Switching tags in dwm is slow

synack · 2016-06-08 22:06:51

I'm using dwm in a fresh Arch installation. I tend to switch from one tag to another to check chromium. However, it can sometimes take up to one second to render chromium's interface (xterm and other apps render smoothly). I was not expecting this delays because I'd heard dwm is very light and my laptop has 16Gb ram. I wonder if this is normal and whether there is some configuration I can tweak so to speed up switching tags in dwm.

Last edited by synack (2016-06-08 22:07:40)

jasonwryan · 2016-06-09 00:39:21

This sounds like an issue with your video card, as opposed to dwm. Please paste details of your card, driver and xorg.log.

Also, what patches (if any) have you applied to dwm?

FWIW, switching tags for me with 4GB RAM is instantaneous...

synack · 2016-06-09 05:40:12

Thanks for your reply.

lspci gives:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Skylake Integrated Graphics (rev 0a) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
        Subsystem: Dell Device 0704
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 281
        Memory at db000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
        Memory at 90000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
        I/O ports at f000 [size=64]
        Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel driver in use: i915
        Kernel modules: i915

I haven't installed any extra drivers for it, though.

I haven't applied any patch to dwm yet. I'm running this, but I don't think it should be a problem.

jasonwryan · 2016-06-09 05:46:32

Odd. Have you tried deleting/moving your chromium profile and seeing if that changes anything?

synack · 2016-06-10 17:32:52

For the record, I've tried removing Crhomium's profile and didn't work.

In the end, I just installed `qutebrowser` and I'm very happy with it.

wheatdog · 2016-08-31 03:21:54

I have similar issue. I think jasonwryan is right. There is something wrong with my video card. After following this tutorial to turn off GPU hardware acceleration for chrome, the delay of chrome's redraw is gone.

Arch Linux

#1 2016-06-08 22:06:51

Switching tags in dwm is slow

#2 2016-06-09 00:39:21

Re: Switching tags in dwm is slow

#3 2016-06-09 05:40:12

Re: Switching tags in dwm is slow

#4 2016-06-09 05:46:32

Re: Switching tags in dwm is slow

#5 2016-06-10 17:32:52

Re: Switching tags in dwm is slow

#6 2016-08-31 03:21:54

Re: Switching tags in dwm is slow

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