[CLOSED] Absurd Cursor Lag - Dell Laptop - I3WM

undeadalex · 2022-10-25 01:18:02

I installed Arch on my work machine, a DELL latitude 5330. I run i3-Gaps WM, and use the Gnome suite for anything graphical. Which isn't much. I have FEH and a script I found on github that slices gif files into pngs and then cycles them as my background. I don't think this is a part of the problem but its worth mentioning just in case.

The Issue:

I use browsers a ton at work. At the moment I am using Google Chrome (installed from AUR) and Firefox. I am in the process of migrating everything to Firefox, and I have a strong suspicion that Chrome is the issue. I also run openboard (this is a laptop used in a classroom with a smartboard). And I have a second Display. So all told there are three outputs. The laptop and smartboard are mirrored and the second display is 'next' to these two.

Whenever I have my firefox, chrome, and openboard open, I occasionally get this crippling lag where the Cursor will not move. I use MS Word through the browser and usually have 3-4 tabs open with word docs open in them and have noticed this is more of an issue when I have more tabs open. However, my system resources are never reading out heavy use. So what gives?

I am pretty decided this is a chrome issue but could be wrong and want to investigate further. Where to start?

EDIT: Adding my system specs as this is not the computer from my signature and don't want to confuse (sorry about that):

OS: Arch Linux x86_64
Host: Latitude 5330
Kernel: 6.0.2-arch1-1
Shell: bash 5.1.16
Resolution: 1920x1080, 1920x1080, 1920x1080
WM: i3
Theme: Adwaita [GTK2/3]
Icons: Adwaita [GTK2/3]
Terminal: gnome-terminal
CPU: 12th Gen Intel i5-1235U (12) @ 4.400GHz
GPU: Intel Alder Lake-UP3 GT2 [Iris Xe Graphics]
Memory: 15687MiB
Hard Disk: 512GB - BTRFS

And additional Detail I thought may be relevant:
I have the strangest thing with my cursor size on this machine. I have never experienced this before but the mouse cursor size when I have nothing open in i3 is huge. Then if I have firefox open it'll be normal sized in firefox, however if I navigate firefox menus (like bookmarks) it will go big again, depending on where it is. Is there something maybe I'm missing with my theme or some such? I really want this lag to go away. Thanks for your help!

Last edited by undeadalex (2022-11-01 08:36:46)

HalosGhost · 2022-10-25 01:26:25

Out of interest, have you noticed any CPU usage spike (e.g., in htop or similar) when the cursor lag gets particularly high? In particular, is it actually cursor lag, or is it system lag generally? E.g., does typing also lag?

All the best,

-HG

undeadalex · 2022-10-25 01:32:19

HalosGhost wrote:

Out of interest, have you noticed any CPU usage spike (e.g., in htop or similar) when the cursor lag gets particularly high? In particular, is it actually cursor lag, or is it system lag generally? E.g., does typing also lag?
All the best,
-HG

Ok so just tried this and no, I didn't see anything out of the ordinary with HTOP when it lagged out a bit. All cores seemed to have moderate to light load. I think its just cursor lag, as I'm still able to swap between workspaces with the keyboard without issue. However the cursor is also touch controlled and the lag spikes impact writing on the touchboard... Its super frustrating.

V1del · 2022-10-25 06:50:10

Is xf86-video-intel installed? You generally shouldn't have that on a system this new.

undeadalex · 2022-10-25 06:59:46

V1del wrote:

Is xf86-video-intel installed? You generally shouldn't have that on a system this new.

It is not installed,

Here is my pacman -Qqe if that helps

willemw · 2022-10-25 07:06:26

Maybe it is compositor related. Is there any difference when the compositor is disabled or stopped?

undeadalex · 2022-10-25 07:17:20

willemw wrote:

Maybe it is compositor related. Is there any difference when the compositor is disabled or stopped?

Thanks for the suggestion. Disabling Picom I am still getting the lag. It sometimes seems completely random. As in its not always because its got a greater load.

EDIT:

After more investigation I am going to summarize my current state with this and then close this thread.

1) I have modified picom to include --xrender-sync --xrender-sync-fence, so when it is called in i3's config its:

exec_always --no-startup-id picom --xrender-sync --xrender-sync-fence

2) I had nvidia AND AMD drivers installed. I have no idea why that happened but I uninstalled them.
3) The cursor randomly changes sizes as well, and I briefly fixed that with installing the previously uninstalled xf86-intel driver. However that broke gui applications like Nautlius? Nautilus was unable to load. I may raise this as a seperate issue.

So in conclusion, I'm not 100% this issue is solved, but after removing the pointless drivers and then trying to fence picom, I seem to be experiencing less lag? Not fully conclusive yet. I also realized this issue seems to be fixated on openboard (and hence my suspicion from here about the picom still being the culprit: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/picom# … _xft_fonts). I'll keep an eye on this and see if it still lags. And if so I'll just disable picom, and if it still happens (over a trial period) then I will probably open a new thread.

Thanks for the help all.

Last edited by undeadalex (2022-11-01 08:36:26)

Arch Linux

#1 2022-10-25 01:18:02

[CLOSED] Absurd Cursor Lag - Dell Laptop - I3WM

#2 2022-10-25 01:26:25

Re: [CLOSED] Absurd Cursor Lag - Dell Laptop - I3WM

#3 2022-10-25 01:32:19

Re: [CLOSED] Absurd Cursor Lag - Dell Laptop - I3WM

#4 2022-10-25 06:50:10

Re: [CLOSED] Absurd Cursor Lag - Dell Laptop - I3WM

#5 2022-10-25 06:59:46

Re: [CLOSED] Absurd Cursor Lag - Dell Laptop - I3WM

#6 2022-10-25 07:06:26

Re: [CLOSED] Absurd Cursor Lag - Dell Laptop - I3WM

#7 2022-10-25 07:17:20

Re: [CLOSED] Absurd Cursor Lag - Dell Laptop - I3WM

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