Arch Linux

siimo

Member

Registered: 2004-09-02

Posts: 34

Gnome 2.12 the slowest desktop ever? )-:

just did a clean install of current with gnome,
windows move very jerky and slow and it takes a long time to refresh desktop icons when minimizing windows 1-2 second delay (icons appear after the delay).

I tried the same version of gnome on frugalware (another pacman distro) and it seemed to fly just like 2.10 did on arch.

whats the problem?

I installed nvidia driver and it improved a little bit but still 10x slow than nv or nvidia on frugalware and also ubuntu live cd.

System Specs:
Athlon-XP 1700+ barton
VIA chipset
768MB RAM
GF4 MX 440 64MB
Maxtor 7200RPM 80GB HDD IDE

Gnome is my favorite desktop so I can't live with this! and on frugalware some other packages are broken

Did anyone else experience this?

CyberTron

Member

From: Gotland ,Sweden

Registered: 2005-03-17

Posts: 645

Website

Re: Gnome 2.12 the slowest desktop ever? )-:

have you compiled your own kernel? or are you using arch-stock?

I have been runnign (and still does sometimes) gnome 2.12 and I don't have those symptoms that you are experiencing

i am runnin self-compiled: 2.6.14-archck1

---

http://www.linuxportalen.com  -> Linux Help portal for Linux and ArchLinux (in swedish)

Dell Inspiron 8500
Kernel 2.6.14-archck1  (selfcompiled)
Enlightenment 17

siimo

Member

Registered: 2004-09-02

Posts: 34

Re: Gnome 2.12 the slowest desktop ever? )-:

default kernel but i think kernel has very little to do with this, could be either some X config problem or some conflict im not sure - actually i forgot to mension i hear a weird static in my headphones while moving windows around in gnome or minimizing them -> even when i have the volume turned to mute. this never happened before either

Gullible Jones

Member

Registered: 2004-12-29

Posts: 4,863

Re: Gnome 2.12 the slowest desktop ever? )-:

Use a different window manager. Metacity needs serious work.

siimo

Member

Registered: 2004-09-02

Posts: 34

Re: Gnome 2.12 the slowest desktop ever? )-:

Gullible Jones:
so you mean it regressed from 2.10?

mr_echo

Member

Registered: 2005-03-28

Posts: 25

Re: Gnome 2.12 the slowest desktop ever? )-:

Try to remove the wallpaper and just use a plain color background. I know that I had problems with everything being slow when I had a wallpaper set.

ozar

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2005-02-18

Posts: 1,686

Re: Gnome 2.12 the slowest desktop ever? )-:

Yep, I found it to be very slow, too.  I replaced it with KDE just to see how it compared and it felt about twice as fast as Gnome on my box.

That said, Gnome has always felt slower on every machine I've tried it on.

---

oz

siimo

Member

Registered: 2004-09-02

Posts: 34

Re: Gnome 2.12 the slowest desktop ever? )-:

taking the wallpaper off makes it a little faster, still slow though.

Gullible Jones

Member

Registered: 2004-12-29

Posts: 4,863

Re: Gnome 2.12 the slowest desktop ever? )-:

Metacity has always been slow. Just try Openbox or Fluxbox with Gnome - comment out the gnome-session entry in .xinitrc and put in this:

/opt/gnome/libexec/gnome-settings-daemon &
exec window_manager

Chances are that it will be much, much, much faster.

Gullible Jones

Member

Registered: 2004-12-29

Posts: 4,863

Re: Gnome 2.12 the slowest desktop ever? )-:

Hmm, I see there's a new Metacity package. Is there a speed improvement with it, or is it still arse slow?

siimo

Member

Registered: 2004-09-02

Posts: 34

Re: Gnome 2.12 the slowest desktop ever? )-:

applying the latest metacity update didn't change anything at all

Mythoz

Member

Registered: 2004-04-25

Posts: 58

Re: Gnome 2.12 the slowest desktop ever? )-:

Have a look at /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/status and verify that AGP is enabled.

Second you should check your /var/log/Xorg.0.log:
  * Cairo, the new GTK+ drawing backend, is slow if you have not  enabled the RENDER extension.

