Whenever I run bitcoin, my computer (Dell E4200 running Ubuntu 12.04, with AwesomeWM) lags quite heavily.
It will operate normally for 10-15 seconds, then 'freeze' for 10 to 15 seconds, during which time keyboard and mouse input seems not to register. Some actions are more affected than others. Chrome won't output keystokes in this textarea during such a lag, but I can change tabs freely. All the keystrokes show when the freeze ends.
I am running bitcoin-qt from this repository: https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin
I installed it with sudo apt-get install bitcoin-qt
Version shown during install:
Unpacking bitcoin-qt (from .../bitcoin-qt_0.6.2-precise0_amd64.deb) ...
I had the same issue when I was running Ubuntu Unity, and the 'original' bitcoin client.
My client is currently synchronizing with the network.
My total CPU usage is between 20-60%, with occasional spikes to 90+%.
Memory usage is steady at ~60%, and swap is ~5%.
Any clues to help me diagnose / solve this issue?
Thank you.