2013
Messages
150
Reaction score
60
Yup it's slow. Real slow. That's why people are big in the Intel NUC.
FWIW, that shouldn't be a big deal - the PBX functions (on my RPi 1) are just fine, if you're in the GUI a lot, I have to ask if it's a PBX or a toy?

As far as knockd - it defaults to eth0, you can change this by finding where it starts from, and add a -i wlan0 to the command line...
 

SMTC

Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2009
Messages
190
Reaction score
13
Saw that parm under the knockd --h

But to activate its service knockd restart and the parms don't go there so don't know where to put the WLAN0 option???

I suppose I could live with a slow GUI and I have disabled a few modules I don't expect to use to help things a bit.

TOY vs. PBX? Well, it is supposed to run the Biz and the home lines and across a WAN to more than one site. Just a handful of users (3-4) and some light conference bridging and some simul-ring to cell.

The idea here was turn down the old Dell tower (spinning hard drive and all) running PIAF 1.7.5.5 (yep, not broke, did not want to fix) and "upgrade". Figured the new Pi 2 all solid state was the way to go. Perhaps better off re-purposing my old Dell Vostro 3500 Laptop which has a built-in UPS (battery still goes for a couple of hours)??

Pi 2 is cool, but the GUI is glaringly slow. The old (and I mean old as in 2003 old) Dell tower is not much of a CPU but its downright spririted by comparison.
 

Dave Gray

Guru
Joined
May 22, 2013
Messages
150
Reaction score
60
I'm using a Pi 1 for my house PBX. I use the GUI maybe 1 - 2X a month. If that. I don't really care if it's slow. The PBX functions are fine, it handles 2-3 calls, small (<5 user) conferences, and VM just fine. NB, you don't even NEED the GUI to just run the PBX, it's been suggested around here several times, that the Apache server be turned off most of the time as a security measure.

Horses for courses - if you're going to be diddling in the GUI all the time, then you want something faster. The Pi is tiny, makes no noise, and uses very little power (which all helps with the Wife Acceptance Factor). A slow GUI just doesn't matter.
 

SMTC

Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2009
Messages
190
Reaction score
13
Hmmm, read a bit about overclocking this thing. Will that help at all with the GUI I wonder? As I said before I don't see the CPU utilization spiking up much.

I also just imaged my config to another Lexar high speed micro SD. Might be a bit faster or maybe my browser cache...
 

SMTC

Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2009
Messages
190
Reaction score
13
BTW - I don't think the RASPI-CONFIG way to overclock this thing is correct for the Pi 2. Parms look off. Best suggestion?
 

geopeterwc

Guru
Joined
Aug 17, 2010
Messages
385
Reaction score
131
@SMTC Agreed, the RasPi2 GUI is slow ... and so patience is useful in this context when using the GUI. For a small installation, and once the configuration of the Pi is complete, you'll find the performance of the RasPi2 vis. your VoIP services to be on par with much faster/robust machines - and equally reliable. For a simple system of half-dozen phones and a couple of DIDs, the trade-offs with the GUI are minor. Never though, would the Pi be an appropriate "engine" for an installation that's much larger. And, a wired connection to your LAN should be preferred over a wireless connection.

/Pete./
 
Last edited:

SMTC

Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2009
Messages
190
Reaction score
13
Read through some more stuff on the Overclocking from:
http://haydenjames.io/raspberry-pi-2-overclock/
and
http://raspberrypi.stackexchange.co...spberry-pi-2-overclock-to-default-on-raspbian

..and it appears that RASPI-CONFIG can indeed be used to set the Pi2 overclocking. But setting it back to default (my stock CONFIG.TXT file had no overclock settings as default, just a single commented-out setting) seems to not exist. What does the Pi 2 do performance-wise by default with no settings?

