Arch Linux

ZeroGravitas

Member

Registered: 2011-09-17

Posts: 7

Laggy keyboard input in gnome X applications

First off, I'm running Manjaro linux because the installer was convenient, but I can go ask this question in the Manjaro forums if it's not appropriate to ask here.

I'm running Gnome Shell on X because I have nvidia hardware (specifically a 1070Ti). I've recently started encountering an issue where GDK applications like gnome-terminal, or Geary, have laggy input. The symptom is that I will type and characters will appear one keystroke later e.g if I type "h-e-l-l-o" then when I've finished typing the last character on the screen will be the second "l", the "o" will appear when I press another key, no matter how much later that is.

This doesn't happen with all applications, Firefox doesn't seem to have problems, and neither does Terminology.

I don't have much of a clue as to what could be causing the problem, the only log line that seems suggestive is this:

Dec 05 13:24:29 manjaro-desktop /usr/lib/gdm-x-session[1721]: (EE) event7  - Microsoft Microsoft® 2.4GHz Transceiver v9.0: client bug: event processing lagging behind by 25ms, your system is too slow

I'm using a Microsoft Ergonomic wireless keyboard, and the 2.4Ghz Transceiver is the receiver for it. This line also appears for my mouse however, which is a different manufacturer so I don't think its related to the input hardware.

Anyway, I'm a bit stuck, any help very appreciated.

Thanks
Alex

yochananmarqos

Member

Registered: 2020-02-05

Posts: 222

Re: Laggy keyboard input in gnome X applications

Try enabling: NVIDIA X Server Settings > X Server Display Configuration > Advanced > Force Full Composite Pipeline.

EDIT: Changed Force Composite Pipeline to Force Full Composite Pipeline

Last edited by yochananmarqos (2020-12-26 21:24:19)

vrg

Member

Registered: 2012-06-18

Posts: 36

Re: Laggy keyboard input in gnome X applications

I was having the same problem. For a few months my "solution" was downgrading gnome-shell and gnome-desktop to version 3.36.6, which is not ideal. However, I think I just found a better solution:

$ nvidia-settings -a InitialPixmapPlacement=0

This was mentioned in the following thread:

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=179723

It's from a few years ago, but somehow it seems to do the trick for this new problem.

vrg

Member

Registered: 2012-06-18

Posts: 36

Re: Laggy keyboard input in gnome X applications

Sorry, I was a bit excited when I wrote the previous post, but now I think that setting InitialPixmapPlacement=0 is not an ideal solution either. It requires restarting the Gnome shell (Alt+F2 and then "r") and I'm not sure how to make the change persistent... Also, there are important side effects: Firefox (which was working fine with InitialPixmapPlacement=2) now lags a bit when scrolling.

Whatever the issue is, I know it was introduced in gnome-shell at some point after version 3.36.6.

EDIT: It seems to be a Mutter issue and the developers are already looking into it:

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-sh … ssues/3369

Meanwhile, I'm sticking to Gnome 3.36.6...

Last edited by vrg (2020-12-27 23:07:18)