Arch Linux

DSpider

Member

From: Romania

Registered: 2009-08-23

Posts: 2,273

Xfce is running slow and I have no idea why (Gnome and KDE work fine)

I'm aware that I'm running some old hardware...

Athlon XP 2200+ (1.8 GHz)
2x256 MB RAM @ 333 MHz
Geforce 4 MX 440 (64 MB).

I'm using the "nvidia-96xx" driver.

When dragging a window on the desktop it lags behind. Minimizing/maximizing is also slow. What is causing it ? I thought Xfce was supposed to use fewer resources than GNOME or KDE, yet these two work very well in other distributions. What am I missing here ? Refresh rates ? V-Sync ?

Last edited by DSpider (2010-04-18 16:02:48)

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"How to Succeed with Linux"

I have made a personal commitment not to reply in topics that start with a lowercase letter. Proper grammar and punctuation is a sign of respect, and if you do not show any, you will NOT receive any help (at least not from me).

empthollow

Member

Registered: 2009-09-26

Posts: 168

Re: Xfce is running slow and I have no idea why (Gnome and KDE work fine)

When you say gnome and kde work fine, are these being run on the install as xfce? If they are not then, it could be a system configuration issue with the system you are trying to run xfce on.  What might also be help is running the top command to see if there is a particular process is eating alot of cpu.  I have a athlon xp 1800 overclocked to a 2000xp I am running arch linux and gnome runs fine.

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DSpider

Member

From: Romania

Registered: 2009-08-23

Posts: 2,273

Re: Xfce is running slow and I have no idea why (Gnome and KDE work fine)

X is taking up over 96% when I'm moving a window on the desktop. Very CPU intensive.

KDE ran through Kubuntu and GNOME through Linux Mint. I know something's not right here... I just can't put my finger on it.

Should I reinstall Arch ? Or better yet, how can I start over without reinstalling ?

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"How to Succeed with Linux"

I have made a personal commitment not to reply in topics that start with a lowercase letter. Proper grammar and punctuation is a sign of respect, and if you do not show any, you will NOT receive any help (at least not from me).

AndyRTR

Developer

From: Magdeburg/Germany

Registered: 2005-10-07

Posts: 1,641

Re: Xfce is running slow and I have no idea why (Gnome and KDE work fine)

You just need to fix your Xorg setup to make it use DRI

DSpider

Member

From: Romania

Registered: 2009-08-23

Posts: 2,273

Re: Xfce is running slow and I have no idea why (Gnome and KDE work fine)

Direct Rendering Infrastructure ? How ?

# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings:  version 1.0  (buildmeister@builder63)  Thu Jan 28 16:15:21 PST 2010

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load           "dbe"
    Load           "extmod"
    Load           "type1"
    Load           "freetype"
    Load           "glx"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option         "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "LG L1919S"
    HorizSync       30.0 - 83.0
    VertRefresh     56.0 - 75.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Videocard0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce4 MX 440"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Videocard0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "metamodes" "1280x1024_60 +0+0; 1280x1024 +0+0; 1024x768 +0+0; 800x600 +0+0; 640x480 +0+0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
        Modes      "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Last edited by DSpider (2010-04-18 17:09:36)

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"How to Succeed with Linux"

I have made a personal commitment not to reply in topics that start with a lowercase letter. Proper grammar and punctuation is a sign of respect, and if you do not show any, you will NOT receive any help (at least not from me).

hokasch

Member

Registered: 2007-09-23

Posts: 1,461

Re: Xfce is running slow and I have no idea why (Gnome and KDE work fine)

Jesus. Are you doing this on purpose?
I pointed you repeatedly to to the following resources in the other thread about composition being sluggish:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Composite
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NVI … _xorg.conf

you haven't even looked at it, judging by your xorg.conf. Do it please before posting again.

btw: use the code tag for long text.

DSpider

Member

From: Romania

Registered: 2009-08-23

Posts: 2,273

Re: Xfce is running slow and I have no idea why (Gnome and KDE work fine)

hokasch, that was the default Nvidia xorg.conf. As far as I know the "composition" effect is the extended shadow/halo of the windows and I don't have that setting enabled. Xfce provides it in Menu - Settings - Window Manager Tweaks - Compositor.

According to the Wiki: "RenderAccel is enabled by default since drivers version 97.46.xx"

And the latest driver for my video card is 96.43.16... Adding it didn't help but I think I should probably keep it.

You just need to fix your Xorg setup to make it use DRI

Adding Load        "dri" to the "Module" section didn't work either. Maybe it's something I need to install first ?

# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings:  version 1.0  (buildmeister@builder63)  Thu Jan 28 16:15:21 PST 2010

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load           "dbe"
    Load           "extmod"
    Load           "type1"
    Load           "freetype"
    Load           "glx"
    Load           "dri"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option         "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "LG L1919S"
    HorizSync       30.0 - 83.0
    VertRefresh     56.0 - 75.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Videocard0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce4 MX 440"
    Option "RenderAccel" "True"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Videocard0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "metamodes" "1280x1024_60 +0+0; 1280x1024 +0+0; 1024x768 +0+0; 800x600 +0+0; 640x480 +0+0"
    SubSection     "Display"
    Depth           24
    Modes          "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
    Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
  Option "Composite" "False"
EndSection

PS: I've also been using the "pkill x" command and "startx" to test the new xorg.conf setups. Should I have been rebooting instead ?

