Slow database performance - WHY ? WHY ? WHY ?

Question

When I run pacman -Syu, the command takes a long time to execute. When I run pacman -S something, and that something does not exist as a package, the command again takes a long time to execute while searching. So my question is, why does pacman take a long time for entire database search operations, when the number of packages in the is quite limited ?

Answer 1

it must be a configuration problem then because its definitely not my connection.
heres my pacman.conf:
# /etc/pacman.conf
# See the pacman manpage for option directives
# GENERAL OPTIONS
[options]
UseSyslog
NoPassiveFtp
# The following paths are commented out with their default values listed.
# If you wish to use different paths, uncomment and update the paths.
#RootDir = /
#DBPath = /var/lib/pacman/
#CacheDir = /var/cache/pacman/pkg/
#LogFile = /var/log/pacman.log
HoldPkg = pacman glibc
XferCommand = /usr/bin/aria2c -s 2 -m 2 -d / -o %o %u
# REPOSITORIES
# - can be defined here or included from another file
# - pacman will search repositories in the order defined here
# - local/custom mirrors can be added here or in separate files
# - repositories listed first will take precedence when packages
# have identical names, regardless of version number
# Repository entries are of the format:
# [repo-name]
# Server = ServerName
# Include = IncludePath
# The header [repo-name] is crucial - it must be present and
# uncommented to enable the repo.
# Testing is disabled by default. To enable, uncomment the following
# two lines. You can add preferred servers immediately after the header,
# and they will be used before the default mirrors.
#[testing]
#Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
[core]
Server=ftp://mirror.cs.vt.edu/pub/ArchLinux/$repo/os/i686
# Add your preferred servers here, they will be used first
[extra]
Server=ftp://mirror.cs.vt.edu/pub/ArchLinux/$repo/os/i686
# Add your preferred servers here, they will be used first
[community]
Server=ftp://mirror.cs.vt.edu/pub/ArchLinux/$repo/os/i686
# Add your preferred servers here, they will be used first
# Unstable is disabled by default. To enable, uncomment the following
# two lines. You can add preferred servers immediately after the header,
# and they will be used before the default mirrors.
[unstable]
Server=ftp://mirror.cs.vt.edu/pub/ArchLinux/$repo/os/i686
[kdemod-legacy]
Server = http://kdemod.ath.cx/repo/legacy/i686
# An example of a custom package repository. See the pacman manpage for
# tips on creating your own repositories.
#[custom]
#Server = file:///home/custompkgs
and heres my mirrorlist:
# Arch Linux repository mirrorlist
Server = ftp://mirror.cs.vt.edu/pub/ArchLinux/$repo/os/i686
# United States
#Server = ftp://ftp-linux.cc.gatech.edu/pub/linux/distributions/archlinux/$repo/os/i686
#Server = ftp://ftp.archlinux.org/$repo/os/i686
#Server = ftp://locke.suu.edu/linux/dist/archlinux/$repo/os/i686
#Server = ftp://mirrors.unixheads.org/archlinux/$repo/os/i686
#Server = http://mirrors.easynews.com/linux/archlinux/$repo/os/i686
#Server = ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/archlinux/$repo/os/i686
#Server = http://holmes.umflint.edu/archlinux/$repo/os/i686
#Server = http://mirror.neotuli.net/arch/$repo/os/i686
i really love arch and it took me about 8 hours last night to install it on my dads computer (what im on now, i ran into a lot of problems namely with alsa, grub and x) and pacman barely works. I really dont feel like reinstalling arch again. I have arch on my computer up at school and have never had this sort of problem before. this all seemed to happen when i optimized the database after arch wouldnt update anything because it said that all the packages already existed. I performed all the maintainence operations and boom! this happens
i also created a new reiserfs partition for /var since i read that it wasnt a good idea to have /var on a JFS partition (my / and /home are JFS partitions), but that didnt seem to make any difference at all. is there a way to completely wipe out all of pacman and start from scratch? everything else works fine except for pacman.
Last edited by brando56894 (2008-11-30 20:10:22)