Arch Linux

phonky

Member

Registered: 2008-12-19

Posts: 69

[SOLVED] Very sluggish video behaviour-with 8GB RAM and 1GB video card

I have some very sluggish screen behaviour to report, noticeable specially when scrolling.
I am wondering what could be the problem.

LibreOffice is extreeemly sluggish when scrolling through a document,
no matter how complex or simple the document is. The scroll comes through
"in waves", and until I can continue typing it takes ages.

Opera is super sluggish when scrolling, even when nothing else is running.

Chrome is sometimes sluggish.

pidgin is also very sluggish, when a message comes in the new message takes a while to fully display.

I am not very happy with my system at the moment.

Could it be video drivers?
I have 8GB RAM, so that's not the issue, and the box is fairly recent (no high end but decent processor).

The video card is a ATI radeon HD5450 - with supposedly 1GB RAM DDR3...

I think I have the xf86-video-ati driver installed.
Should I try the propietary one?

sudo pacman -Qs xf86-video-ati
local/xf86-video-ati 1:7.3.0-1 (xorg-drivers xorg)
    X.org ati video driver


lspci -vv:
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Cedar [Radeon HD 5000/6000/7350/8350 Series] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
	Subsystem: PC Partner Limited / Sapphire Technology Device e164
	Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
	Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
	Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
	Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11
	Region 0: Memory at c0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
	Region 2: Memory at fea20000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
	Region 4: I/O ports at e000 [size=256]
	Expansion ROM at fea00000 [disabled] [size=128K]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel modules: radeon

lsmod:
Module                  Size  Used by
fuse                   80172  3 
arc4                    2064  2 
rtl8192cu              64246  0 
rtl_usb                10008  1 rtl8192cu
rtlwifi                49889  2 rtl_usb,rtl8192cu
uvcvideo               74556  0 
snd_usb_audio         121757  0 
rtl8192c_common        38713  1 rtl8192cu
mousedev               10912  0 
snd_usbmidi_lib        19820  1 snd_usb_audio
mac80211              510355  3 rtl_usb,rtlwifi,rtl8192cu
snd_rawmidi            19190  1 snd_usbmidi_lib
videobuf2_vmalloc       3368  1 uvcvideo
snd_seq_device          5180  1 snd_rawmidi
videobuf2_memops        2239  1 videobuf2_vmalloc
videobuf2_core         28999  1 uvcvideo
cfg80211              459335  2 mac80211,rtlwifi
snd_hda_codec_realtek    48293  1 
snd_hda_codec_generic    53860  1 snd_hda_codec_realtek
videodev              122691  2 uvcvideo,videobuf2_core
media                  12611  2 uvcvideo,videodev
mac_hid                 3273  0 
snd_hda_codec_hdmi     36716  1 
kvm_amd                53215  0 
evdev                  11784  9 
eeepc_wmi               4712  0 
asus_wmi               16605  1 eeepc_wmi
sparse_keymap           3242  1 asus_wmi
led_class               3611  1 asus_wmi
ppdev                   7278  0 
rfkill                 15971  3 cfg80211,asus_wmi
video                  12057  1 asus_wmi
snd_hda_intel          38728  0 
kvm                   419974  1 kvm_amd
k10temp                 3242  0 
snd_hda_codec         101816  4 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_intel
microcode              17157  0 
pcspkr                  2059  0 
serio_raw               5009  0 
snd_hwdep               6396  2 snd_usb_audio,snd_hda_codec
hwmon                   3153  2 k10temp,asus_wmi
psmouse                92904  0 
snd_pcm                81607  4 snd_usb_audio,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
snd_timer              19038  1 snd_pcm
sp5100_tco              5976  0 
i2c_piix4              10801  0 
snd                    60086  12 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_usb_audio,snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_usbmidi_lib,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_seq_device
soundcore               5551  1 snd
i2c_core               25400  2 i2c_piix4,videodev
r8169                  59191  0 
mii                     4251  1 r8169
parport_pc             20023  0 
parport                30901  2 ppdev,parport_pc
shpchp                 25706  0 
wmi                     8539  1 asus_wmi
button                  4765  0 
acpi_cpufreq           10170  0 
processor              25217  3 acpi_cpufreq
ext4                  505509  2 
crc16                   1359  1 ext4
mbcache                 6266  1 ext4
jbd2                   86487  1 ext4
hid_generic             1217  0 
usbhid                 41089  0 
hid                    92246  2 hid_generic,usbhid
usb_storage            49255  0 
sd_mod                 37234  4 
sr_mod                 15026  0 
cdrom                  35191  1 sr_mod
crc_t10dif              1135  1 sd_mod
crct10dif_common        1436  1 crc_t10dif
ata_generic             3434  0 
pata_acpi               3579  0 
atkbd                  16934  0 
libps2                  4507  2 atkbd,psmouse
firewire_ohci          33053  0 
firewire_core          53548  1 firewire_ohci
crc_itu_t               1363  1 firewire_core
ehci_pci                4152  0 
ohci_pci                4192  0 
ohci_hcd               35780  1 ohci_pci
ehci_hcd               64875  1 ehci_pci
pata_atiixp             5163  0 
ahci                   24043  3 
libahci                21708  1 ahci
usbcore               187240  11 snd_usb_audio,uvcvideo,rtl_usb,usb_storage,ohci_hcd,ohci_pci,snd_usbmidi_lib,ehci_hcd,ehci_pci,usbhid,rtl8192cu
libata                174012  5 ahci,pata_acpi,libahci,ata_generic,pata_atiixp
usb_common              1712  1 usbcore
scsi_mod              137184  4 usb_storage,libata,sd_mod,sr_mod
i8042                  13135  1 libps2
serio                  10785  6 serio_raw,atkbd,i8042,psmouse