In any case, I am now running the 1000Mhz Pi2 setting and there is no heat to speak of on the Pi2. (My kit came with 2 heat sinks). Don't really notice much difference on the GUI, except the status loads 40%, then 80%, then it comes up whereas before it was 20% increments.
 

ostridge

Guru
Joined
Jan 22, 2015
Messages
1,618
Reaction score
517
Yep thats what the Gui is like. You could try 'Turbo' at 6 overvolt

The overclock options table shows (from raspi-config then overclocking )

None 700 250MHz 400MHz SDRAM, 0 OVERVOLT
Modest 800MHz ARM, 250MHz core, 400MHz SDRAM, 0 overvolt
Medium 900MHz ARM, 250MHz core, 450MHz SDRAM, 2 overvolt
High 950MHz ARM, 250MHz core, 450MHz SDRAM, 6 overvolt
Turbo 1000MHz ARM, 500MHz core, 600MHz SDRAM, 6 overvolt
Pi2 1000MHz ARM, 500MHz core, 500MHz SDRAM, 2 overvolt

BUT My Pi2 is running with the following settings
From
Code:
cat config.txt
MyPi2 arm_freq=1000, core_freq=500, sdram_freq=500, over_voltage=2, gpu_mem=64
Regards
 

SMTC

Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2009
Messages
190
Reaction score
13
Just came across a 32 Gig Micro SD that I had actually bought for a Drone camera and thought I would put my Pi 2 image from my 16GB chip on it and then run RASPI-CONFIG to expand the file system. More space, right? It's a Kingston SDC10/32GBCR - Class 10.

Was not a good idea. First clue was that the PC wrote the chip at 1/2 the speed of my 16GB "high speed" Lexar (that came with a USB 3.0 adapter). And I thought the Raspberry GUI was slow. Well, this chip is twice as slow.

I would thus say, a high-speed chip is an absolute must and whatever overclocking of the SDRAM you can get away with is probably good too for the Pi 2.

Funny thing is the little green "drive" light on the Pi 2 was not really chattering away while I was waiting for the GUI in Explorer/Chrome/Firefox.
 

wardmundy

Nerd Uno
Joined
Oct 12, 2007
Messages
19,168
Reaction score
5,199
If performance is a concern (especially with the GUI), the RasPi 2 probably isn't the right choice. The Intel NUC has about 50 times the horsepower for roughly double the cost of a decked out Raspberry Pi 2.
 

SMTC

Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2009
Messages
190
Reaction score
13
Anyone want to trade PI2 + cash for a NUC? lol.
 

geopeterwc

Guru
Joined
Aug 17, 2010
Messages
385
Reaction score
131
Anyone want to trade PI2 + cash for a NUC? lol.
I have enough RaspPi2's in my inventory. But, you could have your very own NUC by Tuesday, the 24th if you order from Amazon within the next 18 hours: http://tinyurl.com/phyjogj. $129.99 + tax + shipping.

Guaranteed ... given your earlier comments about the inefficiencies/inadequacies of the RaspPi, you'll be much happier with the Intel NUC DN2820FYKH - even with a Celeron processor that is in this model. Add a solid state drive and a stick of DDR3L memory, and you'll have an IncrediblePBX that you would be happy to write home about!

/Pete./
 

SMTC

Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2009
Messages
190
Reaction score
13
Incidentally, I ran the benchmark and with my 16GB Lexar "633x 90mB/sec" got Read 18.8, Write 13.0. Is this good for our application?

And @geopeterwc thanks for the Amazon tip (too bad I cancelled my free trial of Prime) but I still like the way-cool of having the whole thing in the tiny little box. I'll make this work and be done worrying about the GUI soon enough :-D.

Besides, I'm thinking about re-purposing a laptop with more than a Celeron, a big hard drive, built-in wifi, Ethernet, keyboard, mouse, screen *AND* a built-in 2 hour UPS (battery). Why I did not jump on this in the first place I do not know.
 
Last edited:

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
25,779
Messages
167,505
Members
19,199
Latest member
leocipriano
Get 3CX - Absolutely Free!

Link up your team and customers Phone System Live Chat Video Conferencing

Hosted or Self-managed. Up to 10 users free forever. No credit card. Try risk free.

3CX
A 3CX Account with that email already exists. You will be redirected to the Customer Portal to sign in or reset your password if you've forgotten it.
Top