Slow SMB Browsing: "ERROR: Getting extended attributes for the share"

We really need debug logs in order to look into this problem. But do I understand it correctly that the problem did NOT occur with beta2?

IBeIzPepe Wrote:My next step is to rebuild Ubuntu from scratch with a fresh install of the gold Atlantis build. Maybe some old files/settings are causing a conflict. I'll let everyone know how that goes.

So I just reinstalled Ubuntu 8.04 from scratch, I know this was an extreme measure but it didn't take long, then installed a fresh copy of XBMC and my problem now appears to be solved. Not sure this was the best way to solve the issue, but I'm sure I just upgraded XBMC incorrectly. In my defense, it was my first time upgrading, so I must have messed up.

Hope this helps someone, just trying to give a little back.

arnova Wrote:We really need debug logs in order to look into this problem. But do I understand it correctly that the problem did NOT occur with beta2?

No, it happened as well with Beta2. The problem is very easy to reproduce, just throw a bunch of files in the same directory (>200) and browse the directory (slow when going into the directory because it loads too much data from the whole directory) and try to play a video from it (slow startup because it is again reading data from the whole directory, about 20 seconds before it starts buffering).

Could you at least figure out which version it still worked properly (beta1, alpha-x?, SVN-xxxx)?

And again: a debug log please...

From where can I get the binaries/packages from the different versions? I have used only beta2 and final and both have the problem.

PS. I will post the debug files later when I am at home

This is the pastebin when I browse in Files mode and go directly to the share and play a movie:

http://pastebin.com/mb85f193

This via the Library:

http://pastebin.com/m51f12110

Any ideas?

How long does it take to access this directory you are referring to? I can't spot the problem yet from your log file. Could you also provide some timestamps (for the logs) when you perform certain actions (access directory, start movie, movie plays, etc.) ? I already understood from one of the devs that smb has major performance issues which need to be looked at but I'm not sure yet that this is the same issue....

When browsing the directory directly it takes about 20 to 30 seconds to open the directory. Then when I choose one file to be played it takes again 20 to 30 seconds before starting buffering the actual file. I've straced the smbd in the other end (the NAS server) and what happens is that XBMC is requesting a bunch of data from the whole directory (from every single file in the directory).

Whe I play a file in Library mode, again XBMC loads data from the whole directory. It takes the same 20 to 30 seconds before starting buffering.

This does not make sense, why you need to load data from every single file in the directory when you already know which file you want to play?

You will notice these delays only when you have lots of files in the same directory.

You can reproduce the problem in your own system if you have an SMB share. Just play any file and check how data about other files in the same directory is collected.

I think you're "experiencing" 2 problems: the background (fanart) scanner using the same connection which slows down the loading. And next to that an issue I'm also encountering and that is that every file inside an SMB directory is being stat()'ed. For Xbox I wrote a patch to disable this (via advancedsettings) but maybe we should commit it to the other branches too. Please create a trac report about this issue as it certainly is something that needs to be looked at...