(**) Extension "RENDER" is enabled ()

  * Double-check you are really using the NVIDIA drivers:

(II) NVIDIA(0): Using the NVIDIA 2D acceleration architecture

maveric7911

Member

From: Maryland

Registered: 2004-09-23

Posts: 58

Re: Gnome 2.12 the slowest desktop ever? )-:

have you used kde lately..... think they are neck in neck at the moment.

siimo

Member

Registered: 2004-09-02

Posts: 34

Re: Gnome 2.12 the slowest desktop ever? )-:

$ cat  /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/status
Status:          Enabled
Driver:          NVIDIA
AGP Rate:        4x
Fast Writes:     Disabled
SBA:             Disabled

Mythoz: it isn't exactly the same as yours for RENDER, this is what i see:
(**) NVIDIA(0): Enabling experimental RENDER acceleration
(II) Initializing built-in extension RENDER

2D acceleration is there same as you:
(II) NVIDIA(0): Using the NVIDIA 2D acceleration architecture

siimo

Member

Registered: 2004-09-02

Posts: 34

Re: Gnome 2.12 the slowest desktop ever? )-:

something interesting about this, same problem i get on opensuse 10.0 which also has gnome 2.12.

but on frugalware it is very fast no slowdowns :-/

siimo

Member

Registered: 2004-09-02

Posts: 34

Re: Gnome 2.12 the slowest desktop ever? )-:

hi

testing whether this is a metacity i discovered that is it still occurs without running metacity, it happens to be nautilus thats causing it.

I ran nautilus inside xfce4 and still got slowdown there majorly! when running nv driver, similarly it only improved a little with nvidia driver.

iBertus

Member

From: Greenville, NC

Registered: 2004-11-04

Posts: 2,228

Re: Gnome 2.12 the slowest desktop ever? )-:

Have you guys tried running mdnsresponder before starting GNOME? I think the newest GNOME libs use this for something or another.

siimo

Member

Registered: 2004-09-02

Posts: 34

Re: Gnome 2.12 the slowest desktop ever? )-:

is that available in arch?

iBertus

Member

From: Greenville, NC

Registered: 2004-11-04

Posts: 2,228

Re: Gnome 2.12 the slowest desktop ever? )-:

yes, it's in the usual repo. you should add mdnsresponder to your DAEMONS array in rc.conf.

siimo

Member

Registered: 2004-09-02

Posts: 34

Re: Gnome 2.12 the slowest desktop ever? )-:

i think it's called mdns? i added that and rebooted but it didn't help at all, speed is still the same.

iBertus

Member

From: Greenville, NC

Registered: 2004-11-04

Posts: 2,228

Re: Gnome 2.12 the slowest desktop ever? )-:

Oh well, just something i saw somewhere while googling once. It was worth a shot tho.

siimo

Member

Registered: 2004-09-02

Posts: 34

Re: Gnome 2.12 the slowest desktop ever? )-:

I am planning of testing out ubuntu breezy in a couple of days to determine if this issue exists on all distros or its a local issue to arch & opensuse, could be the way things are compiled you never know.

rpgcyco

Member

From: Australia

Registered: 2005-09-27

Posts: 74

Re: Gnome 2.12 the slowest desktop ever? )-:

I get the problem your describing in Arch as well. I did not have it in Ubuntu Breezy for the few weeks I ran it.

I don't use GNOME at all, so it doesn't really affect me. But, there sure is some problem.

- Rpg Cyco

siimo

Member

Registered: 2004-09-02

Posts: 34

Re: Gnome 2.12 the slowest desktop ever? )-:

thanks for confirming :-) so i know it isn't just me

jaboua

Member

Registered: 2005-11-05

Posts: 634

Re: Gnome 2.12 the slowest desktop ever? )-:

No, your not the only one experiencing this... I tried gnome 2.12 some weeks ago on arch, metacity was lagging and everything slow, not sure why tho. Before, it felt like gnome was faster, but now it seems KDE is faster. Other windowmanagers/desktop enviroments work fine.