Last edited by DSpider (2010-04-18 18:08:58)

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"How to Succeed with Linux"

I have made a personal commitment not to reply in topics that start with a lowercase letter. Proper grammar and punctuation is a sign of respect, and if you do not show any, you will NOT receive any help (at least not from me).

n0dix

Member

Registered: 2009-09-22

Posts: 956

Re: Xfce is running slow and I have no idea why (Gnome and KDE work fine)

Is there any error on Xorg log?

DSpider

Member

From: Romania

Registered: 2009-08-23

Posts: 2,273

Re: Xfce is running slow and I have no idea why (Gnome and KDE work fine)

I must admit I don't know where tje Xorg log is located... But if I use Ctrl + Alt + F1 I get tons of errors. WTF.

Something about Unknown #directive "Those"
Unknown #directive "or"
Unknown #directive "Xft"
Unknown #directive "Xft"

4 errors in preprocessors... Warnings, etc... Ugh.

PS: I used pacman to install driconf (which is supposed to eliminate screen tearing) but I get an error when I try to run it from the Settings menu:
"XDriInfo returned with non-zero exit code."

Last edited by DSpider (2010-04-18 19:09:24)

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"How to Succeed with Linux"

I have made a personal commitment not to reply in topics that start with a lowercase letter. Proper grammar and punctuation is a sign of respect, and if you do not show any, you will NOT receive any help (at least not from me).

n0dix

Member

Registered: 2009-09-22

Posts: 956

Re: Xfce is running slow and I have no idea why (Gnome and KDE work fine)

Is in /var/log/Xorg.0.log.

Leonid.I

Member

From: Aethyr

Registered: 2009-03-22

Posts: 999

Re: Xfce is running slow and I have no idea why (Gnome and KDE work fine)

@Dspider: Logs: /var/log/Xorg.0.log. I have exactly the same video hardware/driver as yourself. Moreover, I too run XFCE. You need to clean your xorg.conf. Here is mine (from RHEL 5, 2008), for comparison:

# X.org config file created for the NVidia 96.xx driver
#
Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Default Layout"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option      "DontZap" "on"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier  "Keyboard0"
    Driver      "kbd"
    Option        "XkbModel" "pc105"
    Option        "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "Module"
        Load  "dbe"
        Load  "glx"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "Videocard0"
    Driver      "nvidia"
    Option "RenderAccel" "True"
    Option "BackingStore" "True"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Device     "Videocard0"
    DefaultDepth     24
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

The SubSection in Screen is most likely not needed -- too lazy to fix it. The same goes to the Module section. Indeed, here are the logs:

(II) "dbe" will be loaded. This was enabled by default and also specified in the config file.
(II) "glx" will be loaded. This was enabled by default and also specified in the config file.

The InputDevice section is also redundant, because everything has to be done by HAL. However, this works, since I have full composition/DE effects enabled, and FPS~1300.

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Arch Linux is more than just GNU/Linux -- it's an adventure
pkill -9 systemd

DSpider

Member

From: Romania

Registered: 2009-08-23

Posts: 2,273

Re: Xfce is running slow and I have no idea why (Gnome and KDE work fine)

So what you're saying is that my xorg.conf is overly complicated ? But that's what nvidia-96xx spews out... What driver are you using ?

Edit: Oh, exactly the same video driver. That's odd...

Right now I formatted / and started from the beginning. Perhaps I missed something... I know I skipped "pacman -S libgl" from the Beginner's Guide when it came up only later to find out it gets replaced (?) by nvidia-96xx-utils.

Last edited by DSpider (2010-04-18 20:10:22)

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"How to Succeed with Linux"

I have made a personal commitment not to reply in topics that start with a lowercase letter. Proper grammar and punctuation is a sign of respect, and if you do not show any, you will NOT receive any help (at least not from me).

loafer

Member

From: the pub

Registered: 2009-04-14

Posts: 1,772

Re: Xfce is running slow and I have no idea why (Gnome and KDE work fine)

libgl will get replaced unless you are using the open source drivers.

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For freedom is the man that will turn the world upside down.
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Leonid.I

Member

From: Aethyr

Registered: 2009-03-22

Posts: 999

Re: Xfce is running slow and I have no idea why (Gnome and KDE work fine)

libgl will get replaced unless you are using the open source drivers.

Ha, that's wierd. So, how does it work: I have mplayer, which depends on libgl, but no libgl? Is this a bug in mplayer?

EDIT: Oops, never mind -- nvidia-utils conflicts with libgl... But still, mplayer should be made dependent on nvidia-utils, otherwise it's confusing...

EDIT2:

Right now I formatted / and started from the beginning.

Yeah, and this time install icewm, or openbox -- should be quite fast on your hardware.

Last edited by Leonid.I (2010-04-18 21:36:48)

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Arch Linux is more than just GNU/Linux -- it's an adventure
pkill -9 systemd

Cdh

Member

Registered: 2009-02-03

Posts: 1,098

Re: Xfce is running slow and I have no idea why (Gnome and KDE work fine)

Proprietary drivers like catalyst and nvidia bring their own libgl. They should provide it or something is seriously wrong.

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Mr_Bumpy

Member

Registered: 2008-10-20

Posts: 6

Re: Xfce is running slow and I have no idea why (Gnome and KDE work fine)

I'm not sure why, but the NVIDIA 96.xx driver has had notoriously slow 2d screen draws on every system I've used it on.  Using the nv or nouveau drivers are considerably faster in this regard (but, of course, without the full 3D support, although nouveau is working on this).