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19 posts
How to find which rc.d script is actually holding up boot, distinguish a genuinely slow service from an unnecessary dependency chain, and fix each case differently.
Getting DTrace enabled and running real diagnostic scripts on FreeBSD, from syscall counting to finding exactly which function is burning CPU, without recompiling anything.
Load average is climbing but top shows plenty of idle CPU. This almost always means processes stuck waiting on I/O, not a CPU problem — here's how to actually find which one.
Why io_uring's shared ring-buffer design eliminates most of the syscall overhead that made previous Linux async I/O interfaces disappointing in practice.
Why you can't find most of macOS's own system libraries as individual files on disk anymore, and how the dynamic linker's shared cache changed application launch performance and internal structure.
Distinguishing normal, temporary Spotlight indexing load from a genuinely stuck reindex loop, and how to actually resolve the latter instead of just tolerating high CPU indefinitely.
Reading the memory pressure gauge correctly, understanding when swap usage is completely normal versus a sign of a real problem, and identifying which specific process is actually responsible for sustained pressure.
Every emulator has to answer the same question: how do you run code written for one processor on a completely different one? Two fundamentally different answers, and why most serious emulators eventually need both.
A frame-perfect run suddenly hitches every time a new visual effect appears on screen. It's not a savestate or performance problem — it's your GPU driver compiling a shader for the first time, mid-frame.
The game runs, but noticeably faster or slower than it should — usually a frame-timing or region mismatch, not a broken core, and quick to isolate once you know where to look.
Opening a new terminal tab takes a visibly annoying second or two before you get a prompt. Here's how to actually find which specific line in your config is responsible, rather than guessing.
Understanding what the Memory Compression process actually is before assuming it's a problem, and how to actually identify a genuine memory leak versus normal, by-design memory management behavior.
Task Manager shows vmmem consuming several gigabytes of RAM, even when you're not actively using WSL. Here's how to actually diagnose what's holding that memory, and how to cap it properly.
A project that runs fine natively feels sluggish the moment it's accessed from /mnt/c inside WSL2 — especially anything touching large numbers of small files. Here's why, and the actual fix.
WSL2's lightweight VM claims memory dynamically as Linux processes need it — but historically gave that memory back to Windows only reluctantly. Here's what's actually happening, and what you control via .wslconfig.
A practical toolkit for watching CPU, memory, disk, and network usage live — going beyond top to actually find what's causing a resource problem.
The game runs and looks fine, but the audio pops, crackles, or stutters. This is almost always an audio buffer or sync problem, not a broken emulator core.
Task Manager shows disk usage pinned at 100% with no obvious cause. Windows Search's indexer is a frequent culprit — here's how to confirm it and fix it properly.
Boot times creeping up over time usually trace to a specific, identifiable cause — too many startup programs, a failing drive, or a driver delaying boot — not general 'Windows rot.'