Arch Linux

pobstil

Member

Registered: 2005-06-25

Posts: 19

Website

Differing video performance between user and root accounts.

Hey, I've searched all over the place for this and I can't find anything relative to this.. I apologize if I have missed something very basic somewhere.

I know glxgears isn't a benchmark, but as a user I'm getting 900fps, whereas root I'm getting 3000+ fps. Also game performance as a user is very poor, unusable... as root it is fine.

I cannot figure out why this would be, I'm using nvidia, all appropriate libraries are linked as they should be (/usr/lib/libGL etc.)

Direct rendering is set up and fine.

My XF86Config is as follows::

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig:  version 1.0  (buildmeister@builder3)  Wed Jun 13 18:39:30 PDT 2007


Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
    RgbPath         "/usr/lib/X11/rgb"
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load           "dbe"
    Load           "extmod"
    Load           "freetype"
    Load           "glx"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "keyboard"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Unknown"
    HorizSync       30.0 - 110.0
    VertRefresh     50.0 - 150.0
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    Option         "TripleBuffer" "True"
    Option         "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
    Option "RenderAccel" "True"

Option "TwinView"
Option "TwinViewOrientation" "Clone"

EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "NoLogo" "true"
    Option         "UseEdidDpi" "false"
    Option         "DPI" "96 x 96"
    Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
        Modes      "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
    Option         "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

I'm stumped, any help is greatly appreciated

sirocco

Member

Registered: 2008-03-10

Posts: 149

Re: Differing video performance between user and root accounts.

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NVIDIA

Add yourself to the video group using gpasswd -a yourusername video (don't forget to log out and back in, or type: source /etc/profile).

pobstil

Member

Registered: 2005-06-25

Posts: 19

Website

Re: Differing video performance between user and root accounts.

Hey, thanks for the quick reply. I forgot to mention I'm already added to the video group.

bash-3.2$ groups
disk locate dbus hal video audio optical storage users

could it have anything to do with previous configurations of beryl or compiz? I'm not using either at the moment, but used to use beryl until my graphics card at the time fried, and I tried compiz-fusion when it came out, but couldn't be bothered configuring it so I stopped using it..

danielsoft

Member

From: Czech Republic

Registered: 2008-02-16

Posts: 102

Re: Differing video performance between user and root accounts.

try to add this to the xorg.conf:

Section "DRI"
    Group      "video"
    Mode       0666
EndSection

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may the Source be with you

sirocco

Member

Registered: 2008-03-10

Posts: 149

Re: Differing video performance between user and root accounts.

I think "DRI" only for "nv" driver, not "nvidia".
May be this helps.

Section "Extensions"
#       Option "Composite" "Enable"
        Option "RENDER" "Enable"
EndSection

pobstil

Member

Registered: 2005-06-25

Posts: 19

Website

Re: Differing video performance between user and root accounts.

I tried that, with the same result..

As I'm running GDM, XF86Config is called when the X server starts, which is when GDM is started. I don't think it is a setting in XF86Config.

I get better performance when I log in as root through GDM, when I log in as my usual user I don't get the same performance.. It does sound like a groups issue, but my user is added to video.. are there any other groups that I'm not added to that might have an effect?

sirocco

Member

Registered: 2008-03-10

Posts: 149

Re: Differing video performance between user and root accounts.

Similar topics:
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=18838
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=27346

pobstil

Member

Registered: 2005-06-25

Posts: 19

Website

Re: Differing video performance between user and root accounts.

hey had a look at those posts, thanks, but I still have the same problem. I'm definitely in the right groups, and there are no background processes hogging resources.. Ram usage is no more than 300MB out of 1GB, and my load average is  0.04, 0.18, 0.15 at the moment. So weird.. could it be something to do with openGL? permissions or anything?

sirocco

Member

Registered: 2008-03-10

Posts: 149

Re: Differing video performance between user and root accounts.

Try to create new user and compare video performance between two users.

pobstil

Member

Registered: 2005-06-25

Posts: 19

Website

Re: Differing video performance between user and root accounts.

ha! I added a new user called test, with the primary group users, and added it to no other groups, logged into xfce, ran glxgears, 3500fps. Not even added to video group. I added it to video group with the same result. my user is still 900fps. This is weird, definately not permissions then is it? maybe I'll just make a new account and start from scratch..

klixon

Member

From: Nederland

Registered: 2007-01-17

Posts: 525

Re: Differing video performance between user and root accounts.

Are you using compiz/compositing on your normal user and not on root/test-user?
My glxgears "performance" drops about the same amount when i run compiz / compositing-functions in xfce

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Stand back, intruder, or i'll blast you out of space! I am Klixon and I don't want any dealings with you human lifeforms. I'm a cyborg!

pobstil

Member

Registered: 2005-06-25

Posts: 19

Website

Re: Differing video performance between user and root accounts.

yeah thats it klixon, I just checked that now by running glxgears before and after enabling the xfce compositor, and thats what's affecting my video performance. cheers for the solution!