[SOLVED] Compiz 50% slower in Arch vs Ubuntu Maverick

sunaku · 2010-10-08 00:12:43

Hello,

I switched from Ubuntu Maverick 10.10 beta to ArchLinux on my laptop yesterday and I noticed that Compiz Fusion effects are very sluggish (compiz benchmark plugin shows ~30FPS in Arch vs. ~60FPS in Ubuntu).

I am using the xf86-video-intel drivers (version 2.12.0) for my Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics processor. I checked the Ubuntu package repository and it says that the Maverick beta also used the same driver version.

Since the Intel driver version is the same, I think my Arch configuration is lacking something that Ubuntu Maverick had by default. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Last edited by sunaku (2010-10-09 07:00:58)

sand_man · 2010-10-08 01:08:34

Hard to say but there are compiz settings that can affect performance like "loose binding" and something else I can't remember right now. If you are using fusion-icon the options should be in the menu.
If you are using the same driver version then that is most likely not it.

sunaku · 2010-10-08 01:30:01

Thanks for the suggestions. I am using fusion-icon and the "loose binding" setting has no visible effect on performance. I also tried toggling the "Sync to VBlank" setting in ccsm's "General Options" section, but that too had no visible effect.

I have the Ubuntu Maverick installation handy (on a spare HDD) so I'll try booting into it and learn Ubuntu's performance trick.

Snowknight · 2010-10-08 02:28:25

Try manually setting your refresh rate in the general options section of ccsm. That one sits under the display settings tab.
If that doesn't work, see if the compiz troubleshooting wiki article can help—forgive me for approaching an RTFM response.

EDIT: You might also try setting compiz to indirect rendering. You can do this with fusion-icon or add the following options wherever you launch compiz.

LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=1 INTEL_BATCH=1 compiz --replace --indirect-rendering --sm-disable ccp

I'm not sure if indirect rendering will affect performance on an Intel chip, but it's worth trying.

Last edited by Snowknight (2010-10-08 02:40:17)

sunaku · 2010-10-09 00:06:33

Thanks for the suggestions. I tried both lowering and increasing the refresh rate but there was no improvement. I am also already using the "indirect rendering" option in fusion-icon because it fixes a window re-paint corruption issue.

The wiki you pointed me to seems like it might have the answer to this whole problem:

Current Intel drivers no longer support XAA. Try UXA instead (modeline should be activated from boot though).

Unfortunately, I have no idea where to go to change that flag from XAA to UXA. (In the old days, there used to be a single /etc/X11/xorg.conf file that you could edit.) Where can I find these Xorg device settings nowadays?

Thanks in advance.

Last edited by sunaku (2010-10-09 00:07:13)

graysky · 2010-10-09 00:42:48

Other thing you can do in ubuntu is to export the compiz user settings then import them under arch.

ngoonee · 2010-10-09 01:55:46

sunaku wrote:

Thanks for the suggestions. I tried both lowering and increasing the refresh rate but there was no improvement. I am also already using the "indirect rendering" option in fusion-icon because it fixes a window re-paint corruption issue.
The wiki you pointed me to seems like it might have the answer to this whole problem:
Current Intel drivers no longer support XAA. Try UXA instead (modeline should be activated from boot though).
Unfortunately, I have no idea where to go to change that flag from XAA to UXA. (In the old days, there used to be a single /etc/X11/xorg.conf file that you could edit.) Where can I find these Xorg device settings nowadays?
Thanks in advance.

You can still use /etc/X11/xorg.conf, but the recommended method is to just put something in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d I believe. /etc/X11/xorg.conf is easier, and not wrong.

sunaku · 2010-10-09 06:58:23

ngoonee wrote:

You can still use /etc/X11/xorg.conf, but the recommended method is to just put something in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d I believe. /etc/X11/xorg.conf is easier, and not wrong.

Aha! Thanks for explaining; this is good to know.

I tried creating a /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf file containing:

Section "Device"
    # https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=535391
    Identifier  "Intel X4500MHD"
    Driver      "intel"
    VendorName  "Intel Corporation"
    BoardName   "Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller"
    BusID       "PCI:0:2:0"

    # http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Compiz_Troubleshooting#Poor_Performance_on_Intel_cards
    Option      "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps"  "True"
EndSection

Afterwards, I restarted X and compiz felt fast again (even though the compiz benchmark still shows ~30 FPS).

Just to make sure that the conf file really was the solution to this problem, I started over from scratch:

Removed the /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf file and reinstalled all of xorg.
Reinstalled the xorg-server-compositing-fix package from AUR (fixes text & cursor rendering problems in urxvt and xterm for me).
Re-chose the "indirect rendering" option in the fusion-icon menu (fixes updating/repainting of applications like ccsm and chromium for me).

Now compiz feels fast, just like in Ubuntu Maverick, even though I removed the conf file. I don't know why, but things are working so I'll leave it alone for now.

Last edited by sunaku (2010-10-09 07:14:25)

Arch Linux

#1 2010-10-08 00:12:43

[SOLVED] Compiz 50% slower in Arch vs Ubuntu Maverick

#2 2010-10-08 01:08:34

Re: [SOLVED] Compiz 50% slower in Arch vs Ubuntu Maverick

#3 2010-10-08 01:30:01

Re: [SOLVED] Compiz 50% slower in Arch vs Ubuntu Maverick

#4 2010-10-08 02:28:25

Re: [SOLVED] Compiz 50% slower in Arch vs Ubuntu Maverick

#5 2010-10-09 00:06:33

Re: [SOLVED] Compiz 50% slower in Arch vs Ubuntu Maverick

#6 2010-10-09 00:42:48

Re: [SOLVED] Compiz 50% slower in Arch vs Ubuntu Maverick

#7 2010-10-09 01:55:46

Re: [SOLVED] Compiz 50% slower in Arch vs Ubuntu Maverick

#8 2010-10-09 06:58:23

Re: [SOLVED] Compiz 50% slower in Arch vs Ubuntu Maverick

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