Arch Linux

eric

Member

From: under heaven

Registered: 2004-02-11

Posts: 117

xorg-server-1.2.0-2 high load, slows down everything

I've just updated xorg-server.
After xorg started, the system is very slow... as if everything works in slowmotion. The load of X (as seen in top) is very high and slows down everything.

I've had this problem with all the beta and RC versions of xorg-server-1.2.0 that I've compiled myself. The version I'm using now from the repositories (1.2.0-2) has the same problem.
This problem happens with kernel 2.6.19-ck and 2.6.20-ck, I haven't tried other kernel versions.
Turning off EXA (that means using XAA) and/or turning off composite in xorg.conf makes X quicker (the load is also lower), but still slower than normal (with EXA, composite and xorg-server-1.1.1).

My problem is probably the same as described in http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=29661

My system:
AMD Sempron;
Ati Radeon 9500 using the open-source driver;
glibc-2.5 compiled myself;
kernel-2.6.20-ck1 compiled myself;
kde*-3.5.6 compiled myself;
xorg-server-1.2.0-2 and all the libx*, xf86*, libdrm, libgl-dri and mesa are the newest versions from the repositories.

Last edited by eric (2007-02-27 15:42:55)

Captain Spaulding

Member

Registered: 2006-11-16

Posts: 115

Website

Re: xorg-server-1.2.0-2 high load, slows down everything

I have the same issue, but only today I figured out that xorg-server is responsible. It makes the concerned machine unusable under X. The concerned machine is a HP Compaq nx6125 with a sucky ATI XPress 200M and it's using the open source drivers, too. Switching to VESA improvemed the situation, so I guess xorg-server and the free radeon driver to mesh. OTOH, the laptop is running a customized 2.6.20 kernel to avoid some ACPI issues, so I'm not ready to rule out a misconfiguration by me.

Unfortunatly I have no solution at hand.

EDIT: Well, i have a solution at hand: downgrade to xorg-server 1.1.1 and everything works like expected. Well, dumb me, VESA makes a difference, much faster but resolution is limited.

Last edited by Captain Spaulding (2007-03-02 17:33:19)

Captain Spaulding

Member

Registered: 2006-11-16

Posts: 115

Website

Re: xorg-server-1.2.0-2 high load, slows down everything

Alright, downgrading wasn't the solution I was looking for, so I took the path to darkness and installed the most recent proprietary ATI drivers (8.34.8). Because the laptop has some ACPI issues I have to apply two patches which in turn require a custom kernel. Needless to say the Arch fglrx driver packages don't work with this kernel. So, here's what i did:

1) fetched the proprietary drivers from ati.com
2) run them, looked in awe at the error message
3) went here: http://cvs.archlinux.org/cgi-bin/viewcv … root=Extra and fetched the fglrx-kernel-2.6.20 patch.
4)

cd /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x
make clean
rm -r .tmp_versions
cd ..
patch < /path/to/fglrx-kernel-2.6.20
./make.sh
cd ..
./make_install.sh
modinfo fglrx
modprobe fglrx
lsmod | grep fglrx

5) Use aticonfig --initial to adapt /etc/X11/xorg.conf
6) Restart X

I hope suspend is still working...

orjanp

Member

From: Tromsoe, Norway

Registered: 2004-07-03

Posts: 347

Re: xorg-server-1.2.0-2 high load, slows down everything

EDIT: Well, i have a solution at hand: downgrade to xorg-server 1.1.1 and everything works like expected. Well, dumb me, VESA makes a difference, much faster but resolution is limited.

Changing from radeon to vesa speeds things up a lot. The resolution 1400x1050 works fine.

EDIT: Well, scrolling in Firefox got slower. So I will try a downgrade.

Orjanp

Last edited by orjanp (2007-03-06 06:37:14)

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Ørjan Pettersen