[Bug 26658] New: Steam startup slow on Wine

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26658

Summary: Steam startup slow on Wine
           Product: Wine
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: x86
        OS/Version: Linux
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: -unknown
        AssignedTo: [e-mail]
        ReportedBy: [e-mail]

On my nice fast laptop with a 15 Mbit/sec internet connection and wine from
git,
it takes 20-30 seconds from the time the "Connecting Steam Account: Foo"
appears to the time it gains a cancel button.  This is about two or three times
longer than on Windows 7 on the same hardware.
The extra time makes starting Steam much more annoying.

[Bug 26658] Steam startup is slow

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26658

Dmitry Timoshkov  changed:

What    |Removed                     |Added
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            Version|unspecified                 |1.3.17
            Summary|Steam startup slow on Wine  |Steam startup is slow
           Severity|normal                      |minor

[Bug 26658] Steam startup is slow

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26658

Ken Sharp  changed:

What    |Removed                     |Added
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           Keywords|                            |download
                URL|                            |http://cdn.steampowered.com
                   |                            |/download/SteamInstall.msi

[Bug 26658] Steam startup is slow

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26658

Fab  changed:

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[Bug 26658] Steam startup is slow

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26658

Alex Bradbury  changed:

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[Bug 26658] Steam startup is slow

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26658

Javier Kohen  changed:

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[Bug 26658] Steam startup is slow

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26658

Pilot  changed:

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[Bug 26658] Steam startup is slow

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26658

Adam Bolte  changed:

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[Bug 26658] Steam startup is slow

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26658

Benjamin Hodgetts  changed:

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--- Comment #1 from Benjamin Hodgetts  2011-07-17 16:21:28 CDT ---
I have the same issue on my netbook. Works perfectly under Windows but there's
a huge delay (can be a minute or two at times) starting up Steam under Wine.

[Bug 26658] Steam startup is slow

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26658

tommi  changed:

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--- Comment #2 from tommi  2011-08-09 04:04:47 CDT ---
I can also confirm this one. wine 1.3.26

[Bug 26658] Steam startup is slow

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26658

James Le Cuirot  changed:

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[Bug 26658] Steam startup is slow

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26658

David Finch  changed:

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[Bug 26658] Steam startup is slow

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26658

Erich Hoover  changed:

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--- Comment #3 from Erich Hoover  2011-10-03 10:05:23 CDT ---
I think this might be related to how steam looks for files.

I'm having a problem right now (new steam version?) where I cannot do the
first-launch "completing installation" for Portal 2.  I believe that the issue
is that steam uses GetVolumePathNameW to find the drive associated with the
steam folder and then searches for files by inode within that drive.  On Wine
we just return the base drive letter right now, so since I have the steam
folder on an external drive it freaks out.

Anyway, how I believe this relates to the startup taking forever is that steam
is always searching the entire drive for its files (since it is doing an
inode-based lookup).  So, I think that what we need is a cache of files where
NtQueryInformationFile has returned an inode value so that calls to
NtCreateFile with FILE_OPEN_BY_FILE_ID can search the "recently returned inode
list" before it looks through the entire drive.

[Bug 26658] Steam startup is slow

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26658

--- Comment #4 from James Le Cuirot  2011-10-03 10:22:55 CDT ---
My setup is a bit harder to explain but that theory seems to fit.

[Bug 26658] Steam startup is slow

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26658

Real Name  changed:

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--- Comment #5 from Real Name  2012-05-28 09:47:23 CDT ---
Confirmed. It's a big laggy.

[Bug 26658] Steam startup is slow

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26658

--- Comment #6 from Erich Hoover  2012-07-17 10:59:53 CDT ---
(In reply to comment #3)
> ...
> Anyway, how I believe this relates to the startup taking forever is that steam
> is always searching the entire drive for its files (since it is doing an
> inode-based lookup).  So, I think that what we need is a cache of files where
> NtQueryInformationFile has returned an inode value so that calls to
> NtCreateFile with FILE_OPEN_BY_FILE_ID can search the "recently returned inode
> list" before it looks through the entire drive.

I'm not entirely sure this is why Steam takes so long to load, but I do have a
thought about fixing this particular problem...  It should be possible to
accelerate the search by using /proc/<wine pid>/fd/* to get a head start on
finding out which file corresponds to the inode.

[Bug 26658] Steam startup is slow

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26658

Mihail Balabin  changed:

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--- Comment #7 from Mihail Balabin  2012-12-23 02:20:06 CST ---
I have just upgraded from wine 1.5.18 to 1.5.20. It seems that steam startup
became much faster. Were any steam-related changes made between those versions?

[Bug 26658] Steam startup is slow

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26658

Mihail Balabin  changed:

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--- Comment #7 from Mihail Balabin  2012-12-23 02:20:06 CST ---
I have just upgraded from wine 1.5.18 to 1.5.20. It seems that steam startup
became much faster. Were any steam-related changes made between those versions?

--- Comment #8 from Javier Kohen  2013-01-12 03:29:11 CST ---
Created attachment 43156
  --> http://bugs.winehq.org/attachment.cgi?id=43156
Instrumentation for FILE_CreateFile

I've used the attached patch to instrument FILE_CreateFile. First, I see no
calls with FILE_OPEN_BY_FILE_ID. Second, on my SSD drive the cumulative search
time for Steam startup and shutdown adds up to less than a second, and the
cumulative time in FILE_CreateFile is less than 1.5 seconds. Yet Steam takes 45
seconds to start (measured with a stop watch).

