Calibre locks entire machine for 1-2 mins on first startup

[Terisa de morgan]

Same here about freeze and splash-screen.

[PeterT]

I can't say as I tend to reboot so infrequently

[DrChiper]

Ok, what I see on a normal start-up is roughly the following init sequence:
- accessing pylib
- accessing fonts
- accessing plugins
- accessing sqlite
- accessing library (last)
- accessing plugins
- accessing images (resources)
- accessing Qt widgets
- accessing Qt webkit
- accessing Qt core
- accessing library (last) looping each individual ebook
- starting threads (parallel)
- network calibre code calling home (https)
- network calibre plugins calling home (https)
- starting calibre
- remembering last library / last e-book
- init windows

As I'm using a very small startup library (always making sure it is selected when I close calibre), that hardly involves long scanning times.

However, I did noticed that still a lot of queries where made for:
- metadata.db-journal
- metadata.db-wal
These files never existed (and are certainly not created during the calibre library inspection), so why the repetitive querying?

Most init time (as was previously already stated) is spend in pylib, but also querying the fonts and the plugins. Qt is surprisingly not that heavy on initial loading.

So until I actual capture a freeze (when you need it, it is not there ), everything seems to be quite straightforward.

Just my 2cts

[cybmole]

i am sure there was a thread a few months back about splash screen causing issues for some users, but I forget the conclusions, if any as to why that was.

does disabling splash solve the thread title issue for OP ?

[JSWolf]

One thing that was mentioned a while ago. Some fonts can cause problems for Calibre. So try removing the fonts that did not come with Windows and see if that helps things.

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by DrChiper

However, I did noticed that still a lot of queries where made for:
- metadata.db-journal
- metadata.db-wal
These files never existed (and are certainly not created during the calibre library inspection), so why the repetitive querying?

These files are part of the SQLite transaction/journal handling. I know that they can get created and removed dynamically while making changes to the database. I think they always disappear on a tidy closedown, but can get left behind after a crash (and are presumably used for recovery on the next run).

I suspect that the handling of those files is internal to the SQLite library code and never visible to the higher level Calibre code.

[kovidgoyal]

@itimpi: Indeed, those are SQlite specific, calibre has no control over them.

Hello. I tried to read this thread, but did not find any solution, and I am
not good enough to investigate the system.

I DO have the same problem. It is really more an ennuyance that else, but
it caused several crashes in Video making programs when started while they
were running.

In fact, EVERYTHING is dead during 1 to 2 minutes, even system processes.
I can't get to the task bar, or do anything, and the mouse display the 'wait'
round cursor.

As new facts, I had the problem with all the version that I tried, either 32 or 64B.

I tried to start without any safegards, no juice...

I have two configs :

A large PC, with Win 7 (all fix included as June 2015!) version Integral

A Eeepc, with little disc space and Win XP family.

Both are running Avira, and due to its new lack of Firewall, free Zonealarm.

I do not keep any library, using Calibre ONLY for conversions or reading.

One fact is clear :

The XP machine DOES NOT Freeze at all !!!

The Win 7 machine freezes after any reboot (twice daily). It does not
change if the nerwork is on or off.

I just hope there will be some help there...

[DiapDealer]

Many of my programs behave this way on my Windows machine (Chrome, calibre, Komodo Edit, etc...). Big delay/grind on the first launch after boot up (regardless of how much time has passed since boot) with speedy subsequent launches thereafter. Just figured that was "the way things were" with some programs.

Granted; it's not minutes, mind you. But it is a considerable delay. That's why I never reboot my Windows machine if I can help it.

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Many of my programs behave this way on my Windows machine (Chrome, calibre, Komodo Edit, etc...). Big delay/grind on the first launch after boot up (regardless of how much time has passed since boot) with speedy subsequent launches thereafter.

i see that with VLC player, all versions, all PCs, & moaning about it on their forums is unproductive.

but like you say it's seconds, not minutes, and the PC continue to multi task oK throughout

I do sometimes see a few seconds of "calibre is not responding" when I click on the system tray icon to bring it back from minimized. I guess that's after windows 7 has dumped it from RAM & has to play go fetch ?

[BetterRed]

One thing I've noticed is that if I restart calibre with ctrl+shift+R the start times are +10secs whereas running calibre-debug from the command line with the output appended to a pre-existing calibre.log are 2-3secs (which is the same as a normal start),

The log file that's created when ctrl+shift+R is used to run in calibre-debug IS in the Windows Temp folder. But the calibre.log file which is used when I run the calibre-debug command (via a one line batch file) IS NOT in the Windows Temp folder.

I use the CALIBRE_TEMP_DIR environment variable to relocate calibre's transient temporary folder - into the same parent directory as my calibre.log file, which is at the root of my SSD system drive.

So I tried disabling the CALIBRE_TEMP_DIR directive, made no difference, its still 2-3 secs, except when I use ctrl+shift+R.

One thing I have noticed (and I think its only been recently) is that calibre sometimes doesn't push itself to be topmost window when I start it. I start calibre from the taskbar, which is configured to work a bit like a 'quick launch' bar, but with stacked icons, no previews, and no silly start button. I haven't detected a pattern; its a very minor irritant - Windows+4 will make it topmost.

BR

[kovidgoyal]

@DiadDealer: That is because of windows DLL caching. On reboot the first time you start a program all its DLLs have to be loaded from disk. On subsequent restarts they are cached and already in RAM (assuming you have enough free RAM). Programs that do not use windows native frameworks have a particularly large number of DLLs to load. So the difference between cold and hot starts is much more noticeable.

@BetterRed: That is because a restart waits for calibre to shutdown cleanly first, which takes a few seconds.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Many of my programs behave this way on my Windows machine (Chrome, calibre, Komodo Edit, etc...). Big delay/grind on the first launch after boot up (regardless of how much time has passed since boot) with speedy subsequent launches thereafter. Just figured that was "the way things were" with some programs.

Granted; it's not minutes, mind you. But it is a considerable delay. That's why I never reboot my Windows machine if I can help it.

Funny, don't people usually complain Windows slows down because you don't reboot it often enough?

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

@DiadDealer: That is because of windows DLL caching. On reboot the first time you start a program all its DLLs have to be loaded from disk. On subsequent restarts they are cached and already in RAM (assuming you have enough free RAM). Programs that do not use windows native frameworks have a particularly large number of DLLs to load. So the difference between cold and hot starts is much more noticeable.

I knew there was some sort of caching going on that sped up subsequent re-launches, but I didn't know why some programs' cold launches were so much slower than others. Makes sense. Thanks.

Hello
https://www2.mobileread.com/i/smilies/confused.gif

I did some more testing. None other programs (including VLC) takes more than 10 secondes to load, and do not freeze anything.

Calibre freeze all, including Windows clock display for a full minute.

I also tried to clear the 'prefetch' cache, and use 'Windows - Supprimer les DLL en cache.htm' to unload applications DLL after program exit by registry.

I got exactly the same result, 1 minute first time, 10 secondes next.

What worries me is not the waiting time, it is the fact that all other
application are dead for a full minute. It already caused a DVD creation
program to abort.