uname -a
Linux holobox 3.14.3-2-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Mon May 12 20:52:20 CEST 2014 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Last edited by phonky (2014-05-28 12:17:17)

headkase

Member

Registered: 2011-12-06

Posts: 1,977

Re: [SOLVED] Very sluggish video behaviour-with 8GB RAM and 1GB video card

sudo pacman -S mesa-demos
glxinfo | grep direct

Install mesa-demos to get glxinfo, then use the grep to see if you have direct rendering.  It should say "Yes."  If it doesn't then you likely don't have your proper video driver installed.

phonky

Member

Registered: 2008-12-19

Posts: 69

Re: [SOLVED] Very sluggish video behaviour-with 8GB RAM and 1GB video card

Ooooops that doesn't look very good, does it....
Thanks @headkase
any idea what to do?

 $ glxinfo | grep direct
X Error of failed request:  BadRequest (invalid request code or no such operation)
  Major opcode of failed request:  157 (ATIFGLEXTENSION)
  Minor opcode of failed request:  66 ()
  Serial number of failed request:  13
  Current serial number in output stream:  13

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: London

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 7,732

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Very sluggish video behaviour-with 8GB RAM and 1GB video card

Have you seen this section of the ATI wiki page?
It's near the bottom so you may have got bored before reaching it...

---

Are you infected with Wetiko?

headkase

Member

Registered: 2011-12-06

Posts: 1,977

Re: [SOLVED] Very sluggish video behaviour-with 8GB RAM and 1GB video card

Which video driver did you install?  You probably need:

sudo pacman -S xf86-video-ati

If that says it's already installed then don't do it, otherwise do install it.

phonky

Member

Registered: 2008-12-19

Posts: 69

Re: [SOLVED] Very sluggish video behaviour-with 8GB RAM and 1GB video card

@headkase I have already xf86-video-ati installed
@Head_on_a_Stick I had not seen that one, I followed the instructions and created a 20-radeon.conf file with the exact content as the instructions show (should I change "Identifier"? or is that just a string).

I am still having the issues.

Any other idea?
Thanks

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: London

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 7,732

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Very sluggish video behaviour-with 8GB RAM and 1GB video card

Have you entered "My Graphics Card" in the Identifier section?
I think it should be "Radeon Graphics", or something similar...

---

Are you infected with Wetiko?

phonky

Member

Registered: 2008-12-19

Posts: 69

Re: [SOLVED] Very sluggish video behaviour-with 8GB RAM and 1GB video card

guys, I think I messed up.

I don't know why it didn't occur to me earlier but I had a look at /var/log/Xorg.0.log
and there - to my dismay - I could see that the driver being loaded was fglrx...
I read about the poor 2D performance of the proprietary driver so I proceeded uninstalling all catalyst.

But now my X is broken

I tried to follow the tutorial for the ATI proprietary driver uninstall,
but in Xorg.0.log I can still see

[     18.296] (EE) Failed to load module "fglrx" (module does not exist).

I don't know what else I can do to tell my system to not look for fglrx altogether...
any ideas?

P.S. I think I installed fglrx through the repo and catalyst-libgl, -utils, etc.
I did pacman -Rdd to get rid of them but it seems that didn't go through smoothly...:(

headkase

Member

Registered: 2011-12-06

Posts: 1,977

Re: [SOLVED] Very sluggish video behaviour-with 8GB RAM and 1GB video card

Did you do this: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fg … stallation ?

phonky

Member

Registered: 2008-12-19

Posts: 69

Re: [SOLVED] Very sluggish video behaviour-with 8GB RAM and 1GB video card

I did...but on first run I was not careful enough and only uninstalled the catalyst* packages, thought that was it and didn't reboot.
I removed xorg.conf and all that later...

phonky

Member

Registered: 2008-12-19

Posts: 69

Re: [SOLVED] Very sluggish video behaviour-with 8GB RAM and 1GB video card

I finally managed!

I finally created a

/etc/modprobe.d/radeon.conf

which has an entry

options radeon modeset=1

with this I am now back into my familiar X !!!!!

If someone wants to shed light of what has happened and why that parameter is needed, would be welcomed,
but it's weird that there is no such mention in the wiki, so I wonder what's going on.
Anyway, happy to have my X back!

and yes...there was a

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-monitor.conf

around, no idea what created it, which contained fglrx, that's why it was trying to load it...

AAAANDDDD...the original problem, which triggered this whole mess (slow scrolling in 2D) is GONE thanks to the open source driver.