In any case, a quick grep/sort/uniq on the trace shows that on average Steam
makes 3 identical calls to FILE_CreateFile (same handle/name/etc.), and visual
inspection indicates that most of the calls are for the same files over and
over. Caching might help HDD owners (it'd be nice if somebody ran my test
though, because the file system cache should cover that), but it doesn't seem
to be the worst contributor to the overall startup.

I'm curious, has anybody compared the start up time to native Linux Steam start
up times? It seems a hassle to install it on Debian, so I haven't bothered.

To reproduce:
1. patch in my change (diff against Wine 1.5.21).
2. make LDFLAGS=-lrt
3. env WINEDEBUG=+ntdll wine … &> /tmp/wine-ntdll.log

Search time:
$ grep "search took" /tmp/wine-ntdll.log  | awk 'BEGIN { total = 0; } { total
+= $5; } END { print total; } '
909038970

NtCreateFile time:
$ grep "createfile took" /tmp/wine-ntdll.log  | awk 'BEGIN { total = 0; } {
total += $5; } END { print total; } '
1346543118

[Bug 26658] Steam startup is slow

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26658

Christopher Cope  changed:

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--- Comment #9 from Christopher Cope  2013-06-21 17:24:19 CDT ---
(In reply to comment #8)
> Created attachment 43156 [details]
> Instrumentation for FILE_CreateFile
>
> I've used the attached patch to instrument FILE_CreateFile. First, I see no
> calls with FILE_OPEN_BY_FILE_ID. Second, on my SSD drive the cumulative search
> time for Steam startup and shutdown adds up to less than a second, and the
> cumulative time in FILE_CreateFile is less than 1.5 seconds. Yet Steam takes 45
> seconds to start (measured with a stop watch).
>
> In any case, a quick grep/sort/uniq on the trace shows that on average Steam
> makes 3 identical calls to FILE_CreateFile (same handle/name/etc.), and visual
> inspection indicates that most of the calls are for the same files over and
> over. Caching might help HDD owners (it'd be nice if somebody ran my test
> though, because the file system cache should cover that), but it doesn't seem
> to be the worst contributor to the overall startup.
>
> I'm curious, has anybody compared the start up time to native Linux Steam start
> up times? It seems a hassle to install it on Debian, so I haven't bothered.
>
> To reproduce:
> - patch in my change (diff against Wine 1.5.21).
> - make LDFLAGS=-lrt
> - env WINEDEBUG=+ntdll wine … &> /tmp/wine-ntdll.log
>
> Search time:
> $ grep "search took" /tmp/wine-ntdll.log  | awk 'BEGIN { total = 0; } { total
> += $5; } END { print total; } '
> 909038970
>
> NtCreateFile time:
> $ grep "createfile took" /tmp/wine-ntdll.log  | awk 'BEGIN { total = 0; } {
> total += $5; } END { print total; } '
> 1346543118

It isn't too difficult to get steam installed on other Linux distributions.
Feel free to contact me if you need help.
On a more relevant note, I tested the Linux vs Wine start up times.
Linux: 15 seconds
Wine:  52 seconds

[Bug 26658] Steam startup is slow

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26658

--- Comment #10 from Ken Sharp  ---
Does this still occur in Wine 1.7.11 or later?

[Bug 26658] Steam startup is slow

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26658

Anastasius Focht  changed:

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--- Comment #11 from Anastasius Focht  ---
Hello folks,

you can also use 'timestamp' debug channel combined with others to measure time
between events/trace messages.

I don't see a significant delay with Steam client from "cold start" (no
processes running prior).
Some mid-range system with i5 and Samsung 840 SSD.

Maybe someone with low spec hardware (hdd) can retest.
Make sure you can provide numbers with a Steam client running off a Windows
install from the same system.

$ wine --version
wine-1.7.17-28-g5ef5490

Regards

[Bug 26658] Steam startup is slow

https://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26658

[e-mail] changed:

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--- Comment #12 from [e-mail] ---
I don't remember how fast steam was on windows based system, but it has always
been quite slow on linux. I upgraded hdd --> ssd. And even the fastest startup
time according to console messages is around 7s. I didn't see much of
improvement on that (but kde loading speed has improved a lot).

Is this bug still valid for you?

[Bug 26658] Steam startup is slow

https://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26658

Ken Sharp  changed:

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           Keywords|                            |Abandoned?

[Bug 26658] Steam startup is slow

https://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26658

Joni L-H  changed:

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--- Comment #13 from Joni L-H  ---
Try running steam with# "...taskset -c 0 wine..."
If I do not do this (locking steam to 1 core) it takes forEVER to start up.
But if I do lock it to 1 core it starts fairly quickly.
Not sure why this is.

[Bug 26658] Steam startup is slow

[WineHQ Bugzilla]

https://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26658

Fabian Maurer  changed:

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--- Comment #14 from Fabian Maurer  ---
Is this still an issue?

[Bug 26658] Steam startup is slow

[WineHQ Bugzilla]

https://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26658

Javier Kohen  changed:

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                   |t                           |

[Bug 26658] Steam startup is slow

[WineHQ Bugzilla]

https://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26658

--- Comment #15 from Ken Sharp  ---
On a spinning disk up to the point of seeing the store (the "main page").

~15 seconds on Windows 10
~30 seconds on Wine 8.12
~90 seconds on Linux!

So it does seem slower but nothing terrible compared to the Linux client.
There are a stream of fixmes in the console output.